American literature
Herman Melville wrote the famous novel Moby Dick, about a whaling in America. Moby Dick is often called the greatest American novels.  Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets. Dickinson wrote many lyrical, religious, philosophical poems.  Walt Whitman wrote the epic poem Leaves of Grass. Masterpieces of Gothic fiction  include Nathaniel Hawthorn's Fall of the House of Usher and The Scarlet Letter).  Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist classic "The Yellow Wallpaper" is also Gothic fiction.  Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau wrote philosophical essays. Their philosophical school of thought is called Transcendentalism.