AMERICAN

LITERATURE
Raquel Reyes
 America has a great and proud literary tradition.
Novels, plays and poems pour out of the United States,
with increasing numbers of women, African American,
Native American and Hispanic writers making a strong
contribution. There have been twelve literature Nobel Prize
laureates, beginning with Sinclair Lewis in 1930 to Bob
Dylan, in 2016. Other laureates include such household
names as T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.
The Americans’ contribution to English literature is
incalculable.
The literary tradition began when some of the early English colonists recounted
their adventures in the New World for the benefit of readers in their mother
country. Some of those early writings were quite accomplished, such as the
account of his adventures by Captain John Smith in Virginia and the
journalistic histories of John Winthrop and William Bradford in New England.
It was in the Puritan colonies that published American literature was born, with
writers like Thomas Hooker and Roger Williams producing works to promote
their visions of the religious state. Perhaps the first book to be published by in
America was the Bay Psalm Book in 1640, produced by thirty ministers, led by
Richard Mather and John Cotton. It was followed by passionate histories like
Edward Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence (1654) and Cotton and
Mather’s epic Magnalia Christi Americana(1702).
The American Revolution and the subsequent independence of the United
States was a time of intellectual activity together with social and economic
change. The founding fathers of the new state included the writers, Thomas
Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Philip Freneau, the first American lyric poet of
distinction, the pamphleteer Thomas Paine, later an attacker of conventional
religion, and the polemicist Francis Hopkinson, who was also the first American
composer. The nineteenth century saw the spreading and recognition of
American writing in Europe with the folk stories of Washington Irving, the
frontier adventures of Fenimore Cooper and the moralising verse of Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. Then came the giants, who took even the old world by
storm and are still regarded as being among the greats of Western literature:
Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and the poet, Walt
Whitman.
That romantic trend was interrupted by two of America’s great writers, Henry
James and Mark Twain, who threw the doors open to a new realism and
changed American literature, setting it up for the rich literature that followed
and which has not diminished. James emigrated to Europe and embraced
psychological realism in novels such as Portrait of a Lady (1881), and Twain
used national dialects in classics like Huckleberry Finn (1885).
The twentieth century witnessed the flowering of American literature .
Confronted by the violence of the 20th century, a sense of despair was
reflected in the literature, and the particular conditions of American society
with all its diversity found its way into American writing. In the 1950s, major
dramatists, notably Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Sam Shepard, developed
the American theatre. African-American writers, such as Richard Wright, Ralph
Ellison and James Baldwin, dealt with racial inequality and violence in
contemporary US society while Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison focused on
the 20th century history of African-American women. In the 1960s, novelists
such as Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Joseph Heller examined the Jewish
experience in American society.
Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016. It was a
controversial decision. However, it points to a new development in the
progress of American literature when a songwriter’s work is regarded as
literature. There have been several great American songwriters in the past
century and one can find many of the concerns of modern America in the
national songbook but this is the first time that American songs have been
regarded as “literature.” Over seven decades Dylan has addressed the
changes that America has experienced, ranging over war, race, climate
change, and many other phenomena, producing a comprehensive
commentary on the times in which we live. Some of the lyrics of his songs are
regarded as being among the finest poetry of the period.
20 Famous Writers of
America
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804 – 1864

 He was a novelist and short story writer. Hawthorne’s works have been
labelled ‘dark romanticism,’ dominated as they are by cautionary tales
that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of
humankind. His novels and stories, set in a past New England, are versions of
historical fiction used as a vehicle to express themes of ancestral sin, guilt
and retribution.

 Twice Told Tales (1837)

Mosses From an Old Manse (1846)
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
The Blithedale Romance (1852)
The Marble Faun (1860)
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 –1849

 He was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his
poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and suspense. He is
generally considered the inventor of detective ficiton. Poe’s work as an
editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and
international literature. In addition to his detective stories he is one of the
originators of horror and science fiction. He is often credited as the
architect of the modern short story.

 The Raven
Eldorado
The Bells
Annabel Lee
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891

 He was an American writer of novels, short stories and poems. He is best known for the
novel Moby-Dick and a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, Typee. His
whaling novel, Moby-Dick is often spoken of as ‘the great American novel’ ’vying with
Scott Fitgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for that title.

 Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)

Omoo (1847)
Redburn (1849)
Mardi (1849)
White-Jacket; or, the World in a Man-of-War (1850)
Moby-Dick, or the Whale (1851)
Pierre, or The Ambiguities (1852)
"Bartleby the Scrivever"Israel Potter (1855)
The Confidence-Man (1857)
Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)
Clarel: A Poem and a Pilgrimage (1876)
Billy Budd, Sailor (1924)
Walt Whitman 1819-1892

 He was a poet, essayist, and journalist who transformed poetry around the world with his disregard for
traditional rhyme and meter and his celebration of democracy and sensual pleasure. His masterpiece,
Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems, is widely studied by poets, students and academics, set to music,
translated into numerous languages, and is widely quoted. His influence can be found everywhere – in
contemporary best seller lists to feature films and musical works, both “serious” and popular.

 Statue of Liberty.
 A Spider.
 One of the works inspired by the poem.
 A Live Oak Tree.
 A Mockingbird.
 African American Drummer Boy in Union Army.
 I Hear America Singing.
 Abraham Lincoln's tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
 Emily Dickinson 1830 – 1886

 Unknown as a poet during her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now regarded by many as one of the most powerful
voices of American culture. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. In 1994 the
critic, Harold Bloom, listed her among the twenty-six central writers of Western civilisation. After she died her
sister found the almost two thousand poems the poet had written.

 ‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’

 ‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I died’
 ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’.
 ‘The heart asks Pleasure – first’.
 ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’.
 ‘I died for Beauty – but was scarce’.
 ‘Because I could not stop for Death’.
 ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun’.
 ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’.
 ‘This World is not Conclusion’.
Mark Twain 1835 – 1910

 Samuel Langhorne Clemens , far better known as Mark Twain, was an

American writer, businessman, publisher and lecturer. He progressed from
his day job as pilot of a Mississippi riverboat to legend of American
literature. His work shows a deep seriousness and at the same time, it is
hilariously satirical. His masterpiece is the novel, Huckleberry Finn, which is
regularly referred to as ‘the great American novel.
 Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
 The Prince and the Pauper (1882)
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
 The Letters of Quintas Curtius Snodgrass(1946)
 Simon Wheeler
 Detective (1963)
 The Works of Mark Twain: What is Man? and Other Philosophical
Writings (1973)
Henry James 1843 – 1916

 He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He is

noted for writing from a character’s point of view’ which allowed him to
explore consciousness and perception. His imaginative use of point of view,
interior monologue and unreliable narrators brought a new depth to
narrative fiction, all of which were influential on the writing of the novelists
who followed him. He was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature three
times.
 A Tragedy Of Error
 The Real Thing (1982)
 The Turn of the Screw (1954)
 The Portrait of the Lady
T.S. Eliot 1888 – 1965

 Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American-born, British, poet, essayist, playwright, critic,
now regarded as one of the twentieth century’s major poets. He received more rewards
than almost any other writer of the past two centuries, including the Nobel prize, the Dante
Gold Medal, the Goethe prize, the US Medal of Freedom and the British Order of Merit.

 Ash Wednesday
 Gerontion
 Burnt Norton
 Macavity: The Mystery Cat
 Journey Of The Magi
 The Waste Land
 The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock
 The Hollow Men
 Little Gidding
 Preludes
F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896 – 1940

 Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist, widely regarded as one of

the greatest, if not the greatest, American writers of the 20th century. He is best
known for his novel, The Great Gatsby, which vies for the title ‘Great American
Novel’ with Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.
Fitzgerald’s place on this list is justified by the fact that his great novel is actually
about America.
 The Romantic Egotist
 The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
 The Great Gatsby (1925)
 A Moveable Feast
 Tender Is the Night (1934)
 The Love of The Last Tycoon
 The Pat Hobby Stories (1939)
William Faulkner 1897 –1962

 William Cuthbert Faulkner was a Nobel Prize laureate, awarded the

literature prize in 1949. He wrote novels, short stories, poetry, and
screenplays. He is known mainly for his novels and short stories set in the
fictional Yoknapatawpha Country, Mississippi. Faulkner is one of the most
celebrated American writers, regarded, generally as the great writer of the
American South.
 The Sound and the Fury (1929)
 As I Lay Dying (1930)
 Light in August (1932)
 Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
 These 13 (1931) and it includes "A Rose for Emily", "Red Leaves", "That
Evening Sun", and "Dry September“
Tennessee Williams 1911-1983

 Thomas Lanier Williams III, known as Tennessee Williams is one of America’s most popular
playwrights and now regarded as one of the most significant writers of the twentieth
century. He wrote more than thirty plays, some of which have become classis of Western
drama. He also wrote novels and short stories but is known almost exclusively for his plays.
His genius was in the honesty with which he represented society and the art of presenting
that in the form of absorbing drama.
 The Glass Menagerie (1944)
 A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
 Summer and Smoke (1948)
 The Rose Tattoo (1951)
 Camino Real (1953)
 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
 Orpheus Descending (1957)
 Suddenly Last Summer (1958)
Arthur Miller 1915 – 2005

 He was a playwright and ‘great man’ of American theatre, which he

championed throughout his long life. His many dramas were among the
most popular by American authors and several are considered to be
among the best American plays, among them the classics, The Crucible, All
My Sons, A View from the Bridge and, above all, the iconic American
drama, Death of a Salesman. He also wrote film scripts, notably the
classic, The Misfits.
The Golden Years Fiction
The Man Who Had All the Luck
Focus (novel)
All My Sons

Death of a Salesman Jane's Blanket (children's story)

An Enemy of the People

The Crucible
I Don’t Need You
A View from the Bridge Anymore (stories)
After the Fall
Homely Girl, A
A Memory of Two Mondays

Incident at Vichy
Life (novella and stories)
The Price Presence: Stories
The Creation of the World and Other Business

The Archbishop’s Ceiling

Essays
The American Clock The Theater Essays of Arthur
Playing for Time
Miller (Robert Martin, editor)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

Broken Glass Echoes Down the

Mr. Peters’ Connections Corridor: Collected Essays 1944-
Resurrection Blues 2000 (Steven Centola, editor)
Finishing the Picture
On Politics and the Art of Acting
Joseph Heller 1923 – 1999

 He was an American writer of satirical novels, short stories and plays. Although he wrote
several acclaimed novels, his reputation rests firmly on his masterpiece, the great
American anti-war satire, Catch 22. Because of the quality of the novel and the impact it
has made on American culture it has catapulted Heller into the ranks of the great
American writers.
 Catch-22 (1945)
 Time (1952-1956)
 Look (1956-1958)
 McCall's (1958-1961)
 We Bombed New Haven (1968)
 Something Happened (1974)
 Tan Bueno Como Oro, or Good as Gold (1979)
 God Knows (1984)
 Picture This (1988)
 Closing Time (1994)
 Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here (1998)
Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961

 He was a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. He published seven

novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works, and won the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. More works, including three novels, four
short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published
posthumously.
 Death in the Afternoon. Published: 1936. ...
 The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Published: 1936. ...
 The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Published: 1936. ...
 A Moveable Feast. Published: 1964 (posthumously) ...
 For Whom the Bell Tolls
 A Farewell to Arms
Raymond Chandler 1888 – 1959

 Raymond Chandler was a British-American novelist who wrote several

screenplays and short stories. He published seven novels during his lifetime.
The first, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. An eighth, Poodle Springs,
unfinished at his death, was completed by another great crime writer,
Robert B Parker. Six of Chandler’s novels have been made into films, some
more than once.
 The High Window
 The Lady in The Lake
 The Long Goodbye
 The Big Sleep
 Farewell, My Lovely
Toni Morrison 1899 – 1977

 Toni Morrison’s novels are known for their vivid dialogue, their detailed
characters and epic themes. Her most famous novel is the 1987
novel, Beloved. She was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the American
Book Award in 1988 for Beloved, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
 The Bluest Eye
 The Song of Solomon
 Beloved
Vladimir Nabokov 1899 – 1977

 He was a Russian-American novelist, and also a famous entomologist,

specialising in butterflies, a topic on which he wrote several academic
books. He wrote nine novels in Russian, but it was when he began writing in
English that he achieved international recognition.
 Laughter in the Dark (1932)
 Pnin (1957)
 Lolita (1955)
 Pale Fire (1962)
 Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969)
Flannery O’Connor 1925 – 1964

 Mary Flannery O’Connor wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories, and
also several reviews and commentaries. Her reputation is based mainly on
her short stories. She was a Southern writer and relied heavily on regional
settings and typically southern characters. She was strongly Roman
Catholic, which informed her exploration of ethics and morality.
 Wise Blood (1952)
 A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955)
 The Violent Bear it Away (1960)
 Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965)
John Steinbeck 1902 – 1968

 John Ernst Steinbeck was the author of 16 novels and various other works,
including five short story collections. He is widely known for the novels, East
of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and particularly, the Puliter Prize winning
novel, The Grapes of Wrath, his masterpiece, which is one of the great
American novels: it has sold more than 15 million copies so far.
 To a God Unknown (1933)
 The Long Valley (1938)
 Of Mice and Men (1937)
 In Dubious Battle (1936)
 The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
 Sea of Cortez (1941) or The Log from “Sea of Cortez” (1951)
 Cannery Row (1945)
John Updike 1923 – 2009

 He was a novelist, short story writer and poet. He was also a literary and art critic. He published more than
twenty novels, numerous short-story collections, eight volumes of poetry and many children’s books. He is
most famous for his ‘Rabbit‘ series – novels that chronicle the life of his protagonist, Harry Angstrom – in
which Updike presented his progress over the course of several decades.
 The Happiest I've Been (1958)
 Separating (1974)
 A&P (1960)
 A Sandstone Farmhouse (1990)
 The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother's Thimble, and Fanning Island (1960)
 The Bulgarian Poetess (1964)
 Bech in Czech (1986)
 Problems (1975)
 Here Come the Maples (1976)
 My Father's Tears (2005)
Kurt Vonnegut 1922 – 2007

 He was an American writer who published fourteen novels, three short story
collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his
novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ (1969) which has become an American classic. It’s
a semi-autobiographical novel based on his experience as a prisoner of war
who survived the allies’ bombing of Dresden.
 Player Piano
 The Sirens of Titan
 Mother Night
 Cat's Cradle
 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
 Slaughterhouse-Five
 Breakfast of Champions
 Jailbird
 Bluebeard
 A Man Without a Country
THANK THEE ALL!