Chapter 1 Prominent Authors Flashcards
Louisa May Alcott
- Little Women is a famous nineteenth century American novel by Louisa May Alcott.
- It is set during and after the Civil War and tells the story of the March family, principally the four girls: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.
- The girls struggle and grow as a family while their father is serving in the war and learn the value of hard work, self-sacrifice, and love.
- Alcott wrote the story primarily to make money, never intending that it would sell so well.
- To this day, it remains a beloved classic of children’s literature for its comforting depiction of American domesticity and relatable characters.
Ray Bradbury
He wrote science fiction and fantasy in the 20th century with the Great Depression and WW2 as influences
He explores the human condition, morality, family, aliens, and what it means to be human.
Wrote Farenheit 451
Literary influences: Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke
Stephen Crane
Wrote the Red Badge of Courage and The Open Boat
The Red Badge of Courage showed off the real horrors of war
founders of Realism in American Lit
contributor to Naturalism and Impressionism
Daniel Defoe
A dissentor, didn’t believe in the Church of England
His earliest notable work is called An Essay upon Projects. It is sort of a manifesto about improving society.
He wrote the hugely successful poem called ‘The True-Born Englishman’ in support of King William III.
He wrote The True-Born Englishman, satirist poem used to defend King William 3rd from xenophobia
He wrote called ‘The Shortest Way with the Dissenters’, which was a satirical suggestion that the dissenters be violently suppressed.
He wrote Robinson Crusoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, and Moll Flanders
Fredrick Douglass
Frederick Douglass wrote and published three slave narratives: A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881).
The slave narrative is, essentially, a form of writing that grew out of a written recreation of the personal accounts and events of a slave over their lifetime.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalism, an artistic and philosophical movement of the mid-19th century that stressed the concept of universal unity and the value of intuitive over prescribed (i.e. rules, rituals, etc.) experiences
He also sparked the rush of literary and intellectual output in America during the mid-19th century, known as the American Renaissance.
Wrote Nature;Addresses, and Lectures, Brahma, and The Conduct of Life
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wrote This Side of Paradise during the Modernist movement, Post-WW1 disillusionment.
Closely associated with the Jazz Age and Modernism. He often wrote of socialites in the post-World War I era. His most notable novel is The Great Gatsby. Other novels include Tender Is the Night
S.E. Hinton
Hinton’s young adult novels address controversial and challenging issues that teens face, such as gang violence, drugs and alcohol, and growing up in a broken home.
Several of her novels, including That Was Then, This Is Now, The Outsiders, Tex, andRumble Fish have been made into films
Zora Neale Hurston
Writer during the Harlem Renaissance
Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is the story of Janie Crawford and her search for true love.
Through three marriages, Janie discovers not only what true love looks like, but she discovers herself, too.
The novel presents new ways of thinking of gender and race roles, which were different from what was expected at the time the book was written.
Nelle Harper Lee
Wrote to Kill a Mockingbird
Theme of racism
1930s Great Depression; the South
Jim Crow
James Baldwin/Toni Morrison/Alice Walker
James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are three strong voices in African-American literature and the civil rights movement.
Their writings focus on racism, the struggle for equality, the role of family and the abuse of women, representing not just the African American community but many themes for all society.
Their literature has become an example of the struggles of all people suffering because of mistreatment and prejudices.
Jack London
His memories of prospecting in the Yukon helped him write some of his most famous works (i.e. The Call of the Wild, ‘To Build a Fire’).
His experiences in this wilderness and those of his childhood made him a staunch supporter of the socialist political cause, one which he arguably defends in his novel, The Sea-Wolf.
Lois Lowry
Wrote Number the Stars
Nazi Occupation in Denmark during WW2
Theme of bravery, patriotism, and standing up for what is right
Herman Melville
Wrote Moby Dick
Wrote about the metaphysical, an attempt to explain the fundamentals of nature
also wrote about transcendentalism
Wrote about Dark Romanticism, characters who are trying to make life better for themselves, but self-destruct in the process because of the supernatural forces of evil.
George Orwell
Wrote Animal Farm
Tells of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Joseph Stalin
Theme of desire for power and class systems
