Click here for the official Margaret Atwood website.

"Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was born in New England, a descendent of the prominent and influential Beecher family. Despite the affluence of her most famous ancestors, she was born into poverty. Her father abandoned the family when she was a child, and she received just four years of formal education. At an early age she vowed never to marry, hoping instead to devote her life to public service...." Click here to read more from the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society

"Born in Massachusetts on the Fourth of July, 1804, he was the descendant of Puritan worthies and the son of a ship’s captain who died at sea in 1808.

"His mother then brought her son and two daughters to live with her own family, the Mannings....." click here to read more

Click here for the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society

" Born in the US to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan failed her mother's expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She settled on writing fiction. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, and Saving Fish from Drowning , all New York Times bestsellers and the recipient of various awards...." Click here to read more from the Amy Tan Website