American

1

• American
• Authors
• A Brief Overview

2
Maya Angelou

• 1928 -
• poet, historian, author, actress, playwright,
  civil-rights activist, producer and director
• a groundbreaker for black women

3
James Baldwin

• 1924-1987
• Active in civil rights
• As an openly gay man, he became increasingly
  outspoken in condemning discrimination against
  lesbian and gay people

4
Ambrose Bierce

• 1842-1914 (?)
• author of supernatural stories
• developed the psychological aspects of horror
  first recognized by Poe
• tales of the Civil War

5
Pearl Buck

• 1892-1973
• Spent the majority of her life in China because
  parents were missionaries
• Primarily wrote about China and the Chinese
• Active in American civil rights and women's
  rights activities.
• In 1949, outraged that existing adoption services
  considered Asian and mixed-race children
  unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, the
  first international, inter-racial adoption agency

6
Kate Chopin

• 1858-1932
• She lived her life the way she wanted to and
  wrote what she felt, thought, and wanted to say
• Shunned for her novel The Awakening for its
  shocking adult content

7
Samuel Clemens

• 1835-1910
• AKA- Mark Twain
• gift for humorous writing
• Possible manic depressive

8
Stephen Crane

• 1871-1900
• The Red Badge of Courage called the first modern
  war novel
• Traveled to Greece, Cuba, Texas, Mexico

9
E.E. Cummings

• 1894-1962
• experimented radically with form, punctuation,
  spelling and syntax, abandoning traditional
  techniques and structures to create a new, highly
  idiosyncratic means of poetic expression
• Highly popular during his time

10
Emily Dickinson

• 1830-1886
• Raised in a strictly puritanical environment
• Grew away from her religious upbringing
• Isolated herself
• Wrote nearly 2,000 poems

11
W.E.B. DuBois

• 1868-1963
• an attacker of injustice and a defender of
  freedom
• Self-imposed exile to Africa
• Civil Rights Advocate

12
T. S. Eliot

• 1888-1965
• An interesting meld of traditionalism and
  modernity
• Eliot was a very private man and also forbade in
  his will an official biography

13
Ralph Ellison

• 1914-1994
• Named after Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Best known for The Invisible Man
• Criticized for not using his writing for
  propaganda

14
William Faulkner

• 1897-1962
• Drew and wrote at a very young age
• Was also a screenwriter in Hollywood

15
F. Scott Fitzgerald

• 1896-1940
• Second cousin three times removed of Francis
  Scott Key
• The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald
  were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda
  Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol

16
Ben Franklin

• 1706-1790
• a Boston-born inventor, statesman, patriot, and
  publisher
• Founded the first public library

17
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• 1860-1935
• Feminist
• The Yellow Wallpaper
• Suffered a nervous breakdown
• Committed suicide after learning she had cancer

18
Zane Grey

• 1872-1939
• the best-selling Western author of all time
• for most of the teens, 20s, and 30s, had a least
  one novel in the top ten every year

19
John Grisham

• 1955-
• Mississippi House of Representatives in 1983
• Noted for legal thrillers
• Recently working as a producer as well

20
Nathaniel Hawthorne

• 1804-1868
• Puritanical upbringing
• Noted for The Scarlet Letter
• His works remain notable for their treatment of
  guilt and the complexities of moral choices

21
Ernest Hemmingway

• 1899-1961
• larger-than-life reputation as a robust,
  belligerent American hero who sought to
  experience violence as well as write about it
• Married four times
• alcoholic

22
Bob Hope

• 1903-2003
• Authored and co-authored 10 books
• Lived a life of laughter and joy

23
Langston Hughes

• 1902-1967
• Raised in an abolitionist family
• Loved the blues and jazz

24
Washington Irving

• 1783-1859
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Ambassador to Spain

25
Helen Keller

• 1880-1968
• Lost her hearing and vision at 19 months old due
  to meningitis
• Wrote 12 books
• The first blind deaf person to effectively
  communicate with the sighted hearing world

26
Martin Luther King, Jr.

• 1929-1968
• Civil Rights Advocate

27
Stephen King

• 1947-
• King of Horror

28
Harper Lee

• 1926-
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Friends with Truman Capote

29
Jack London

• 1876-1916
• Posed great questions about life and death
• Considered handsome and romantic

30
Malcolm X

• 1925-1966
• Was a dancer, musician, drug dealer, drug user,
  and thief
• Became educated in Jail and was introduced to the
  Nation of Islam
• Was murdered

31
Herman Melville

• 1819-1891
• His own life at sea inspired him in his writing
• The Civil War made a deep impression on him

32
Arthur Miller

• 1915-
• Addresses social realism
• Once was married to Marilyn Monroe
• Death of a Salesman

33
Toni Morrison

• 1931-
• Focuses on African- Americans, especially women
• uses fantasy and mythic elements along with
  realistic depiction of racial, gender and class
  conflict

34
Sylvia Plath

• 1932-1963
• Diagnosed as bipolar
• The Bell Jar and numerous poems
• Committed suicide

35
Edgar Allen Poe

• 1809-1849
• Served in the military
• Alcohol had a severe effect on his personality
• Death is a mystery

36
Ezra Pound

• 1885-1972
• Was arrested for defending fascism but pled
  guilty
• Considered responsible for the revival of English
  poetry in the early 1900s

37
Upton Sinclair

• 1878-1968
• novelist, essayist, playwright, and short story
  writer, whose most famous book is The Jungle
• Ran for governor of California but lost

38
Gary Soto

• 1952-
• an author true to his Hispanic heritage and
  culture
• Used some family members in his stories
• Most stories are about economically disadvantaged
  people

39
John Steinbeck

• 1902-1969
• social novels dealing with the economic problems
  of rural labour
• Of Mice and Men

40
Harriet Beecher Stowe

• 1811-1896
• Uncle Toms Cabin
• Was from Kentucky, a slave state, but spoke
  against slavery
• President Lincoln referred to her as, "the little
  lady who made this big war"

41
Amy Tan

• 1952-
• Rebelled against parents traditional roles
• Yet they inspired much of her writing
• The Joy Luck Club

42
Jean Toomer

• 1894-1967
• Lived in a racially diverse environment
• Sought to not live by racial groups but as
  Americans

43
Booker T. Washington

• 1859-1915
• Born as a slave
• After set free, he worked hard to become educated
• Helped African Americans raise themselves up from
  economic slumps
• Argues the portrayal of African American in
  movies

44
William Carlos William

• 1883-1963
• American thought, speech, and experience shown
  through poetry
• Medical history influenced some work

45
Richard Wright

• 1908-1960
• One of the first African American writers to
  achieve literary fame and fortune
• Born on a plantation
• Had ties to the Communist Party until 1944

46
Theodor Seuss Geisel

• 1904-1991
• Worked for a humor magazine
• Cat in the Hat written in concern for child
  illiteracy