Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is represented by manuscript
prose and poetry pieces, mathematical calculations, notes and
architectural drawings, and correspondence, including thirty-
seven letters to his wife, Elizabeth (Linn) Brown. The small but
substantive Washington Irving (1783-1859) collection contains
manuscript material for his Life of George Washington. Books
from the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, as well as rare
pamphlets, posters, and ephemeral items, reside in the John W.
Jackson Collection and the Bieber Collection (see below). Among
the early works of African-American literature in the Ransom
Center's printed book collections are Phillis Wheatley's
(1753-1784) Poems, the first published book of poetry by an
African-American female author (1773), and William Wells Brown's
(1815-1884) The Escape, the first published play by an African-
American (1858). Significant manuscript collections of major
nineteenth-century writers include those of Edgar Allan Poe,
Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain. The