American Authors

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, short-story 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, & African-American 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.