American Literature

American literature doesn’t have such a long history, like British literature, but despite of that it’s
filled by works of excellent writers and poets.

The early American literature and the 19th century

The first significant pieces were written during 1700s, when the British settlers arrived in North
America, resulting conflicts with Native Americans as the colonists were taking their land. This part of
American history is described in the book from the following century, The Last of Mohicans by James
Fennimore Cooper.

Also, Almanacs became very popular for their weather forecasts, calendars, puzzles and games. In
1732, Benjamin Franklin began producing Poor Richard’s Almanac.

In the 19th century, a variety of writers were busy during this period. Edgar Allan Poe could be
considered the father of horror and detective stories. When he was three, he became orphan, but he
was taken in by wealthy Allan family. His young wife died from tuberculosis, which led him to
alcoholism. His famous stories are The Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat or The Raven.

On the other hand, Herman Melville used his real live experience as a sailor to write novels like Moby
Dick, about an obsessive hunt for a white whale. Mark Twain, an entertaining writer, introduced
Americas to what life was like along the Mississippi River in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn.

America’s two greatest 19th-century poets were Walt Whitman, who used free verse and celebrated
nature and human-self, and Emily Dickinson, who wrote short poems about love, death and God.

Literature of the 20th century

The biggest movement of the first half of the 20 th century was “The Lost Generation”. The term is
used of authors, who came back from World War I. and they usually write about it in their stories.
Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway served as a war correspondent in WWI and the Spanish Civil
War and wrote many novels and short stories like A Farwell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea.

Books by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, like The Great Gatsby, were about social problems, like prohibition,
and they described people trying to follow the “American Dream” to become wealthy and respected
in society.

John Steinbeck captured the time of the Great Depression. In his books, like Grapes of Wrath and Of
Mice and Men, wrote about poor working-class people and their struggle to lead a decent life during
the Depression.

Other authors from this period are Joseph Heller and his black comedy about military life, Catch-22,
and William Styron, who described the devastating impact of war in Sophie’s Choice. The main
character is a Polish woman who, while imprisoned in a concentration camp, was forced to decide
which of her two children would survive and which would be killed.

The 1950’s gave birth to a literary movement known as the “Beat Generation”. Authors rejected
traditional society and looked for new experience through drugs and jazz music. Jack Kerouac
celebrated the life style in his book On the Road, describing his road trip across America.
Ken Kesey gained fame with his first book, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a story of a man who
pretends to be mad in order to imprisonment and is shocked by the inhuman conditions in a mental
hospital. It was made into an Oscar-winning movie directed by Miloš Forman.

J.D.Salinger made a name for himself with The Catcher in the Rye, a story of a troubled teenager who
runs away from school and goes to New York and experiences situations, like meeting prostitute or
being molested by his ex-high school teacher.

My favourite book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was written by American writer and producer
Stephen Chbosky. It is about a boy who is suffering from depression, meeting new friends and trying
alcohol, cigarettes and drugs for the first time.

My reading experience