The American Renaissance Tarot is a traditional 78-card Tarot deck written by Thea Wirsching and illustrated by Celeste Pille. The project pays homage to America’s most talented writers and the iconic figures who inspired them in the years 1825-1875. 

Though the term “American Renaissance” was originally conceived by a literary critic to describe a very narrow but spectacular period in American literature (the years 1850 through 1855), the authors have chosen to extend the parameters of America’s literary flourishing to include the Transcendentalist movement of the 1830s and 1840s, as well as some notable postbellum achievements.

Short but detailed chapters accompany each card and are rich with quotations from the thirty-six writers included in the project.