The Best of America

Washington Irving, the first American writer to make his living by his profession, was born April 3, 1783. At the age of six he was introduced to his namesake, George Washington. He studied law but then was sent to Europe because of his health and was to spend 17 years abroad. When he was thirty-five his family's business went bankrupt. It was then that he began to support himself by writing. He wrote letters, essays and short fiction. Washington Irving died in 1859.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, where he wrote the bulk of his masterful tales of American colonial history. His career as a novelist began with The Scarlet Letter (1850) and also includes The house of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author of short stories, poetry, and literary criticism and theory. Titled "The Master of the Macabre" he is famous for his tales of mystery and horror. He was one of the earliest masters of the short story and is widely credited as the creator of detective fiction.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was a prolific American author known for her novel, Little Women, and its sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. She received instruction from several famous authors, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and she is commonly considered to be the foremost female novelist of the Gilded Age.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was the pen name and alter ego of Samuel Clemens, an American humorist, satirist, social critic, lecturer and novelist. He is considered one of the fathers of American literature and is remembered most fondly for his classic novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Ambrose Bierce was born on June 24, 1842, in Meigs County, Ohio, son of Marcus Aurelius and Laura Sherwood Bierce, and the youngest of a large brood of children. He left his family in 1857 to live in Indiana, working for an abolitionist newspaper. He eventually came to live with his uncle Lucius Verus in Ohio, then attended the Kentucky Military Institute for a year before dropping out. Bierce worked odd jobs until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, when he enlisted with the Ninth Indiana volunteers. Bierce worked primarily as a topographical engineer, where his excellent and valiant performance allowed him to rise through the ranks. What he saw and experienced in the war had the most profound effect on Bierce. His wartime experiences are commonly seen as the source of his cynical realism. Bierce moved to San Francisco in 1867, where he got a job working at the mint. It was then he decided on a career in journalism. Self-taught, he got a regular job as the "Town Crier" in the San Francisco News Letter at the end of the following year. Bierce's acid wit quickly gained him great local fame and a burgeoning national notoriety. In 1871, he courted and wed Mary Ellen Day, a San Franciscan socialite of one of the best families of the city. A wedding gift took them to England, where Bierce would spend one of the happiest periods of his life. During his time there, Mollie gave birth to his first two children, and he wrote his first three books: Nuggets and Dust, The Fiend's Delight, and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull. In early 1875, Mollie returned to San Francisco with their young family. Bierce reluctantly followed later that year, just before the birth of the couple's third child. In 1877, Bierce became the editor of The Argonaut, gaining notoriety for his "Prattle" column. After a brief period, Bierce returned to San Francisco and joined the Wasp in 1881, where he picked up his "Prattle" column. In 1887, Bierce began his famous (and tumultuous) relationship with publishing baron William Randolph Hearst, joining the staff of the San Francisco Examiner. While continuing his newspaper work, Bierce began producing books in America. Between 1891 and 1893, Bierce wrote and published The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, Black Beetles in Amber, and Can Such Things Be? Bierce published Fantastic Fables in 1899 and Shapes of Clay in 1903. After Mollie's death in 1905, Bierce began working for Hearst's Cosmopolitan, and Bierce's Cynic's Work Book (later the Devil's Dictionary) was published in 1906. Bierce became less and less involved in the world around him. When Walter Neal approached Bierce to compile his Collected Works in 1909, Bierce resigned to Hearst for the last time. That year, he also published The Shadow on the Dial and Write It Right, all while working on the Collected Works. The last volumes of the twelve-volume Collected Works set appeared in 1912. In December 1913, Bierce crossed the border into revolutionary Mexico, possibly to meet up with rebel leader Pancho Villa, and was never heard from again. His death is generally agreed to have occurred in 1914.

O. Henry, the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), was a prolific American short story writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. A twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance, is typical of his stories. During his lifetime, O. Henry published over six hundred stories and ten collections, including Cabbages and Kings, The Four Million, The Trimmed Lamp, Whirligigs, and The Heart of the West.

Others, as in, not you

Bronson Pinchot, an Audie Award–winning narrator and Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, received his education at Yale University. He restores Greek Revival buildings and appears in television, film, and on stage whenever the pilasters and entablatures overwhelm him.

John Chancer is an award-winning American narrator of many audiobooks. He has a long association with the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic. His recent television appearances have included Broken News, Spooks, The Long Firm, and William and Mary. His film credits include Unstoppable, Grim, and Project: Shadowchaser. He has also been heard in many radio dramas, documentaries, and cartoons around the world.

Katherine Fenton is an experienced, professional American voice-over artist based in the UK for the past twenty years. Katherine's credits include commercial clients such as Betty Crocker, American Express Corporate, Honda, and CGI Investments and Insurance. She has also narrated over eighty audiobooks in a variety of genres, including the Morganville Vampire series. In addition, she has provided voices for two animated series, Knights of the Zodiac and Fours Eyes, and voiced podcasts for the Economist and New Scientist.

Geraint Wyn Davies is a stage, film, and television actor. Born in Britain and educated in Canada, he has worked in Britain, Canada, and the United States. His stage career began in Quebec City when he appeared in The Fantasticks, Red Emma, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He went on to perform in many Shakespeare productions with various companies, including London’s Centre Stage and the British Actors Theatre Company, and he has performed at several festivals, such as Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival and the Atlantic Theatre Festival. His audiobook credits include Great American Suspense and Great Classic Hauntings.

Patrick Fraley has created voices for over four thousand characters, placing him among the top ten performers of all time to be cast in animated programs. He holds an MFA in acting from Cornell University and is the author of the only character-voice curriculum ever to be accredited at the university level.

Norman Dietz is a writer, an actor, and a solo performer. Since 1962, he has toured coast to coast, presenting his work before audiences all over the United States and Canada. He is the author of the comic novel Nailing It, as well as Fables & Vaudevilles & Plays and The Lifeguard and the Mermaid, collections of his work for the stage. Norman has also performed frequently on radio and television, and he has recorded over 150 audiobooks, many of which have earned him awards from AudioFile magazine, the ALA, and Publishers Weekly. Additionally, AudioFile named Norman one of the Best Voices of the Century. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.