American Writers: A Journey Through History is the latest of the network's major series, demonstrating its continuing commitment to historical programming. Each week, C-SPAN cameras will broadcast live from a site associated with a writer in an effort to understand our national history from its founding through the Vietnam War. Experts will discuss the features writer's background and literary significance, the time period the writer lived in and wrote about and the homes and historic sites important to the writer.

C-SPAN encourages viewers to use its list of selected authors as a starting point to learn more about America's literary tradition. Biographies of each of C-SPAN's featured writers can be found in the pages of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American Writers. With its more than 1,600 entries for authors, literary works and literary movements, readers can further research and explore American literature, increasing their understanding of influential American writers and works outside of those featured in C-SPAN's series.

Note: Biographies of all of the writers featured in the series, as well as many of the descriptions of the works, were taken from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American Writers.