Famous American Authors
18th Century
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance1732-1750 / Ben Franklin / Poor Richard’s Almanack / Various thoughts, advice, meteorology
1776 / Thomas Paine / Common Sense / Arguments for Independence; helped pushed the colonies towards independence
The Crisis / Arguments for committing to the Revolution; keeping the cause
1788 / Alexander Hamilton
James Madison
John Jay / The Federalist Papers / Series of essays to argue for ratification of the Constitution; used today to assist in interpreting the Constitution.
The Antebellum Period and the Transcendentalists
The first uniquely American literature that embraced the nationalism of the post War of 1812 Era
1789-1851 / James Fenimore Cooper / The Last of the Mohicans / Influenced popular opinion about Indians and the frontier. Romanticized the resourceful frontiersman as well as the stoic, wise, and noble Indians.1845 / Edgar Allen Poe / The Raven / Many antebellum writers wrestled with the conviction that American literature and culture were not living up to their Revolutionary and democratic promises, and many of these writers incited and participated in various efforts at reform. But during this time, there were also a variety of notions about what constituted reform.
1850 / Nathaniel Hawthorne / The Scarlett Letter
1851 / Herman Melville / Moby Dick
1868 / Louisa May Alcott / Little Women
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance
1837 / Ralph Waldo Emerson / The American Scholar / Transcendentalism was never really a formalized movement, but its principles certainly inspired the writings of Thoreau, and Whitman, among others. It emphasized the creative powers of the individual mind, the regenerative value of nature, the limits of historical associations and traditions, the stultifying effects of established institutions, and the mystical glories of infancy and childhood. Writers such as Hawthorne and Melville were influenced by Transcendentalism when they grappled with the difficulties of making sense of a universe in which meaning derives from individual creative insights rather than received authority.
1841 / Various Essays
1849 / Henry David Thoreau / On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
1854 / Walden: Or Life in the Woods
1855 / Walt Whitman / Leaves of Grass
1865 / O Captain! My Captain!
The Abolitionists
1831 / William Lloyd Garrison / The Liberator (newspaper) / White abolitionist; Argued for immediate emancipation1845-1849 / Frederick Douglass / The North Star (newspaper) / Escaped slave who became leader of the abolitionist movement; Argued for an end to slavery
1852 / Harriet Beecher Stowe / Uncle Tom’s Cabin / Widely read and distributed fictional story about slavery; helped to convince more northerners of the evils of slavery.
The Gilded Age
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance1881 / Helen Hunt Jackson / A Century of Dishonor / Cataloged the history of US-Indian relations and led to a political effort by humanitarians seeking more just policies towards Indian tribes.
1895 / Booker T. Washington / The Atlanta Exposition (speech) / Speech in which Washington urged African-Americans to seek a vocational education and not directly challenge segregation. His theory was challenged by WEB du Bois.
1876 / Mark Twain / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Twain’s most enduring works—Huckleberry Finn and TheAdventures of Tom Sawyer—sprang from his own childhoodadventures in small town America. Twain’s writing, often considered humorous and entertaining,was in fact full of social criticism. Twain tackledthe big issues of the day, such as racism and economicinjustices, using humor to get his ideas across.
1884 / The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1890 / Alfred T. Mahan / The Influence of Sea Power upon History / Argued that naval power was key to world dominance; Led to the build up of the US Navy.
1890 / Jacob Riis / How the Other Half Lives / Expose of the terrible conditions in the cities and slums; helped encourage urban reform (common theme in the Progressive Era)
1893 / Frederick Jackson Turner / The Significance of the Frontier in American History (lecture) / Major historical theory of the 1890s that American have been defined by a movement to a frontier (written at a time when the US Census Bureau declared in 1890 that the frontier was “closed”)
1893 / Steven Crane / The Red Badge of Courage / Epic of the Civil War Era (secondary source)
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance
1900 / Theodore Dreiser / Sister Carrie / Story of a poor girl working in the cities (Beginning of the Progressive Era)
1902 / Lincoln Steffens / The Shame of the Cities (Magazine Article) / Muckraker who exposed urban problems like Jacob Riis and other muckrakers
1903 / Jack London / The Call of the Wild / Helped promote a growing conservation movement later championed by Theodore Roosevelt
1906 / Upton Sinclair / The Jungle / Exposed poor sanitation in the meatpacking industry and led directly to food and drug regulation by the federal government
Other Muckrakers:
Ida Tarbell
David Phillips / These muckrakers exposed critical social and economic problems that led to direct government intervention and thus, the Progressive Movement. This new type of journalism was made possible by the increasing amount of magazines and newspapers that resulted from technological enhances to the printing press (“yellow journalism”)
1920s / Langston Hughes / Not Without Laughter
Various Poems / Famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance: a literary and cultural movement that promoted African American pride, especially in urban dwellings.
1920’s Literature and the Great Depression
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance1920 / F. Scott Fitzgerald / This Side of Paradise / Early 1920s literature often represented disillusionment with society as a result of the psychological shock of World War I. Some simply assessed the changing social values of the 1920s through fictional stories.
1925 / The Great Gatsby
1926 / Ernest Hemingway / The Sun Also Rises
1929 / Farewell to Arms
1922 / Sinclair Lewis / Babbit
1930 / William Faulkner / As I Lay Dying
1939 / John Steinbeck / Grapes of Wrath / Novel about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s
Post World War II Literature
Date (of work) / Author / Work / Significance1945 / Dr. Benjamin Spock / The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care / An instruction manual for parents; shaped many of the child-rearing beliefs of the 1950s.
1949 / Arthur Miller / Death of a Salesman / Tragedy about a man pursuing the American dream in the 1940s.
1953 / The Crucible (Play) / Play about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, often considered to be written as an attack on the McCarthy Era.
1949 / George Orwell / 1984 / Though an English author, his book portrayed a “big brother” government run society in the year 1984.
1951 / J.D. Salinger / The Catcher in the Rye / Portrayed themes of adolescence, sexuality and conflicts with the predominant theme of conformity in the 1950s.
1956 / William H. Whythe Jr. / The Organization Man / Very influential book about the workplace, suburbs and the relationship to people’s lives.
1962 / Rachel Carson / Silent Spring / Exposed problems of water quality and contamination by pesticides – led directly to the environmental movement of the 1960s-1970s and federal government regulation and regulatory agencies (i.e. EPA)
1963 / Betty Friedan / The Feminine Mystique / Led directly to the modern feminist movement of the 1960s-1970s.