LibGuides: Literature: American Novelists & Novels

American Novelists

Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888): Topic Page U.S. novelist, noted for her children's books, especially Little Women (1869).
Truman Capote (1924 - 1984): Topic Page U.S. writer; his novels include Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) and In Cold Blood (1964), based on an actual multiple murder.
William Faulkner (1897 - 1962): Topic Page 1897-1962, US novelist, short-story writer, and poet; noted for The Sound and the Fury (1929) and As I Lay Dying (1930); Nobel prize for literature 1949.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940): Topic Page (Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald), 1896–1940, American novelist and short-story writer, b. St. Paul, Minn. He is ranked among the great American novelists.
Ernest Hemingway (1899 -1961): Topic Page U.S. novelist and short-story writer. His novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952): Nobel prize for literature 1954.
Stephen King (1947 - ): Topic Page Writer, born in Portland, Maine, USA. He graduated from his state university and continued to live in Maine, at first supporting himself with odd jobs while establishing his writing career.
Herman Melville (1819 - 1891): Topic Page 1819–91, American author, b. New York City, considered one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature.
Toni Morrison (1931 - ): Topic Page (2/18/1931–) Novels, criticism; editor In 1993, Toni Morrison became the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.
J. D. Salinger (1919 - 2010): Topic Page has gained prominence and cultlike acclaim from a large cross section of the American public on the basis of a rather limited literary output-one novel, three collections of novellas and short stories, and several additional uncollected short stories.
John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968): Topic Page 1902–68, American writer, b. Salinas, Calif., studied at Stanford. He is probably best remembered for his strong sociological novel The Grapes of Wrath.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910): Topic Page U.S. novelist and humorist, famous for his classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
Alice Walker (1944 - ): Topic Page American writer whose works include the novels Meridian (1976) and The Color Purple (1982), for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.

Notable Novels

Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
From The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English
Edith Wharton's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel describes the disillusionment of its thoughtful, conformist hero with the stifling manners and mores of 19th-century New York society.
Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1922. It depicts the complacency and materialism of George F. Babbitt, a real-estate agent and representative middle-class family man from the city of Zenith in the American Midwest.
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
From Brewer's Curious Titles
A novel (1961) by Joseph Heller (1923-99) about the experiences of Captain Yossarian of the 256th United States (Army) bombing squadron in Italy during the Second World War.
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
The only novel by the American writer Margaret Mitchell (1900-49), published in 1936 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the following year. An immediate best-seller, it has sold more than 25 million copies, been translated into 27 languages and inspired an enduringly popular film.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Non-fiction novel (1965) by US writer Truman Capote. Subtitled ‘A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences’, it was based on interviews and tells of the murder of a Kansas farming family in 1959.
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by Herman Melville, published in New York and London in 1851. The British title was The Whale. The highly complex story begins with the narrator Ishmael's decision to go to sea.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Novel (1876) by US author Mark Twain. It describes the childhood escapades of Tom Sawyer and his friends Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper in a small Mississippi community before the Civil War.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
From The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Novel by J.D. Salinger (1919-), about adolescence rather than for adolescents, and widely seen as a precursor of (or to blame for) probably the most common form of writing for young adults.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939 and awarded a Pulitzer Prize the following year. The novel tells the story of Oklahoma farmers who are driven off their land by soil erosion.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925.
The narrator, Nick Carraway, rents a cottage in West Egg, Long Island, next door to the mansion of Jay Gatsby and across the water from the home of Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy, Carraway's cousin.
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
From The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
A novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1926. The English edition which appeared the following year was entitled Fiesta. Set in the mid-1920s, it deals with the ‘lost generation’ of American and British expatriates who have settled in Paris, depicted here as a moral wasteland of drunkenness and promiscuity.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Novel by the US writer Harper Lee (born 1926) published in 1960. Set in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s, it is a dramatic depiction of racial tension and prejudice.