Samuel Woodworth was an American author, literary journalist, playwright, librettist, and poet. He is best remembered for the poem "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1817), but he is also the first American to write a historical novel.

Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. It often makes many use of symbolism in allegory using figurative and metaphorical elements to picture a story.