Cross of SnowBy: Nicholas A. Basbanes A major literary biography of America's best loved nineteenth century poet, the first in more than fifty years, and a much needed reassessment for the twenty first century of a writer whose stature and celebrity were unparalleled in his time, whose work helped to explain America's new world not only to Americans but to Europe and beyond. From the author of On Paper ("Buoyant" The New Yorker; "Essential" Publishers Weekly),