What American authors should I read?

Question

I'm English. In school we weren't taught American literature, and I feel that I've missed out. I'm not interested in gore and sci-fi, but I'd like to find poetry and literature that Americans learn about.

I'd like to know what you'd recommend. I'm interested in authors born, say, 1820s - 1940s.

Answer 1

If you mean "The all-time greatest" American authors, I can tell you who college professors would say they are, and it isn't really very many:
1) Poetry -- Walt Whitman (b.1819); Emily Dickinson.
2) Prose -- Herman Melville (b.1819); Nath. Hawthorne (b.1804).

That's that, for the cream of the crop!

Recommendations? This list is wide open!

Scholars would add the following authors : Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allen Poe, Jack London, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Henry David Thoreau.

American Drama: Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennesee Williams, Sam Shepard.

Other Recommendations (personal): Katherine Anne Porter, Willa Cather, Truman Capote, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis.

Answer 2

Try John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden; for humor: Cannery Row and The Short Reign of Pippen IV;

The Reivers by William Falkner;

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway;

An American Tragedy by Dreiser;

These are a few great American works.

Answer 3

The Great Gatsby written by F.Scott Fitzerald is an absolute must read for that era.
Also The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, published a little later in 1952 is another must read.
These two great novels encapsulate American literature more than anything else I've read.

Answer 4

First of all, Mark Twain.
After that, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.
Then J. D. Salinger, Raymond Chandler, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, etc.

For a fuller list, see,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_authors

Answer 5

Also by Steinbeck: "Of Mice and Men."

If you want authors who truly reflect America, I've got two suggestions.

1) John Updike. Read his 'Rabbit' series. Each of those books is pure literary gold. (And two of them won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.)

2) John Irving. He's a great American storyteller. And his writing style is very. . . . um. . . . 'contemporary Dickens." Read "A Prayer for Owen Meany," and "The Hotel New Hampshire" and especially "The World According to Garp." They are literary AND fun to read.

OH! And one more!

3) JB Sallinger -- read "The Catcher in the Rye." It's an older book, but I think that it really catches the essence of American youth.

Happy reading.

Quill.

Answer 6

Hi. Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck are a few examples of American authors (They were required reading when I was going to school.) I recently became a fan of Dan Brown's novels. I hope these help.

Answer 7

Mary Monroe writes about the rigors of center type present day African-American. some thoughts are about secrets and techniques between husbands and different halves that later come back and take a toll on their marriage and relatives. some thoughts communicate about the rigors that sisters percentage, the affection between moms and daughters. The thoughts are riveting and dramatic. i have merely got here across Evie Rhodes and Brandon Massey. both write secret, some deep scary stuff that keeps you on the fringe of your seat. All 3 write come from my publishing abode Kensington Publishing. Shirley Halistock has been writing romance for years. Harlequin variety thoughts that are short and complete of romance and intimacy. Connie Brisco is a up to date of Eric Jerome Dickey and he or she writes about the relationship between friends and fanatics. Leslie Banks has a vampire huntress series it truly is fairly strong besides. T. N. Baker wrote about a lesbian youngster coming to words such as her sexuality. verify out Dyanne Davis' internet web site. She alongside with being an author lists a number of her fashionable African-American authors alongside with interviews besides. She has a link to a romance web site too. For a classic i might want to %. up the Autobiography of omit Jane Pittman, i imagine Earnest Gaines wrote it. it truly is a fabulously transferring tale of a lady going from slavery into previous age. remarkable that it's not a real tale because of the realism and ingredient. And maximum lately I examine Sola, a black lady assasin. great tale. interesting, quick paced and nicely written. Alice Walker is yet another author to verify up on. Pat G'orge is a southern author who has 3 books thus far about Southern unmarried Church going women human beings in a interesting and hysterical examine. Walter Mosley does secret for years now.

Answer 8

I like all Mark Twain's, and Baroness Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
But more recent ones, too like Andrew Clements' books and Jean Fritz's
and Roald Dahl is great too

Answer 9

Sinclair Lewis (Fav. ARROWSMITH), Ernest Hemingway (Fav.OLD MAN IN THE SEA), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Fav.THE GREAT GATSBY), Louis M. Alcott (Fav.LITTLE WOMEN), Pearl Buck (Fav.THE GOOD EARTH), John Updike (Fav.RABBIT RUN), also....Sylvia Plath, May Sarton, Ray Bradbury, Eudora Welty and Stephen King.

Answer 10

Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee)
The Great Gatsby (by His name escapes me)