AMERICAN AUTHORS

AAGEE, 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.CCALDWELL, (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. DDeLILLO, 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.FFAULKNER, 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 19 th Century , a tract on feminism.GGAINES, 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. HHALEY, 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. IIRVING, 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.JJAMES, 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. KKANTOR, 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 authoritarianismof 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.LL’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 hard-boiled 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; wroteRosemary’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 Sea-Wolf; 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. MMcCAFFREY, 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.NNABOKOV, 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. OOATES, 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 symbol-laden 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.

PPAINE, 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 & self-destruction 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. RRAND, 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.SSALINGER, 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, & self-styled 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. TTAN, 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. UUPDIKE, 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.VVIDAL, 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).WWALKER, 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 African-American 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 Tangerine-Flake; 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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