Learn from Master Writers

Abraham Lincoln

1809–1865

The 16th President of the United States, Lincoln is remembered not just for preserving the Union and ending slavery, but...

Ambrose Bierce

1842–1914?

Civil War veteran turned journalist, Bierce brought a newsman's economy and a cynic's eye to fiction that still unsettle...

Arthur Conan Doyle

1859–1930

A physician before he was a novelist, Conan Doyle brought a clinician's eye for telling detail to the detective story an...

Benjamin Franklin

1706–1790

Founding Father, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and self-made man, Franklin embodied the American ideal of self-improvem...

Charles Dickens

1812–1870

The most popular novelist of the Victorian era, Dickens wrote in monthly installments and had to hook readers again and ...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1860–1935

Writer, lecturer, and early feminist thinker, Gilman used fiction as an instrument of social argument. 'The Yellow Wallp...

Claude Hopkins

1866–1932

Pioneer of modern advertising, Hopkins transformed the field from art to science. His book 'Scientific Advertising' esta...

Edgar Allan Poe

1809–1849

Poet, critic, and inventor of the modern detective story, Poe believed a piece of writing should be built backward from ...

Ernest Hemingway

1899–1961

Nobel Prize-winning novelist and journalist, Hemingway revolutionized prose style with his stripped-down, direct approac...

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1896–1940

Chronicler of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald captured the glamour and emptiness of the American Dream. His prose combines lyri...

Herman Melville

1819–1891

A former sailor turned novelist, Melville poured a decade of whaling and seafaring into 'Moby-Dick,' a book that sprawls...

Jack London

1876–1916

Self-taught novelist and adventurer, London apprenticed himself to the craft by writing 1,000 words a day, every day, fo...

Jane Austen

1775–1817

Novelist of manners and marriage in Regency England, Austen built entire moral worlds out of drawing-room conversation. ...

John Caples

1900–1990

Legendary copywriter and author, Caples created some of advertising's most famous headlines. His 'They Laughed When I Sa...

Lewis Carroll

1832–1898

Mathematician and logician by trade, Charles Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll with a precision that made his nonsense feel...

Marcus Aurelius

121–180 AD

Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius wrote his 'Meditations' as private notes to himself while ruling an...

Mark Twain

1835–1910

Samuel Clemens took his pen name from a riverboat call and used it to make American vernacular into literature. He argue...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803–1882

The leading voice of American Transcendentalism, Emerson championed self-reliance, individualism, and the connection bet...

Theodore Roosevelt

1858–1919

The 26th President, Roosevelt was also a prolific author, writing over 35 books. His speeches combine intellectual depth...

Winston Churchill

1874–1965

British Prime Minister and Nobel Prize-winning author, Churchill's speeches rallied a nation during its darkest hour. Hi...