American Authors Project
Select an American Author – a writer of some literary (not just popular) acclaim whose
work you think you would value. This will be your junior research project so choose
carefully. Your outcome will take the form of MLA formatted research paper.
Your research paper should include the following:
Life of the author: Work with the material to express it in your own way (paraphrase).
Remember to give credit though to any works you use in your works cited page.
• Where is the author from?
• What was his or her social-economic status as a child – rich, poor, educated,
uneducated etc?
• What challenges did this person face while growing up?
• What privileges did this person enjoy while growing up?
• When did he or she begin writing?
• Why did he or she begin writing?
Times: Include information about the time in which this author lived and worked,
particularly any events or conditions that influenced his or her writing.
• What was happening in the United States and in the world at the time the author wrote?
Works:
Discuss three substantial works (full-length novels, poetry, or short story collections, fulllength plays). Write a summary of each. Explain what common theme the author uses
throughout his/her writing.
* What are some of his/her most famous titles?
* What genre is this author known for?
* What common theme does the author use throughout his/her novels/plays/poems?
Influence upon the literary world
To gain this understanding, you should read as much as possible by and about this author,
including biographical material and literary criticism. (Volumes of criticism and
biographies in the library and/or online should prove valuable.) We will meet with Mrs.
Pennington to review our resources.
 How did he/she influence the world around him/her?
 How did he/she influence other writers?
Works Cited: Use the correct MLA citation form you will be taught. Include a complete
bibliography as well at the very end (prior to the Works Cited page) The Works Cited
page should include anything that you used as research.
Choose an author from the list below. Once chosen, no other group can pick that author.
American Authors List
Louisa May Alcott
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kate Chopin
Willa Cather
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Emily Dickinson
Stephen Crane
Frederick Douglas
Bret Harte
Jack London
Herman Melville
Arthur Miller
Edgar Allan Poe
Mark Twain
Henry David Thoreau
Edith Wharton
Walt Whitman
Toni Morrison
Leslie Marmon Silko
William Faulkner
Flannery O’Connor
John Steinbeck
S.E. Hinton
Gary Paulsen
John Updike
Truman Capote
Alice Walker
Sylvia Plath
Joyce Carol Oates
James Baldwin
Sinclair Lewis
Pearl Buck
James Thurber
Ernest Hemingway
Dorothy Parker
Jack Kerouac
Anne Tyler
Washington Irving
Nora Zeale Hurston
James Fenmore Cooper
Langston Hughes
Sam Shepard
Ray Bradbury
Jodi Piccoult
Sharon Draper
Louise Lowry
Laurie Halse Anderson
Walter Dean Myers
Stephen King
See me about other American authors you are interested in.
Due dates to be announced