AMERICAN AUTHORS
A
AGEE, JAMES – American poet, novelist, critic & screenwriter; his novel, A Death in the
Family, was published after his death & is autobiographical.
ALBEE, EDWARD – American controversial playwright; a major proponent of the
Absurdist theater; plays concentrate on family relationships; wrote The Zoo Story &
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY – American gothic novelist & children’s writer; wrote the
autobiographical Little Women; Eight Cousins; Little Men; & A Long Fatal Love Chase.
ALEXANDER, LLOYD – American fantasy writer; best known for the “Chronicles of
Prydain” series – The Book of Three; The Black Cauldron; The Castle of Lyr; Taran
Wanderer; & The High King.
ALGREN, NELSON – American naturalist novelist; a lifelong critic of American society;
his characters were poor materialistically, but had pride, humor & unquenchable
yearnings; wrote The Man with the Golden Arm; The Neon Wildness; Never Come
Morning; & A Walk on the Wild Side.
ANDERSON, SHERWOOD – American novelist, short-story writer, poet, & journalist;
his short stories depict small-town characters that are unfilled in our materialistic
society; Winesburg, Ohio & The Egg & Other Stories.
ANGELOU, MAYA – African-American dancer, singer, actress, producer, director,
scriptwriter, poet , playwright, historian, & writer whose works are autobiographical & is
a major force in African-American poetry; wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Just
Give Me a Cool Drink of Water Before I Die; Gather Together in My Name; Even the
Stars Look Lonesome; & Phenomenal Women.
ASIMOV, ISSAC – Russian-born American science fiction writer; his knowledge of
science makes his stories seem realistic & possible; coined the term “robotics” &
invented the discipline it names; wrote I, Robot; Foundation; Foundation & Empire;
Second Foundation; Robots of Dawn; & Robots & Empire.
B
BALDWIN, JAMES – African-American novelist, playwright, poet, short-story writer
essayist, & civil rights activist; his controversial novels explored prejudice; wrote Go Tell
It on The Mountains; Giovanni’s Room; Another Country; Fire Next Time; No Name in
the Streets; & Notes of a Native Son.
BEATTIE, ANN – American novelist & short-story writer; called the voice of the
“Woodstock generation”; her characters represent “numbed” characters trying to find
happiness; wrote Picturing Will; Another You, & Park City; & New & Selected Stories.
BELLOW, SAUL – Canadian-born American novelist & short-story writer; characters
often felt like ‘outsiders’; wrote Herzog; Humboldt’s Gift; & The Bellarosa Connection;
The Adventures of Augie March; & Ravelstein.
BIERCE, AMBROSE – American horror short-story writer; wrote stories of time travel
with an absurd sense of humor; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge & Chickamauga.
BISHOP, ELIZABETH – American modern poet; known for carefully crafted poems
concerning our relationships with nature; wrote The Bishop Ballad of the Burglar of
Babylon & Brazil.
BOYLE, KAY – American novelist, children’s book writer, & short-story writer; known for
her elegant stream-of-consciousness style; wrote 50 Stories.
BRADBURY, RAY – American science fiction writer; wrote stories about the fear of
state control & modern technology; wroteThe Martian Chronicles; Fahrenheit 451;
Dandelion Wine; Something Wicked This Way Comes; The Illustrated Man; & I Sing the
Body Electric.
BRADSTREET, ANNE – English-born American poet; was America’s first authentic
poet; some of her poetry was autobiographical.
BROOKS, GWENDOLYN – African-American poet, essayist, & novelist; realistically
portrayed African-American life; published poetry collections.
BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN – American gothic novelist; known as the “father of
the American novel”; wrote Wieland, or, The Transformation; Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs
of the year 1793; & Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleep Walker.
BROWN, DAN – American novelist, song-writer, & teacher; best-selling novelist uses
symbols, codes & bizarre facts in his books; wrote Digital Fortress; Angels & Demons;
The Da Vinci Code; Deception Point; & The Lost Symbol.
BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN – American poet & journalist & longtime editor of the New
York Evening Post.
BUCK, PEARL – American novelist; noted for her novels of life in China, The Good
Earth; House of Earth; Sons; House Divided; Peony; Pavilion of Women; Letter from
Peking.
BURROUGHS, EDGAR RICE – American fantasy & science fiction writer; created the
popular Tarzan novels.
C
CALDWELL, (JANET) TAYLOR – American novelist; known for family sagas & historical
fiction; wrote Testimony of Two Men; The Captains & the Kings; Ceremony of the
Innocent; Pillar of Iron; & Bright Flows the River.
CANFIELD, DOROTHY (DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER) – American novelist, shortstory writer, & children’s books writer; known for her short stories.
CAPOTE, TRUMAN – American novelist, short-story writer, & playwright; known for
merging his dramatic narrative techniques of fiction with objective journalistic reporting
to create “the nonfiction novel”; wrote In Cold Blood; A Christmas Memory; The
Thanksgiving Visitor; Breakfast at Tiffany’s; The Grass Harp; Music for Chameleons; &
Other Voices, Other Rooms.
CARD, ORSON SCOTT – American science fiction & fantasy writer; wrote Ender’s
Game; Ender’s Shadow; Ender in Exile; Wyrms; Xenocide; & Children of the Wind.
CARSON, RACHAEL – American biologist, environmentalist, & author; known for her
natural history of the sea & her book Silent Spring; The Edge of the Sea; & The Sea
Around Us.
CATHER, WILLA- American modernist novelist, poet, essayist, & short-story writer;
wrote about frontier life in Nebraska with an emphasis on women; wrote O Pioneers!;
The Song of the Lark; My Antonia; & Death Comes for the Archbishop.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND – American crime writer; helped to shape the American
detective novels; known for the creation of detective “Philip Marlowe”; wrote Farewell,
My Lovely; The Big Sleep; & Little Sister.
CHEEVER, JOHN – American novelist & short-story writer; explored the isolation of
modern American life; & writes with ironic comedy & satire.
CHESTNUTT, C. W. (CHARLES WADELL) – African-American novelist & short-story
writer; wrote about Southern folklore & civil rights; wrote The Conjure Woman & The
Color Line.
CHILDRESS, ALICE – African- American novelist, actress, & playwright; known for her
realistic stories about the enduring optimism of African-Americans.
CHOPIN, KATE – American feminist novelist & short-story writer; renowned for her
literary naturalism & feminism; wrote The Awakening.
CISNEROS, SANDRA – American Latino novelist & poet; her fiction & poetry take the
general form of dramatic monologue; wrote The House on Mango Street; Women
Hollering Creek; & Little Miracles, Kept Promises.
CLANCY, TOM – American modern novelist; credited for creating the “techno-thriller”; in
his novels, he combines military technology & superpower confrontation; the family is
the central theme in his works; wrote The Hunt for Red October; Patriot Games; The
Sum of All Fears; Rainbow 6; The Cardinal of the Kremlin; & Without Remorse.
COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE – American novelist; wrote historic romance, sea
adventures & frontier life novels; America’s “national novelist”; wrote novels that
provided an important account of the time period in American history; wrote The Last of
the Mohicans; The Spy; The Deerslayer; & The Pioneers.
COTTON, JOHN – English-born American Puritan leader & writer; wrote religious
instruction for the New England Congregationalism Churches.
CRANE, STEPHEN – Major American novelist, short-story writer, & poet; father of the
development of the psychological realist novel; wrote about the social ills of society;
wrote The Red Badge of Courage; Maggie: A Girl of the Streets; The Open Boat; The
Blue Hotel; & The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.
cummings, e. e. ( edward estlin) – American poet, writer, dramatist, & painter;
expressed individuality in poetry; due to his idiosyncratic punctuation & typography of
his works he was labeled an experimentalist; wrote The Enormous Room & Complete
Poems1913-1962.
D
DeLILLO, DON – American postmodernist novelist, short-story writer, & playwright;
his novels have surrealistic & paranoid elements; wrote Underworld; White Noise; Libra;
Cosmopolis; & Pafko at the Wall.
DeMILLE, NELSON – American suspense novelist & short-story writer; first series of
novels were about the NYPD; wrote Wild Fire; Plum Island; The General’s Daughter;
Charm School; Gold Coast; Spencerville; & MayDay.
DICKEY, JAMES – American poet, novelist, & critic; one of the best post-World War II
American poets; poetry deals with nature & its relationship to man; best known for the
book on survival – Deliverance; also wrote To the White Sea, A Novel.
DICKINSON, EMILY - American poet; her poetry is distinctive, lyrical & timeless in verse
formulations; her emotional themes were death, love, religion, nature & eternity; she did
not name or date her poems; & Thomas H. Johnson numbered the poems in a
compilation; Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson; Final Harvest; I’m Nobody! Who Are
You?; Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson; Selected Poetry of Emily Dickinson; & The
Poems of Emily Dickinson.
DIDION, JOAN – American novelist, journalist, screenwriter, & essayist; writes in
precise prose of the decline of the American values self-reliance & respect for others;
wrote The Year of Magical Thinking; Miami; Political Fictions; Play It As It Lays;Miami; &
with her husband wrote the screenplays for A Star Is Born & True Confessions.
DILLARD, ANNIE – American essayist; wrote about the natural world; wrote Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek ; The Annie Dillard Reader; & Mornings Like This: Found Poems.
DOCTOROW, E. L. – American contemporary novelist & playwright; writes historical &
political fiction; wrote The Book of Daniel; Ragtime; World’s Fair; Billy Bathgate; Loon
Lake; The March; & Sweet Land Stories.
DOS PASSOS, JOHN – American modernist novelist, playwright , & poet; was a
pioneer in experimenting with forms of fiction; combined fiction with biography in his
writings; was part of the “lost generation” of writers; wrote U.S.A.; The Shackles of
Power; The Men Who Made the Nation; & Mr. Wilson’s War.
DOUGLAS, LLOYD C. – American clergyman & novelist; his novels conveyed optimistic
religious messages; wrote The Robe &The Big Fisherman.
DOUGLASS, FREDERICK – African-American writer, orator, & abolitionist; son of a
slave mother & white father he never knew; wrote anti-slavery newspaper articles &
books; was a consultant to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War; wrote
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass & Frederick Douglass in His Own Words.
DREISER, THEODORE – American novelist, playwright, & short-story writer; novelist of
American naturalism & the first major American author of the 20th century; his
characters weighed moral issues while making conscious decisions; wrote Sister Carrie,
An American Tragedy, & Short Stories.
DUBOIS, W. E. B. – African-American novelist, essayist, sociologist, & AfricanAmerican rights leader; Influential in African-American literature; wrote The Souls of
Black Folks; The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois; & Emerging Thoughts of W.E.B.
DuBois.
DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE – African-American poet, short-story writer, & novelist;
wrote about prejudice & social injustice; his poetry was written in the Negro dialect & in
the standard English dialect; wrote “When Malindy Sings”, a poem & “We Wear the
Mask”, a poem; also, The Collected Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
E
ELLISON, RALPH – African-American novelist, essayist, & teacher; his only novel, The
Invisible Man, is one of the finest achievements in American fiction & one of the most
complete statements of African-American experiences; his characters search for their
identity. Also, he wrote Juneteenth, a novel which was left unfinished & edited
posthumously from his manuscripts & published; also wrote Flying Home & Other
Stories; & Shadow & Act.
EMERSON,RALPH WALDO – American poet, essayist, & lecturer; he was the leading
figure of New England Transcendentalism; wrote his poetry in the art of prosaic
discourse; advocated self-reliance in his poetry; poetry found in Essays & English
Traits; Journals; & Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in one volume.
ERDRICH, LOUISE - American novelist, poet, & short story writer; books are primarily
about the Chippewa Indians in the northern Midwest; wrote Love Medicine; The Beet
Queen; The Bingo Place; Original Fire; The Blue Jay’s Dance; The Master Butchers
Singing Club; The Last Report on The Miracles at Little No Horse; & Tracks.
F
FAULKNER, WILLIAM – American modern southern novelist & short-story writer; wrote
about the post-bellum American South; best known for his epic Yoknapatawpha cycle of
writings; wrote The Sound & The Fury; As I Lay Dying; Sanctuary; Light in August;
Absalom, Absalom; Flags in the Dust; Intruder in the Dust; A Fable; & The Reivers.
FERBER, EDNA – American novelist, short-story writer, & playwright; wrote with
compassion & curiosity about middle-class Midwestern life; wrote Cimarron; Giant; Ice
Palace; Showboat; & So Big.
FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT – American novelist & short-story writer; known for his
characterizations of the Jazz Age; was known as an acute stylist & social observer with
all of his heroes carrying a sense of a lost past; wrote This Side of Paradise; The
Beautiful & the Damned; The Great Gatsby; Tender Is the Night; & The Last Tycoon.
FORD, JESSE HILL - American novelist & short-story writer; his writings examined the
destructive relations between races in the South; wrote The Liberation of Lord Byron
Jones & The Feast of Saint Barnabas.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN – American author, publisher, printer, scientist, inventor, &
diplomat; a writer of the “Age of Reason” who took philosophical ideas and formulated
them, through his prose, into practical everyday style; wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack &
Autobiography.
FROST, ROBERT – American pastoral poet; his poems reveal a mystical attachment to
the natural land in New England; some of his best known poems were The Home Burial;
The Road Not Taken; The Oven Bird; Birches; & Dust of Snow.
FULLER, MARGARET – American woman of letters, teacher, & critic; a close friend of
Emerson & the Transcendentalists; wrote Women in the 19th Century, a tract on
feminism.
G
GAINES, ERNEST J. – African-American novelist & short-story writer; themes in his
writings have reflected his own experiences in the South; wrote The Autobiography of
Miss Jane Pittman; A Gathering of Old Men; A Lesson Before Dying; & Mozart &
Leadbelly.
GALBRAITH, JOHN KENNETH – Canadian-American economist & writer; served as a
key advisor to President John F. Kennedy; wrote The Affluent Society; Economic
Development; The Great Crash, 1929; & The Triumph, a Novel.
GIBBONS, KAYE – American southern novelist; writes about Southern women &
families; wrote Charms for the Easy Life; A Virtuous Woman; Ellen Foster; Sightings
Unseen; On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon; & A Cure for Dreams.
GIBSON, WILLIAM – Canadian-American writer; wrote in the science fiction genre;
leader of the cyberpunk movement in literature; wrote All Tomorrow’s Parties; Virtual
Light; & The Miracle Worker (Helen Keller).
GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS (STETSON) – American poet, short-story writer &
novelist; leading theorist of the women’s movement in the U.S.; wrote The Yellow
Wallpaper; Herland; & Unpunished.
GINSBERG, ALLEN – American Beat poet & counter-cultural activist; leader of the Beat
movement; wrote Selected Poems, 1947-1955 & The Beat Book Poems & Fiction of the
Beat Generation.
GIOVANNI, NIKKI – African-American poet; was one of the 1960’s black revolutionary
poets; write poetry in free verse with strong rhythms; wrote Gemini; Cotton Candy on a
Rainy Day; My House; & The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni.
GIPSON, FRED – American novelist, journalist, & short-story writer; writings reflect life
in the Texas Hill-Country during the Civil War & later; wrote Old Yeller; Son of Old
Yeller; Savage Sam; & Hound-Dog Man.
GORDON, MARY – American novelist & short-story writer; writings reflect growing up
Roman Catholic in the sixties; wrote The Company of Women; Final Payments; & The
Other Side.
GRAU, SHIRLEY ANN – American writer; writes with traditional style but uses symbolic
realism; wrote The Condor Passes & The Keepers of the House.
GREENBERG, JOANNE – American naturalist novelist & short-story writer; writes about
mental & handicap problems; also wrote under the name Hannah Green; I Never
Promised You a Rose Garden & In This Sign.
GREENE, BETTE – American writer; her writings examine the moral courage &
emotional tolerance young people face in difficult situations; wrote Summer of My
German Soldier; Morning Is a Long Time Coming; Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon; & The
Drowning of Stephan Jones.
GREY, ZANE – American writer; wrote & created the western novel; wrote Riders of the
Purple Sage; Blue Feathers & Other Stories; The Westerners: Frontier Stories; & Last
of the Duanes.
GRISHAM, JOHN – American contemporary novelist; writes legal fiction; writings makes
heroes out of ordinary people; wrote The Firm; The Pelican Brief; The Client; The
Partner; The Brethren; The Appeal; The Associate; Bleachers; & Skipping Christmas.
H
HALEY, ALEX – African-American writer; wrote historical fiction; his writings depicted
the struggles of African-Americans; wrote Roots; Mama Flora’s Family; & Queen.
HAMILTON, VIRGINIA – African-American novelist & short-story writer; writes about the
folklore & culture of African-Americans; wrote A White Romance; Arilla Sundown;
Dustland; Justice & Her Brothers; The Planet of Junior Brown; & The Gathering.
HAMMETT, DASHIELL – American crime writer; father of the hard-boiled detective
novel; creator of one of fiction’s most famous sleuths Sam Spade; wrote The Maltese
Falcon; The Thin Man; Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; & The Glass Key.
HANSBERRY, LORRAINE – African American playwright; writes about the daily
stresses in the lives of African-American families; wrote A Raisin in the Sun & The Sign
in Sidney Brustein’s Window.
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER - African-American children’s & folklore writer; created the
folklore character Uncle Remus; was a brilliant humorist & a writer of dialects; wrote The
Complete Tales of Uncle Remus.
HARTE, BRET – American romantic short-story writer; poet & critic; helped create the
local-color school in American fiction; wrote western novels & stories including The Luck
of Roaring Camp; The Outcasts of Poker Flat; & Stories of the Early West.
HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL – American novelist & short-story writer; a master of
allegorical & symbolic stories; one of the greatest fiction writers in American literature;
the last Puritan novelist; wrote The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables; The
Blithedale Romance; The Marble Faun; Tanglewood Tales for Boys & Girls; Mosses
From an Old Manse; Young Goodman Brown & Other Stories; & Twice-Told Tales.
HEINLEIN, ROBERT – American science fiction writer; one of the most influential
American Science fiction writers; wrote A Stranger in a Strange Land; Friday; Starman
Jones; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress; & Have Space Suit Will Travel.
HELLER, JOSEPH – American satirical novelist & playwright; used ‘black humor’ in his
writings; wrote Catch-22; Something Happened; Good as Gold; God Knows; Closing
Time; & the play, We Bombed in New Haven.
HELLMAN, LILLIAN – American playwright & screenwriter; her dramas bitterly attacked
injustice & exploitation; wrote The Collected Plays & Scoundrel Time.
HEMINGWAY, ERNEST – American novelist & short-story writer; one of the principal
figures of 20th century American fiction; writer of the “Lost Generation”; considered a
master of terse, direct expression; wrote The Sun Also Rises; A Farewell to Arms; For
Whom the Bell Tolls; The Old Man & The Sea; Islands in the Stream; A Moveable
Feast; & Nick Adams Stories.
HENRY, O. – American short-story writer; pseudonym of William Sydney Porter; his
stories romanticized the characters of ordinary people in New York City with surprise
endings; wrote The Four Million; Heart of the West; & The Collected Stories.
HERBERT, FRANK - American science fiction writer; known for the Dune series; was
one of the most popular & influential science fiction authors of all time; wrote Dune;
Dune Messiah; Children of Dune; God-Emperor of Dune; Chapterhouse: Dune; & the
Dosadi Experiment.
HERSEY, JOHN – American novelist & journalist; wrote about freedom, racism; greed &
political corruption; noted for his documentary fiction about catastrophic events of World
War II; wrote The Child Buyer; A Bell for Adano; Hiroshima; The Wall; White Lotus; &
The Conspiracy.
HOFFMAN, ALICE – American novelist; writes about women in search of their identities
with mixed realism & the supernatural; wrote Fortune’s Daughter; Turtle Moon; Here on
Earth; Practical Magic; The River King; Local Girls; Seventh Heaven; White Horses; &
The Probable Future.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL – American poet, humorist, & physician; remembered for
his few poems & for his “Breakfast-Table” series of essays.
HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN – American novelist & critic; known as the “Dean of
American Letters”; responsible for the dominance of the realistic school of writing in
modern American literature; wrote A Modern Instance; The Rise of Silas Lapham;
Indian Summer; & A Foregone Conclusion.
HUGHES, LANGSTON – African-American poet, short-story writer, novelist, &
playwright; a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s & 1930’s; influential
member of the Black Arts movement; used an integration of his writing with jazz &
blues; wrote A Fight for Freedom; Not Without Laughter; The Panther & The Lash; &
various short stories.
HURSTON, ZORA NEALE – African-American novelist & short-story writer; created a
body of literature that celebrated & preserved the sound & spirit of African-American
voices as she knew them; wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God; Go Gator & Muddy
the Water; Tell My Horse; & The Complete Stories.
I
IRVING, JOHN – American novelist; his writings embrace individuality & courage with
philosophical ideas, strange characterizations & unique plots; wrote The World
According to Garp; The Hotel New Hampshire; The Cider House Rules; A Prayer for
Owen Meany; A Widow for One Year; Son of the Circus; & Until I Find You.
IRVING, WASHINGTON – American humorist short-story writer; called the “first
American man of letters”; known for his prose style, native humor, & creation of many
memorable characters; wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Rip Van Winkle; The
Sketchbook; & The Complete Tales.
J
JAMES, HENRY – American/English novelist; wrote novels about detailed & complex
characters; wrote psychologically complex novels contrasting American values with their
European heritage; wrote The Bostonians; The Wings of the Dove; Daisy Miller;
Washington Square; The Portrait of a Lady; What Maisie Knew; The Ambassadors; The
Aspern Papers; & The Turn of the Screw.
JEWETT, SARAH ORNE – American regional novelist & short-story writer; wrote about
rural women & girls in the 19th century; wrote A White Heron; & The Country of Pointed
Firs.
JOHNSON, JAMES WELDON – African-American poet, diplomat, & anthologist of
African-American culture; wrote hymns & sermons in dialect; best known for The
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man & poetry anthologies.
JONG, ERICA - American novelist & poet; feminist writer; wrote Fear of Flying; Any
Women’s Blues; Inventing Memory; & Parachutes & Kisses.
K
KANTOR, MACKINLAY – American novelist & short-story writer; wrote historical novels;
wrote Andersonville; Valley Forge; Gettysburg; & The Voice of Bugle Ann.
KEILLOR, GARRISON – American writer, short-story writer, & radio entertainer; books
are semiautobiographical with deadpan humor; wrote Lake Wobegon Days;
Homegrown Democrat; Leaving Home; & We Are Still Married.
KELLER, HELEN – American writer & educator; was blind & deaf at age 19 months;
was taught by Anne Sullivan; worked for women’s suffrage & became involved in
socialist & humanitarian causes; wrote The Story of My Life.
KENNEDY, WILLIAM – American novelist & journalist; known for the “Albany cycle
novels”; writings revitalized regionalism; wrote Legs; Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game; &
Ironweed.
KEROUAC, JACK – American novelist, poet & leader & spokesman of the Beat
Movement; wrote in expressive poetic language; books about the American quest for
adventure & renewal; wrote On the Road; The Dharma Bums; Atop An Underwood; &
Door Wide Open.
KESEY, KEN – American novelist; became the hero of the 1960s counterculture; his
writings expressed the conflict between free spirit independence & the authoritarianism
of society; wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Demon Box; Last Go Round; Sailor
Song; & Sometimes a Great Notion.
KING, MARTIN LUTHER, JR. – African-American writer & civil rights leader; founded
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; known for his eloquent speeches – I
Have A Dream; also wrote Why We Can’t Wait; The Testament of Hope; & A Trumpet of
Conscience.
KING, STEPHEN – American horror novelist, short-story writer & screenwriter; revived
the genre of horror fiction in the late 20th century; addresses the “nature of evil”; writes
under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman – Thinner; wrote Carrie; Salem’s Lot; The
Shining; The Stand; Misery; Firestarter; The Dead Zone; Cujo; Pet Sematary; Christine;
The Green Mile; The Tommyknockers; The Dark Half; It; Dolores Claiborne; Rose
Madder; Bag of Bones; Insommia; Duma Key; & Under the Dome.
KINGSOLVER, BARBARA – American writer & political activist; writes about the
strength & endurance of the poor & disenfranchised people of the Southwest; wrote
Animal Dreams; Prodigal Summer; Pigs in Heaven; High Tide in Tucson; The Bean
Trees; & The Poisonwood Bible.
KNOWLES, JOHN – American novelist; known for A Separate Peace a novel based on
his personal experiences at a private school; his characters are caught in a conflict
between the wild & pragmatic sides of their personalities; also, wrote The Paragon;
Peace Breaks Out; & A Stolen Past.
KOONTZ, DEAN – American horror & science fiction novelist; writes under seven other
pseudonyms; wrote Phantoms; Strangers; Watchers; Hideaway; From the Corner of His
Eye; The Husband; The Mask; Forever Odd; Odd Thomas; Dark Rivers of the Heart;
Mr. Murder; Whispers; The Face & The Eyes of Darkness.
KOSINSKI, JERZY – American novelist; writes about individuals in controlling &
bureaucratic societies; accused of fraudulently marketing his life story; wrote Being
There & Passing By.
KUNITZ, STANLEY J. – American poet & editor; noted for his poetic subtle
craftsmanship & complexity; edited many literature reference books; wrote The
Collected Poems.
L
L’AMOUR, LOUIS – American western novelist; his books were formula westerns
portraying frontier life & western detective novels; he was the most popular writer of this
genre in the U.S.; wrote The Daybreakers; Flint; Lando; The Lonesome Gods; The
Haunted Mesa; Valley of the Sun; & The Sackett Novels.
LAWHEAD, STEPHEN – American science fiction writer; known for his Celtic fantasies;
writes of the epic battles of good versus evil; wrote The Paradise War; The Endless
Knot; Taliesin; Merlin; & Arthur.
LARDNER, RING – American short-story writer & journalist; a gifted satirist & storyteller;
was blacklisted during the McCarthy era; wrote You Know Me & The Best Short Stories
of Ring Lardner.
LEE, HARPER – American novelist; wrote To Kill A Mockingbird which dealt with racist
prejudice & violence in a small Southern town as seen through the eyes of a white child.
LeGUIN, URSULA K. – American fantasy & science fiction writer; her writings range
from subtle feminist works to multi-media fiction; wrote Rocannon’s World; Planet of
Exile; The Left-Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed; The World for Word is Forest; &
The Lathe of Heaven.
LEHANE, DENNIS – American detective novelist & short story writer; writes the hardboiled detective mystery novel; wrote Mystic River; Shutter Island; & Coronado: Stories.
L’ENGLE, MADELEINE – American writer; writings are concerned with the conflict of
good & evil, the nature of God, & individual responsibility; wrote The Moon By Night;
The Young Unicorns; A Ring of Endless Light; A Wrinkle In Time; A Circle of Quiet; &
Two-Part Invention.
LEVINE, IRA – American novelist & playwright; writes mystery & horror stories; wrote
Rosemary’s Baby; Son of Rosemary; A Kiss Before Dying; The Stepford Wives; & a
play, Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts.
LEWIS, SINCLAIR – American novelist; was the first to win the Nobel Prize in
Literature; wrote about the emerging middle class during the1920s in a dry satire wit & a
descriptive style; wrote Main Street; Babbitt; Arrowsmith; Elmer Gantry; & It Can’t
Happen Here.
LONDON, JACK - American novelist, short-story writer & journalist; known for his vivid
adventure tales of the wilderness; wrote The Call of the Wild; White Fang; The SeaWolf; Smoke Bellew; & To Build a Fire & Other Stories.
LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH – American romantic poet; most popular
American poet of the 19th century; wrote melodious poetry with memorable rhymes &
patriotic themes; wrote The Song of Hiawatha & Other Poems; The Complete Poetic
Works of Longfellow; & Favorite Poems.
LOWELL, AMY – American critic, lecturer, & imagist poet; pioneered modern American
poetry; wrote poetry in free verse & in what she called “polyphonic prose”; wrote
Selected Poems.
LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL – American poet, critic, essayist, editor, & diplomat;
developed the Atlantic Monthly magazine; wrote humorous satires concerning social
problems; his poetry is in various anthologies.
LOWELL, ROBERT – American poet & playwright; poet noted for his complex,
confessional & political poetry; his poetry has a richness of imagery & allusions; poetry
is found in various anthologies.
LUDLUM, ROBERT – American suspense novelist; writes fast-paced novels with
complex plots; wrote The Scarlatti Inheritance; The Bourne Identity; The Bourne
Supremacy; The Bourne Ultimatum; The Matarese Circle; The Aquitaine Progression;
The Road to Omaha; & The Parsifal Mosaic.
M
McCAFFREY, ANNE – American fantasy writer; uses vivid imagery; wrote the “Pern
Series”; wrote The Dragonriders of Pern; The Harper Hill of Pern; The People of Pern;
The Skies of Pern; Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern; All the Weyrs of Pern; Nimisha’s Ship;
Pegasus in Space; & The Acorna Series.
McCARTHY, CORMAC – American contemporary novelist; uses historical Western
themes & controversial realism in his subject matter; writes in the gothic Southern
tradition; wrote All The Pretty Horses; No Country for Old Men; The Crossing; & The
Road.
McCARTHY, MARY – American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, drama critic, &
poet; writes autobiographical fiction using satirical analysis of society’s weaknesses;
wrote The Group & Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.
McCOURT, FRANK – American biographer & novelist; writing is based on his own
childhood; wrote Angela’s Ashes; ‘Tis; & Teacher Man.
McCULLERS, CARSON – American novelist; writes stories in an evocative style about
the love & loneliness of life; writes in the Southern Gothic style; wrote The Heart is a
Lonely Hunter & The Member of the Wedding.
McGINLEY, PHYLLIS – American poet & children’s writer; known for her light verse
about the suburban home life; wrote The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley & Sixpence in
Her Shoe.
McGUANE, THOMAS – American novelist; writes as a prose stylist producing
masculine fiction focusing on men in society & their vocations; wrote The Cadence of
Grass & Nothing But Blue Skies.
McKAY, CLAUDE – African-American novelist & poet; writes in Jamaican dialect; his
writings are in Selected Poems.
MACLEISH, ARCHIBALD – American poet, playwright, & public official; his concern for
liberal democracy influenced his work; wrote J.B., A Play; Poetry & Experience; & The
Human Season: Selected Poems.
McMILLAN, TERRY – African-American novelist; her writings dramatize the struggles of
young professional African-American women in society; wrote Waiting to Exhale; How
Stella Got Her Groove Black; & Disappearing Acts.
McMURTRY, LARRY – American novelist; writes about the Western myth of the
cowboy & the rancher; wrote Terms of Endearment; The Last Picture Show; Lonesome
Dove; The Evening Star; Dead Man’s Walk; & When the Lights Go Out.
MAILER, NORMAN – American novelist & journalist; one of the major figures in
American literature of the later 20th century; writes about the fates of individuals in
society; wrote The Naked & The Dead; The Executioner’s Song; The Armies of the
MALAMUD, BERNARD American novelist & short-story writer; writes parables based on
Jewish immigrant life; wrote The Natural; The Assistant; The Fixer; The Tenants; & The
Malamud Reader.
MARQUAND, JOHN P. – American novelist; recorded the shifting patterns of middle-&
upper-class American society; wrote The Late George Apley.
MASTERS, EDGAR LEE – American poet & novelist; depicted a community through
portraits of its citizens; wrote crafted epitaphs; best known for The Spoon River
Anthology.
MATHER, COTTON – American Puritan leader & writer; his writings contributed to the
hysteria surrounding the Salem witchcraft trials; though he disapproved of their
excesses; wrote moral essays.
MELVILLE, HERMAN - American novelist; writings were about the sea; one of the
greatest American novelists of the 19th century; questioned society; wrote Moby Dick,
or, The Whale; Billy Budd, Sailor; Typee, or A Peep at Polynesian Life; Omoo:
Adventures in the South Seas; Bartleby & Benito Cereno; & Five Tales.
MICHENER, JAMES – American novelist & short-story writer; wrote detailed epics with
carefully researched historical detail; considered the best writer of historical fiction;
wrote Tales of the South Pacific; Hawaii; Centennial; Chesapeake; Mexico; & Space.
MILLAY, EDNA St. VINCENT – American poet & dramatist; her writings personified
romantic rebellion & bravado in the 1920s; poetry grouped in Collected Poems.
MILLER, ARTHUR – American playwright; in his dramas he combined social awareness
with a searching concern for his character’s inner strength; wrote The Crucible; Death of
a Salesman; & The Price.
MITCHELL, MARGARET – American novelist; wrote Gone with the Wind, a novel about
the Civil War & Reconstruction as seen from the Southern point of view.
MOMADAY, N. SCOTT – Native American novelist; uses the Native American oral
(storytelling) tradition in his poetry, fiction, & autobiography; wrote House Made of
Dawn; The Man Made of Words; & In the Presence of the Sun.
MOORE, MARIANNE – American poet; acclaimed for her innovations in poetic
technique, use of detail, & exploration of paradox; writings in The Complete Poems of
Marianne Moore; Tell Me, Tell Me; & Poems of Marianne Moore.
MORRISON, TONI – African-American novelist & editor; “magical realism” is applied to
describe her fiction; wrote The Bluest Eye; Sula; Song of Solomon; Beloved; Jazz;
Paradise & Tar Baby.
MOSLEY, WALTER – African-American mystery suspense writer; writings noted for
their realistic portrayals of segregated inner-city life; wrote 47; Bad Boy Brawley Brown;
Gone Fishin’; RL’s Dream; & Walkin’ the Dog.
N
NABOKOV, VLADIMIR – Russian-American novelist & short-story writer; a master
prose stylist; wrote King, Queen, Knave; Speak, Memory; & The Complete Novels.
NASH, OGDEN – American poet; wrote humorous poetry; wrote Marriage Lines;
There’s Always Another Windmill; You Can’t Get There From Here; I Couldn’t Help
Laughing.
NORRIS, FRANK – American novelist & short-story writer; Father of American
naturalism in writing; believed in love’s ability to reform people into being better; wrote
McTeague; The Octopus; & The Pit.
NORTON, ANDRE – American science-fiction & fantasy novelist; her writings usually
featured adolescents undergoing rites of passages in life; wrote The Witch World
Series; Android at Arms; Black Trillium; The Crystal Gryphon; Iron Cage; & No Night
Without Stars.
O
OATES, JOYCE CAROL - American novelist & short-story writer; prose writer with a
wide range of genres, including gothic, romance, & suspense stories; a master of
thought-provoking fiction; wrote Expensive People; Them; Bellefleur; A Bloodsmoor
Romance; We Are the Mulvaneys; The Gravedigger’s Daughter; Small Avalanches &
Other Stories; Blonde: A Novel; The Falls; You Must Remember This; & Missing Mom.
O’CONNOR, (MARY) FLANNERY – American novelist & short-story writer; her symbolladen writings, usually set in the rural South, concern an individual’s relationship to God;
wrote A Good Man is Hard to Find; Everything That Rises Must Converge; Complete
Stories; & Collected Works.
ODETS, CLIFFORD – American playwright & screenwriter; leading dramatist of the
theater of social protest during the 1930s; wrote Six Plays.
O. HENRY – (William Sydney Porter) American short-story writer; transformed the
mundane occurrences of everyday life into stories; wrote The Gift of the Magi; The Last
Leaf; Heart of the West; & other stories.
O’NEILL, EUGENE – American dramatist & poet; considered the greatest American
dramatist in the 20th century; wrote drama using gritty realism, satire, & tragedy; wrote
The Complete Plays; Nine Plays; Selected Plays of Eugene O’Neill; The Emperor
Jones, “Anna Christie”, & The Hairy Ape.
P
PAINE, THOMAS – English born American writer & pamphleteer; wrote revolutionary
pamphlets; wrote Common Sense.
PARKER, DOROTHY – American poet, short-story writer, & critic; used “cruel” humor,
sharp dialogue, & irony in her writings; wrote in The Collected Short Stories & The
Portable Dorothy Parker.
PARKS, GORDON – African-American author, photographer & film director;
documented African-American life; wrote In Love (poetry); The Learning Tree (novel); &
Gordon Parks: A Poet & His Camera.
PATCHETT, ANN – American novelist; writes romantic tragicomic novels; wrote Bel
Canto; The Patron Saint of Liars; & Run.
PICOULT, JODI – American modern novelist; her novels cross many genres, including
literary fiction, legal thrillers, psychological portraits, romances & ghost stories; wrote
Handle With Care; Harvesting the Heart; My Sister’s Keeper; Nineteen Minutes; Plain
Truth; Vanishing Acts; The Pact; Change of Heart; Mercy; & Keeping Faith.
PLATH, SYLVIA – American poet & novelist; her writings were known for their personal
imagery & intense focus; used themes of women’s creativity, alienation, death & selfdestruction in her writings; wrote the autobiographical The Bell Jar; The Unabridged
Journals of Sylvia Plath; Winter Trees; & The Collected Poems.
POE, EDGAR ALLAN – American horror writer, critic, poet, & short-story writer; “Master
of the American Gothic”; famous for his mystery & macabre in fiction & eerie poetry;
considered the father of the short-story form; wrote short stories - The Masque of the
Red Death; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Murders of the Rue Morgue: The Pit &
The Pendulum; The Tell-Tale heart; The Purloined Letter; & The Cask of Amontillado;
wrote poetry – The Raven & Annabel Lee.
PORTER, KATHERINE ANNE – American short-story writer & novelist; her writings are
noted for being distinct, concise, subtle, elegant & based on her own first-hand
experiences; wrote The Ship of Fools & The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.
POTOK, CHAIM – American novelist; his writings explores the Orthodox Jewish
experience in the U.S.; wrote The Chosen; The Promise; My Name Is Asher Lev; &
Zebra & Other Stories.
POUND, EZRA – American poet, translator, & critic; defined literary modernism; was
one of the most influential & controversial figures in modern literature; wrote in Early
Poems & poems in anthologies.
PROULX, E. ANNE – American modern novelist; writes about rural North America with
humor; wrote The Shipping News; Accordion Crimes; That Old Ace in the Hole; Heart
Songs & Other Stories; Close Range: Wyoming Stories; & Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories.
PUZO, MARIO – American novelist; wrote about Italian immigrants earning a living in
America; wrote The Godfather; the Last Don; Fools Die; Fourth K; & Fortunate Pilgrim.
PYNCHON, THOMAS – American postmodern novelist & short-story writer; one of the
leading practitioners of metafiction, the dominant avant-garde style in novels during the
sixties & the seventies; wrote Vineland; Mason & Dixon; & The Crying of Lot 49.
R
RAND, AYN – Russian-born American novelist; her writings depicted her philosophy of
objectivism & individual self-reliance; wrote Anthem; Atlas Shrugged; Fountainhead;
The Virtue of Selfishness; & The Journals of Ayn Rand.
RAWLINGS, MARJORIE, KINNAN – American novelist; writes about families in Florida
living in poverty; wrote The Yearling.
RAWLS, W. WILSON – American novelist; writes about rural life; wrote The Summer of
the Monkeys & Where the Red Fern Grows.
RICE, ANNE – American horror novelist; known for her vampire novels; wrote Interview
with a Vampire; The Vampire Lestat; The Queen of the Damned; The Tale of the Body
Thief; The Witching Hour; Lasher; & Taltos.
RICHTER, CONRAD – American novelist & short-story writer; known for his lyrical
fiction about early America; Pennsylvania native; known for the development of the
realistic historical novel; wrote The Sea of Grass; The Light in the Forest; The
Awakening Land Trilogy -The Trees; The Fields; & The Town; The Aristocrat; The
Country of Strangers; & The Free Man.
ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON – American poet; known for his short dramatic
poems about the occupants of a small New England village; poetry found in
anthologies.
ROTH, PHILIP – American novelist; reworks the fabric of his own life into material for
his fiction; writes great dialogue with satirical comic touches; called a psychological
realist novelist; wrote The Ghost Writer; Everyman; Exit Ghost; The Anatomy Lesson: A
Novel; The Breast: A Novel; American Pastoral; & The Plot Against America.
RUSSO, RICHARD – American novelist & screenwriter; writes character descriptions of
New Englanders & their families; wrote Empire Falls; Nobody’s Fool; & the Bridge of
Sighs.
S
SALINGER, J.D. – American novelist & short-story writer; wrote masterful depictions of
characters; uses vivid realistic dialogue; wrote The Catcher in the Rye; Nine Stories;
Raise High the Roof Beam; & Franny & Zooey.
SANDBURG, CARL – American poet, historian, novelist, & folklorist; his writings
celebrate the American spirit & champion the working man; wrote Abraham Lincoln:The
Prairie Years; Abraham Lincoln: The War Years; The American Songbag; Complete
Poems; Wind Song: Poems; Always Young Strangers; Storm Over the Land: A Profile
of the Civil War; & Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg.
SAROYAN, WILLIAM – American novelist; short-story writer & playwright; wrote brash,
irreverent stories celebrating the joy of living during the Great Depression despite the
poverty, hunger, & insecurity people were experiencing; wrote Places Where I’ve Done
Time; My Name is Aram; The Human Comedy; & the plays – My Heart’s in the
Highlands & The Time of Your Life.
SCHAEFER, JACK – American western novelist & short-story writer; created a mythical
western hero with a shady past in his most famous novel, Shane; The Plainsmen;
Mavericks, & The Short Novels of Jack Schaefer.
SEUSS (GEISEL, THEODORE) – American writer & illustrator of children’s books;
known as Dr. Seuss; writes in humorous rhyming text; wrote The Cat in the Hat; Horton
Hatches the Egg; Green Eggs & Ham; Oh, The Places You’ll Go; & How the Grinch
Stole Christmas.
SEXTON, ANNE – American poet; poetry is noted for its personal confessional
intensity; wrote All My Pretty Ones; Live or Die; Love Poems; The Death Notebooks;
Transformations; Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters; Selected Poems of Anne
Sexton; & Complete Poems.
SHEPARD, SAM – American playwright, novelist, short-story writer, & actor; his dramas
have blended images of the American West; science fiction, & elements of popular
culture; one of the most individualistic voices of the American stage; his plays are
considered the most enduring postmodern dramatic literature of the 1970’s & 1980’s;
Seven Plays.
SHIELDS, CAROL – Canadian-American novelist, playwright, & poet; lived most of her
life in Canada; wrote about ordinary lives with depth & wit while exploring the gender
gap; Small Ceremonies; The Stone Diaries; Dressing Up For the Carnival; & Unless: A
Novel.
SHREVE, ANITA – American popular novelist & journalist; writings are about the
imagined lives of other people; writes of the past & present while weaving a story with
mystery & suspense; wrote Fortune’s Rocks; The Last Time They Met; Sea Glass; All
He Ever Wanted; Eden Close; The Weight of the Water; Light in the Snow; Resistance;
Strange Fits of Passion; The Pilot’s Wife; Where or When; A Wedding in December;
Body Surfing; & Testimony.
SILKO, LESLIE MARMON – Native-American novelist, short-story writer, & poet; writes
about the conflict between Native Americans & white Anglo-American cultures &
folklore; recognized as one of the leading female contributors to the renaissance in
Native American literature; wrote Laguna Woman; Ceremony; Yellow Woman &
Gardens in the Dunes.
SIMON, NEIL – American playwright & screenwriter; dramas are both tragic & comic
depicting humorous family life & friendships; is the most successful playwright in the
history of the theater; wrote Come Blow Your Horn; Barefoot in the Park; The Odd
Couple; Plaza Suite; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Biloxi Blues; Lost in Yonkers; The
Heartbreak Kid; The Goodbye Girl; I Ought to be in Pictures; The Comedy of Neil
Simon; & The Collected Plays.
SINCLAIR, UPTON – American novelist & socialist; wrote about social injustices; The
Jungle is considered the best of the naturalistic proletarian novels; Oil; World’s End; &
Dragon Teeth.
SINGER, ISAAC BASHEVIS – Polish-American writer of novels, short stories, & essays;
writes about Jewish culture, families, & history; wrote The Slave; The Manor; The
Estate; A Friend of Kafka & other Stories;& in various short-story anthologies.
SMILEY, JANE – American popular author; believes she is a comic, realist writer who
focuses on family life; wrote A Thousand Acres; Moo; The Age of Grief; Ordinary Love &
Good Will; Good Faith; At Paradise Gate; Barn Blind; & Horse Heaven.
SMITH, BETTY – American novelist, dramatist, & poet; wrote about family life; wrote A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn & Joy in the Morning.
SMITH, MARTIN CRUZ – American novelist; Pennsylvania born; best known for his
novels featuring Arkady Renko; wrote Gorky Park; Nightwing; & Polar Star.
STEIN, GERTRUDE – American avant-garde writer, eccentric, salon hostess, & selfstyled genius; Pennsylvania born; cubist style; influenced postmodern poetry; helped
reshape the sound of American prose; wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas &
Three Lives: Stories….
STEINBECK, JOHN – American novelist, short-story writer, & journalist; considered one
of the greatest American writers; wrote with compassion about people at the bottom of
American society while celebrating simple, human values; wrote Tortilla Flat; In Dubious
Battle; Of Mice & Men; The Grapes of Wrath; The Red Pony; The Moon Is Down;
Cannery Row; The Pearl; East of Eden; The Winter of Our Discontent; & Travels with
Charley.
STEVENS, WALLACE – American modernist poet & essayist; Pennsylvania born;
viewed poetry as supreme fiction; used romantic diction & imagery in poetry; wrote
Collected Poems & Emperor of Ice Cream & Other Poems.
STONE, IRVING – American writer of historical biographies; used the term “bio-history”
providing well researched biographies in which he immersed himself in their character;
wrote Lust for Life; Love Is Eternal; The Agony & The Ecstasy; Men to Match My
Mountains; Clarence Darrow for the Defense; The President’s Lady; They Also Ran; &
Those Who Love.
STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER – American novelist & philanthropist; wrote controversial
works about slavery; used Christian themes; considered the most important writer of
antislavery fiction; wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin & The Pearl of Orr’s Island..
STYRON, WILLIAM – American novelist & short-story writer; his characters battle to
maintain their own principles & ideals; a master at modern literary style; wrote The
Confessions of Nat Turner; Sophie’s Choice; & The Long March.
T
TAN, AMY – American novelist; writes about Chinese-American women; wrote The Joy
Luck Club; The Kitchen God’s Wife; The Hundred Secret Senses; The Bonesetter’s
Daughter; & Saving Fish From Drowning.
TARKINGTON, BOOTH – American novelist, short-story writer & playwright; writings
celebrate conservative middle class values; wrote The Magnificent Ambersons; The
Midlander; The Plutocrat; & Alice Adams.
TERKEL, STUDS – American writer & interviewer; was blacklisted for his leftist
leanings; wrote Hard Times; Working; The Good War; The Great Divide; & Race;
Coming of Age.
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID – American writer, teacher, handyman, hermit, naturalist,
protestor, & man of letters; believed in the importance of the individual & had strong
political views; was a proponent of Transcendentalism; advocated environmental
awareness; wrote Walden; A Week on the Concord & Merrimack Rivers; The Maine
Woods, & Civil Disobedience.
THURBER, JAMES – American writer, humorist, & cartoonist; his cartoons have been
classics of urban mythology in the New Yorker Magazine; his writings were an appraisal
of human foibles; wrote My Life & Hard Times; The Thurber Album; Thurber Carnival;
Writings & Drawings; & The Years with Ross; & The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
TRUTH, SOJOURNER – African-American writer, social reformer, & evangelist; was
born a slave & later freed; was an advocate of abolitionism & women’s suffrage; had a
magnetic speaking style; wrote The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
TWAIN, MARK (pseudonym of SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS) – American
humorist, writer, journalist, & lecturer; considered one of America’s greatest novelists &
one of the world’s greatest writers of juvenile & comic literature; wrote stories about
realistic adventures; his social satires, compassion & biting wit remain an inspiration to
writers today; wrote Life on the Mississippi; Roughing It; The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County; The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson; A Tramp Abroad; The Prince &
the Pauper; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; The Diary of Adam & Eve; &
The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg.
TYLER, ANNE – American popular novelist & short-story writer; her stories explore the
conflicts of family life & the urge to escape; wrote A Slipping-Down Life; Back When We
Were Grownups; Digging to America; Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant; If Morning
Ever Comes; Morgan’s Passing; Saint Maybe; The Accidental Tourist; The Amateur
Marriage; The Clock Winder; The Tin Can Tree; Breathing Lessons; Ladder of Years &
A Patchwork Planet.
U
UPDIKE, JOHN – American novelist, short-story writer, poet & critic; Pennsylvania born;
his sympathetic & humorous stories tell of painful feelings & unfulfilled dreams;
recognized as an accomplished stylist & prolific writer; wrote Rabbit, Run; Rabbit
Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; The Centaur; Couples; The Witches of Eastwick;
S.; Americana & Other Poems; Collected Poems, 1953-1993; Couples: A Novel;
Gertrude & Claudius; Hugging the Shore; In the Beauty of the Lilies; Mary Me; Seek My
Face; Of the Farm; & Bech: A Book.
URIS, LEON – American novelist & screenwriter; known for panoramic, action filled
novels based on a real historical event; wrote Battle Cry; Exodus; Mila 18; Topaz; QB
VIII; A God in Ruins; & Trinity.
V
VIDAL, GORE – American novelist, playwright, television & film scriptwriter, & essayist;
writes satires about politics & politicians; master of historical fiction; wrote Burr; 1876; &
The Smithsonian Institution.
VONNEGUT, KURT, JR. – American fantasy, science fiction, & short-story writer; writes
pessimistic satirical comical novels using fantasy & science fiction to highlight the
horrors & ironies of the 20th century; wrote The Sirens of Titan; Cat’s Cradle; God Bless
You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before the Swine; Slaughterhouse-Five, or The
Children’s Crusade; Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday; Slapstick;
Deadeye Dick; Galapagos; Bluebeard; A Man Without a Country; Hocus Pocus; Jailbird;
Player Piano; Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons;Happy Birthday, Wanda June (a play);
& Welcome to the Monkey House ( collection of short stories).
W
WALKER, ALICE – African-American contemporary novelist, poet, short-story writer &
political activist; writes about feminism, civil & human rights; wrote The Color Purple;
The Temple of My Familiar; Anything We Love Can Be Saved; In Love & In Trouble; In
Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens; Meridian; Once: Poems; The Same River Twice; The
Way Forward is with a Broken Heart; & By the Light of My Father’s Smile.
WARREN, ROBERT PENN – American novelist, poet, teacher, & critic; known for his
treatment of moral dilemmas in the South; the first American poet laureate; focused on
time & identity in fiction; wrote All the King’s Men; At Heaven’s Gate; The Cave; A Place
to Come to; Being There: Poetry 1977-1980; New & Selected Poems; & World Enough
& Time.
WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. – American essayist, biographer, educator, & reformer;
born a slave; wrote Up from Slavery; & The Life of Frederick Douglass.
WELTY, EUDORA – American novelist & short-story writer; wrote realistic fiction about
the South in which the female characters defy the stereotype of the “Southern Belle”;
wrote Losing Battles; The Optimist’s Daughter; The Collected Works of Eudora Welty; &
One Writer’s Beginnings;
WEST, JESSAMYN – American novelist, short-story writer, poet & screenwriter; wrote
about Quakers, the American West, & realistic characters with attention to local details;
wrote Friendly Persuasion (short stories); Cress Delahanty (short stories); Except for
Me & Thee; Leafy Rivers; & The Massacre of Fall Creek.
WEST, NATHANIEL – American novelist & screenwriter; known for satirical novels; his
work prefigured the existentialism & black humor of literature of the 1960’s; wrote The
Day of the Locust; A Cool Million; & Miss Lonelyhearts.
WHARTON, EDITH – American realistic novelist & short-story writer; her characters are
strangled by the social codes that constitute their privileged upbringings; wrote The
House of Mirth; Ethan Frome; The Custom of the Country; Summer; The Buccaneers;
Selected Poems; & The Age of Innocence.
WHEATLEY, PHYLLIS – African-American poet; a slave born in Africa; First AfricanAmerican poet & the second American woman poet of note; many of her poems
celebrated public events in the memory of a famous person; poetry in anthologies.
WHITE, E.B. (Elwyn Brooks) – American essayist, children’s writer, poet, journalist, &
literary stylist; his writings ranged from satire to children’s fiction; wrote One Man’s
Meat; The Elements of Style; Stuart Little; Charlotte’s Web; & the Trumpet of the Swan.
WHITMAN, WALT – American poet, essayist, & journalist; his poetry revolutionized
American literature & celebrated nature, the individual, freedom, & the kinship of
humanity; regarded as America’s greatest poet; wrote Leaves of Grass; When Lilacs
Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d; Civil War Poetry & Prose; The Civil War Reader; & poetry
in anthologies.
WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF – American poet & abolitionist; noted for his vivid &
truthful portrayals of rural New England life; used poetry to call an end to slavery; poetry
in anthologies.
WILDER, THORNTON NIVEN – American playwright, novelist & teacher; primarily
wrote plays; wrote philosophically about human conditions; considered as one of
America’s most important, versatile, & innovative writers; ranks as one of America’s top
dramatists; his writings were The Bridge of San Luis Rey; The Ides of March;
Theophilus North; Heaven’s My Destination; The Eighth Day; & Our Town.
WILLIAMS, TENNESSEE – American dramatist, short-story writer; & poet; his plays
were set in the South & examined the pained lives of isolated individuals; wrote The
Glass Menagerie; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Night of the
Iguana & Eight Plays; Memoirs; Plays, 1937-1955.
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM CARLOS – American poet, physician, & socialist; his poetry was
written in jazz like rhythm with themes of everyday life; believed American art should
reflect the American experience; poetry in anthologies.
WILSON, AUGUST – African-American playwright; known for his cycle of plays, each
set in a different decade of the 20th century, about African-American life; wrote Fences;
The Piano Lesson; & Joe Turner’s Come & Gone.
WISTER, OWEN – American western novelist; wrote The Virginian which helped to
establish the cowboy as a folk hero & stock fictional character.
WOLFE, THOMAS – American novelist, short-story writer, & playwright; his works were
autobiographical & highly respected by Beat Generation writers; wrote Look Homeward
Angel & You Can’t Go Home Again.
WOLFE, TOM – American modern novelist, journalist & social commentator; writes
about the changing economic & social seasons of American society; wrote The Bonfire
of Vanities; A Man in Full; I Am Charlotte Simmons; The Kandy-Kolored TangerineFlake; Hooking Up; The Pump House Gang; A Man in Full; & The Right Stuff.
WRIGHT, RICHARD – African-American novelist, short-story writer; & poet; his writings
were controversial & reflected the historic significance of segregation & racial
oppression in the U. S.; wrote Native Son; The Outsider; Rite of Passage; Early Works;
& Black Boy.
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Clute, John & John Grant, eds. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York, NY: St.
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