William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), born in rural Cummington, Massachusetts, had an abiding love for nature. He briefly attended Williams College in 1810 but dropped out, hoping to go to Yale. Because his father could not afford that expense, Bryant read for the law and was admitted to practice in 1815.

Heavily influenced by the English Romantic poets Thomas Gray and William Wordsworth, Bryant began to write poetry at a young age but realized that he could not afford to pursue a full-time career as a poet. Appointed justice of the peace in Great Barrington in 1820, the following year Bryant married Frances Fairchild and published a volume entitled Poems. The Bryants moved to New York City, where he worked as an editor of the New York Review and Atheneum Magazine. Thereafter, he became editor-in-chief and part owner of the Evening Post, a position that brought him wealth, fame, and influence.

Bryant championed humanitarian causes, including the abolition of slavery and of debtors' prisons. He also became a key figure in American political life, helping to form the Republican Party and to get both Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln elected president. He traveled widely in Europe and in the Middle East and published letters about his experiences. Bryant continued writing into his seventies, translating Homer's epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad, and writing poems.