The Resume

(March 1, 1837-May 11, 1920)
Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio
Novelist, essayist, poet and literary critic
Edited the 'Atlantic Monthly' (1871-81)
Proponent of 'realism' in literature
Best known works were the short story 'Christmas Every Day' (1892) and novel 'The Rise of Silas Lapham' (1885)
Nicknamed 'the Dean of American Letters'

Why he might be annoying:

He suffered bouts of hypochondria, which convinced him he was dying of rabies when he 17, and forced him to quit a job as a newspaper typesetter because of psychosomatic migraines.
He was named consul to Venice as a reward for writing a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln (1861).
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Sinclair Lewis accused him of having exerted a genteel but paralyzing stranglehold on American literary tastes.

Why he might not be annoying:

He discovered Stephen Crane and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
He was a critic of racial injustice and a founding member of the NAACP.
He marched in a demonstration for women's suffrage when he was 75.
He quipped, 'What the American public always wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 19th Century Poets
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 41]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [March] (Ranked: 3011837)
• I Died in 1920 (Ranked: 83)
• I Get Migraines
• I Outlived My Child
• Look at Me, I'm Reading
• Poets
• Profiles 32501-32750 (Ranked: 32583)
• We Died on the Same Day (Ranked: 19200511)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying