The most famous American writer. American literature of the first half of the 20th century

Instructions

Perhaps the first American writer to acquire world renown, became a poet and, at the same time, the founder of the detective genre Edgar Allan Poe. A deep mystic by nature, Edgar Poe did not at all look like an American. Perhaps that is why his work, not finding followers in the writer's homeland, had noticeable influence on the European literature the modern era.

Great place US occupies adventure novels, which are based on the development of the continent and the relationship of the first settlers with the indigenous population. The largest representatives of this direction were James Fenimore Cooper, who wrote a lot and fascinatingly about the Indians and the clashes with them American colonists, Mine Reed, in whose novels masterly combine love line and detective-adventure intrigue, and Jack London, praising the courage and courage of the pioneers of the harsh lands of Canada and Alaska.

One of the finest American 19th century writers is the eminent satirist Mark Twain. His works such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "The Connecticut Yankees at the Court of King Arthur" are read with equal interest by both young and adult readers.

Henry James lived in Europe for many years, but he has not ceased to be an American writer. In his novels "The Wings of the Dove", "The Golden Chalice" and others, the writer showed the naive and simple-minded Americans, who often fall prey to the intrigues of insidious Europeans.

The work of Harriet Beecher-Stowe, whose anti-racist novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", largely contributed to the liberation of blacks, stands apart in the American 19th century.

The first half of the 20th century could be called the American Renaissance. At this time, such wonderful authors as Theodore Dreiser, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway create their works. Dreiser's first novel, Sister Carrie, whose heroine achieves success at the cost of losing her best human qualities, at first seemed immoral to many. Based on crime chronicle the novel "American Tragedy" became the story of the collapse of the "American Dream."

The works of the king of the "jazz era" (a term coined by him) Francis Scott Fitzgerald are largely based on autobiographical motives. First of all, this refers to the magnificent novel Tender is the Night, where the writer told the story of his difficult and painful relationship with his wife Zelda. Fitzgerald showed the collapse of the "American Dream" in the famous novel "The Great Gatsby".

A tough and courageous perception of reality distinguishes creativity nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway. Among the most outstanding works writer - the novels "Farewell to Arms!", "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "The Old Man and the Sea".

September 24 - 120th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous American writers, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. It is also one of the most difficult to understand, although at first the brilliance of the parties described is blinded to the eyes and mind of the reader, there are deep moral and social problems behind it. The editors of YUGA.ru, together with the Chitai-Gorod bookstore chain, have selected six more iconic works for this date, which will help to look at America and Americans with different eyes.

"The Great Gatsby" - great romance, but neither in the life nor in the soul of his protagonist there is greatness, there are only sparkling illusions "which give the world such brilliance that, having experienced this magic, a person becomes indifferent to the concept of true and false." Mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby had already lost them and with them lost the opportunity to feel the taste of life and love again - and yet all their treasures were at his feet.

The reader is presented with the America of "dry law", gangsters, life-changers and brilliant parties to the music of Duke Ellington. The same "jazz age" magnificent century, when it still seemed that all desires were fulfilled, and a star from the sky could be reached without even standing on tiptoe.

The portrait of the main character of the "Trilogy of Desire" cycle, Frank Cowperwood, is largely copied from a real person, millionaire Charles Yerkes, and in the last few years viewers around the world have been following life central figure the series "House of Cards", Frank Underwood. It can be assumed that even the name "great and terrible" the president borrowed from the character created by Dreiser. His whole life revolves around success, he is a calculating financier and builds his empire, using everything and everyone for his own purposes. This is exactly how, "The Financier", is the name of the first novel of the trilogy, where we see how the personality of a calculating businessman was formed, who is ready, without hesitation, to step over the law and moral principles if they become an obstacle in his path.

The most acutely social and accusatory book ever written in the United States and about the United States, The Grapes of Wrath affects the reader, perhaps no less than Solzhenitsyn's texts. The cult novel was first published in 1939, won the Pulitzer Prize, and the author himself was awarded the Nobel Prize on literature. A portrait of a nation in one of the most difficult periods in history, the Great Depression, is drawn through the story of a farm family that, after being ruined, is forced to leave its place and look for food on a grueling journey across the country on the very "Route 66". Like thousands, hundreds of thousands of other people, they go to sunny California for a ghostly hope, but even greater difficulties, hunger and death await them.

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper ignites. Bradbury's philosophical dystopia paints a picture of a post-industrial society: this is the world of the future, in which all written publications are mercilessly destroyed by a special squad of firefighters, book keeping is prosecuted by law, interactive television successfully serves universal fooling, punitive psychiatry decisively deals with rare dissidents, and in the hunt for incorrigible an electric dog comes out. Today, in Russia in 2016, the relevance of the novel published in 1953 (already 63 years ago!) Is great as never before - in different parts of the country homegrown censors are raising their heads, who are trying to limit freedom of speech precisely by destroying and banning books.

Jack London's life was just as romantic - at least if we consider his biography through a certain lyrical prism - and filled with events, like his novels, and "Martin Eden" is considered the pinnacle of his work. This work is about a man who achieved recognition of his talent in society, but was deeply disappointed in that respectable bourgeois stratum that finally accepted him. In the words of the writer himself, this is "the tragedy of a loner trying to instill truth in the world." A truly timeless work and a hero, whose feelings are understandable to the reader on any continent and in any era.

One of the most difficult to comprehend, but at the same time incredibly interesting and multifaceted authors, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, mixing genres and always leaving the reader with uncertainty - what exactly he just read, was it not an appeal to him through the pages of the book and what is it talking about. In "Breakfast for Champions" the author surprisingly subtly and accurately destroys stereotypes of perception, showing us a person and life on Earth with a detached gaze, looking as if from another planet, where they do not know what an apple or a weapon is. Main character, the writer Kilgore Trout is both the author's alter ego and his interlocutor, he is about to receive literary prize... At the same time, someone who read his novel (this character, Dwayne Hoover, played by Bruce Willis in the 1999 film adaptation), slowly goes crazy, taking everything written in it at face value and losing touch with reality - as they begin to doubt the reader is in it.

In the first novel by John Updike in the series of books about the Rabbit, Harry Engstrom - and this is precisely his nickname - is a young man who has already been smashed by the rosy glasses of his youth by inexorable reality. From the star of the school basketball team, he became a husband and father, forced to work in a supermarket to provide for his family. He is not able to come to terms with this and starts "on the run". Updike and Kerouac seem to be talking about the same people, but in a different tone - so those who read the work of the last "On the Road" will be interested in moving from beatnik literature to complex psychological prose, and those who have not read will undoubtedly get a lot pleasure by switching attention and plunging even deeper into the same topic.

Ahab never thinks, he only feels, he only feels; this is enough for every mortal. To think is insolence. This right, this privilege belongs to God alone. Thinking should be cool and calm, and our poor hearts are pounding too hard, our brains are too hot for that.

"Moby Dick" - central piece American romanticism. The epic story of Captain Ahab's furious, bordering madness hatred for the white sperm whale is full of Christian allusions and subtle metaphors. Through them, the entire spectrum of man's relationship with God, the natural element and himself is revealed.

In addition to its deep philosophical implications, the novel is valuable from a cultural and historical point of view. No fiction book tells you as much about whaling as Melville's novel.

Love can't go astray if only this true love, not a frail freak stumbling and falling at every turn.

The strongest and deep romance London can be called partly autobiographical: the writer and Martin Eden have a lot in common. Perhaps that is why the book is so fascinating and philosophically problematic. The author tried to find answers to questions that worried him during his life.

Martin Eden is the most curious attempt in American literature to combine European Nietzschean ethics with current religious and socio-humanistic teachings. The novel gives an exact answer why it is pointless to wait for the arrival of a superman. From either side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Financial activity is the same art, the most complex set of actions of intellectual and selfish people.

The cycle "Trilogy of Desire" includes three works: "The Financier", "Titan" and "Stoic". The novels are linked by a single storyline and tells the story of the life of Frank Cowperwood, a successful capitalist of the early 20th century.

Dreiser not only gives the broadest panorama of the socio-economic life of the United States at the turn of the century, but also reveals the moral and ethical problems of the capitalist world. The world in which we all live today.

Whoever wins a war will never stop fighting.

In one of the most famous novels Hemingway's intertwined themes of war and humanism. A pure, light feeling between an American soldier and an English nurse arises in the face of a ruthless meat grinder. In her, the feelings are destined to go out.

This anti-war novel is a prominent representative of literature " lost generation". After reading it, you are imbued with such a strong aversion to death that people sow that you understand that literature is the most effective means against war.

A person merges into one with the place where he lives.

The Great Depression in the United States led to an acute shortage of jobs, which forced residents of poor states to migrate to more affluent areas in search of food. One such family who was looking for better life, and the novel "Grapes of Wrath" is narrated.

The miserable, bordering beggarly existence of American farmers is shocking and creates completely unexpected image America. The novel reveals the reality of the Great Depression, which cannot be found in the pages of any textbook on.

The boredom was terrible. And there was nothing to do but drink and smoke.

Salinger's novel has a huge cultural impact. He is almost the most famous work modernity. What made it so popular?

The answer is quite obvious: Salinger (in which they found a place and not the most censorship expressions) sharply and directly expressed the position of youthful rejection public values... Each of us went through the stage of this rejection, but each ultimately became a prisoner of the life imposed on him.

This book is a longing for a better world so far from the real with its paradoxes, nonsense and complexities.

But what is generally sacred to Bokonists?

In any case, as far as I know, not even a god.

So nothing?

Only one.

Ocean? The sun?

Person. That's all. Just a man.

Any novel by a writer can rightfully be on this list. No one has comprehended the 20th century better than Vonnegut.

The madness and irrationality that ruled at this time reveal their existence in horror. Any war in general. What is the meaning of ethics, morality, religion, if the history of mankind is the history of wars and murders?

People weave their story like tying strings around their fingers. Let this design be called "Cat's Cradle". Why? What's the difference, because there is no cat in the cradle, as well as the point in historical process, not really.

Modern American literature is a whole army interesting authors and a sea of ​​various books. It's very easy to get lost here. Together with MTS Mobile Library, we have compiled a guide to the most important writers in the United States right now. Of course, not all of them were included in the list.

JONATHAN FRANZEN

Why is he on our list. Franzen is called one of the most important writers of modern America. It takes the reader back to form great novel, ignoring that it is not very fashionable now. To understand Franzen a little, it is worth knowing that he chooses Faulkner over Hemingway, admires Tolstoy and proudly considers Nabokov an American writer. Jonathan Franzen received the prestigious National Book Prize for his novel Amendments.

Of course it is "Sinlessness" ... Odyssey of a young girl named Purity, who did not know her father and is trying to find him. In her search, she is helped and hindered by Internet libertarian Andreas Wolf, freelance journalist Tom Aberant and paranoid mother Anabel.

Cost in Mobile library MTS :

Other important books Franzena

"Amendments"- America, 1990s. The Lambert family, whose head suffers from Parkinson's disease, gets together at Christmas to unwittingly arrange the usual family squabbles.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 4 rubles if read in 20 days.

"Liberty"- America, already in the 2000s, behind 9/11. Walter and Patti Berglund try to save their marriage and reflect in their search for freedom.

Cost in Mobile library MTS :

DON DELILLO

Why is he on our list. Famed critic Harold Bloom (the one who ridiculed Stephen King for his National Book Prize) named Don DeLillo as one of the most important American writers of his time, along with Pynchon, Roth and McCarthy.

In his youth, he read Faulkner and Hemingway a lot (they are usually opposed to each other), began to write in order not to work, and eventually became a famous postmodern writer. Don DeLillo was a resounding success for his novel White Noise - 1985 National Book Award.

His Great American Novel

Novels equally claim this role "White noise" and "Scales"... Let's dwell on the latter, because this book is about "seven seconds that broke the back of America" ​​- the Kennedy assassination. The book tells the stories of Lee Harvey Oswald, CIA agents plotting a fake assassination attempt on JFK (conspiracy theories!) And archivist Nicholas Branch investigating the murder.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

Other important books by DeLillo

"White noise" - satirical story about the professor of Hitler studies, who is terribly afraid of death, and also exposure in his "scientific" discipline. DeLillo's scope also includes TV, religion, supermarkets, etc.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

"Falling"- one of the first attempts in American literature to comprehend the tragedy of 9/11. The hero sees the towers fall and is forced to live on with this catastrophic experience.

KORMAK MACCARTY

Why is he on our list. Thanks to McCarthy, Javier Bardem played one of his best roles- psychopath Anton Chigurah in the Coen brothers' thriller No Country for Old Men. McCarthy, of course, wrote the novel of the same name. To be serious, Cormac McCarthy is one of America's most venerable writers, often referred to as Faulkner's heir.

His books are in a variety of top 100 best novels in English. McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road. Horses, Horses has won a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Award.

His Great American Novel

"Bloody meridian" - the brutal story of a teenager who joined a gang of thugs on the US-Mexican border. War against everyone: Indians, Mexicans, Rangers, each other. A harsh novel about the nature of violence.

Other important books by McCarthy

"Horses, Horses" - seemingly a novel about a young cowboy who rushed to Mexico from West Texas after the death of his grandfather. In fact, the book is about growing up and testing the spirit.

"Road"- a hopeless post-apocalyptic. Father and son try to cross former America destroyed by the cataclysm to reach the sea.

Cost in Mobile library MTS :

MICHAEL SHABON

Why is he on our list. Shabon is equally good at psychological novels, detective stories, science fiction - he turns all this into a unique intellectual prose. The novels The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (first) and The Wunderkinds (second) were filmed, and it’s a shame it hasn’t happened with The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay yet.

Michael Chabon invented the Jewish colony in Alaska and won two major science fiction awards, Hugo and Nebula, for his novel The Union of Jewish Policemen. And the novel about Cavalier and Clay earned him the well-deserved Pulitzer Prize and the American PEN / Faulkner Literary Prize. Yes, even Chabon had a hand in the movie "Spider-Man 2", becoming a screenwriter.

His Great American Novel

"The Incredible Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" - a novel about the American dream, which the heroes are trying to achieve. Joseph Cavalier flees the Nazis in a coffin with a golem, his cousin Sammy draws comics in New York. Two geeks come up with a cartoon character Escapist who fights Hitler and begin their conquest of America's comics industry.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

Other important books by Chabon

"Union of Jewish Policemen" - inseparable friends, detectives Meir Landsman and Berko Shemets, investigate the murder of a famous chess player. This is happening in Jewish Alaska.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 2 rubles if read in 10 days.

"Moonlight" - the memories of Shabon's grandfather, turned into literature. The protagonist takes part in the Second World War, hunts for German rocket scientists and Wernher von Braun, collaborates with NASA, falls in love with a Jewish girl ... Sheybon's very personal book.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

STEVEN KING

Why is he on our list. Stephen King looks closely at nature in his books an ordinary person, not always attractive. And if you want to consider him a writer in the horror genre, then you run the risk of following a not very clever stereotype.

It is simply pointless to list all the awards and achievements of King, there are too many of them. Let's just say that in 2003 he received the Medal for Outstanding Contribution to American Literature (US National Book Award).

His Great American Novel

"Hearts in Atlantis" - a piercing book, deliberately assembled from stories-fragments. The girl, whom the hero of the first story saves from hooligans, grows into a rebellious student. She appears in the second novella of the novel, the most American one, where King described the 1970s student campus, the lives of young Americans and the protests against Vietnam. Looping the story, King brings the heroes together again in the finale ...

King's other important books

"It"- an amazing story about childhood friendship, which is destined to undergo cruel tests. After all, the terrifying monster wants everyone to go flying.

"Confrontation" - When the world collapses from the flu epidemic, Randall Flagg, the "black man", the dark messiah will appear on the stage. But many Americans will not be willing to submit to him.

DONNA TARTT

Why is she on our list. Donna Tartt writes her novels every ten years. In total, she published three books: “ Secret history"(1992)," Little friend"(2002) and" Goldfinch "(2013). But despite their small number, Donna Tartt has already taken an important place in American literature. Her novels have been compared to the books of Shakespeare, Dickens and Umberto Eco (at first glance, rather strange). Tartt immerses the reader, as she herself says, in gleeful, greedy reading.

The last novel brought the writer the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Best art book in USA.

This "Goldfinch"- adventure romance and parenting romance in one. Young Theo Decker loses his mother in an explosion at a New York Museum. From this begins his wanderings through families, cities and times. Throughout his life, Theo has been accompanied by the painting "The Goldfinch", which he, for some inexplicable reason, stole from the museum after the explosion.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 5 rubles if read in 25 days.

Two other important books of Tartt

"Secret History" - an adult hero recalls a strange murder in a college that destroyed a group of friends.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 4 rubles if read in 20 days.

"Little friend" - an example of American "southern gothic" in the modern version. Young Harriet tries to solve the mystery tragic death younger brother which happened when she was three years old.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 4 rubles if read in 20 days.

THOMAS PINCHON

Why is he on our list. Because he wrote "The Rainbow of Gravity." In principle, this turned out to be enough to stake out a place for himself in eternity. Pynchon was rumored to have attended Nabokov's seminar at Cornell University. And also for a long time they thought about him that he was Salinger, so well Pynchon kept his incognito.

Pynchon's favorite themes are entropy, paranoia, conspiracy theories, opposition to the System. Pynchon was heavily influenced by postmodernism and cyberpunk romance. By the way, they decided not to give him the 1974 Pulitzer Prize - his "Rainbow" was considered unreadable and obscene. Pynchon did not accept the National Book Award for the novel himself, sending a pop comedian to the presentation.

His Great American Novel

Despite everything, this is not "Rainbow" (for this it is too complex and cosmopolitan), but "Congenital defect" ... America of the early 1970s, detective with a hippie past Doc Sportello is looking for ex-girlfriend and her rich admirer. The classic confrontation between the outsider and the System.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

Other important books by Pynchon

"The rainbow of gravity" - complex plot is built around the search for a mysterious "black block" for the FAU-2 rocket numbered 00000. "Rainbow" is considered the most complex postmodern novel of the 20th century.

"Shouting out Lot 49" - confrontation between the two postal companies Thurn und Taxis and Trystero. The latter, fictitious, is considered the prototype of the Internet and e-mail.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

TOM WOLF

Why is he on our list. He is great at wearing white suit! In fact, Tom Wolfe is bright Star American documentary, prose and journalism. Moreover, he practically invented the "new journalism", perceiving the newspaper genre as a real art.

He wrote about cool non-fiction, about the American auto industry during its heyday, the genius Ken Kesey and the hippie commune "Merry Pranksters", the space battle between Americans and Russians. The author of four novels, the last one was written in 2012. Winner of the National Book Fund Medal for Contribution to US Literature.

His Great American Novel

"Bonfires of ambition" - a bright canvas depicting New York of the 1980s, and at the same time a novel affecting social problem racism and social stratification. A stockbroker and his mistress accidentally run over a teenager in the black ghetto, and he dies. The culprits hide the accident, but the terrible secret cannot be kept secret ...

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

Other important books by Wolfe

"Voice of the Blood" - the book describes modern Miami, where immigrants from all over the world mingle. In the center of the plot is a policeman who is forced to balance between the law and the interests of his diaspora.

"Electrocooling acid test" - a story about the life of Ken Kesey from 1958 to 1966 and his influence on the American subculture, in particular hippies. A masterpiece of new journalism.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 2 rubles if read in 10 days.

JENNIFER EGAN

Why is she on our list. Jennifer Egan is considered one of the most interesting modern American writers, although she has written not much (note, more Donna Tartt). Egan started out with short stories for The New york er and New York Times magazine. The debut novel "Invisible Circus" was filmed with Cameron Diaz in the title role.

In 2010, Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for Time Laughs Last.

Her Great American Novel

"Time laughs last" - the youth of the heroes coincided with the birth of punk-rock, and today they are already over forty. Lucky producer and frustrated punk rocker Benny Salazar continues his run in the circle of rock music, breakaway, touring, etc. But time does not lag behind the heroes a step.

Other important books by Egan

"Citadel"- the story of cousins ​​who met twenty years later. One of them has changed a lot and now invited the second to restore the neglected mansion he had bought. old lock promises many surprises for the brothers.

"Invisible circus" (not yet translated) - the young heroine goes to Portugal in the footsteps of her older hippie sister, who unexpectedly committed suicide for everyone.

WILLIAM GIBSON

Why is he on our list. Of course, he's here primarily because of the Neuromancer and the graceful, unique style. The aforementioned novel became the "New Testament of Cyberpunk" (according to Timothy Leary), in fact, gave birth to this genre, unleashed literary war with American science fiction humanists. "Neuromant" has collected all the significant awards in science fiction: Hugo, Nebula, Philip Dick Award, Australian Ditmar and Japan Seiun Award.

To Gibson's credit, he shook the dust of cyberpunk off his feet as the genre began to die and moved on to futuristic prose exploring new media, technology, religions, and more. He owns famous saying: "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed."

His Great Post-American Novel

"Peripherals" , last novel a writer. Gibson's America no longer exists as a single state. The heroine Flynn and her brother Burton, a veteran of the local war, are forced to earn money as a semi-legal freelance in online games. One such game turns out to be not a game at all, but another reality, the inhabitants of which manipulate people in our world.

Cost in Mobile library MTS : 3 rubles if read in 15 days.

Other important Gibson books

The whole trilogy "Cyberspace" , including "Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Mona Lisa overdrive": infomatrix hacks, illegal technologies, cyber war with corporations and yakuza, bioimplants, etc.

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American writers- the authors who created American literature, the youngest literature in the world. Appearing in late XVIII century, it began to develop rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries. This literature is steeped in the romanticism of creating a new world, a new person and new relationships. The list of the most famous American writers and their works is far from complete, but we are working ... If you have read any work and you really liked it, then let us know and we will publish it on the site.

Their best books, stories and stories can be read in Russian and in English. We also offer to watch the best film adaptations of works. For English learners, there are short adapted stories, films with subtitles and cartoons in English, and free lessons in English online.

American writers and their works (classics)

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

Full of mysticism and adventurism, stories about the American pioneers from the founder of American literature, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in English and Russian.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Read best stories the representative of American romanticism and the ancestor of the modern detective - Edgar Poe, the author poems "The Raven"(). The most famous stories writer - Black Cat, Golden Beetle, Murder on Morgue Street.

O. Henry (1862-1910)

American Don Quixote, a sad storyteller of the 20th century, a master of an unexpected outcome and certainly a good ending - O. Henry. His most famous stories are Gifts of the Magi, Last Leaf.

Jack London (1876-1916)

The most famous American writer is a man past way from the "abyss upward" and made himself, the author of the cycle « Nordic stories» and the novel "Martin Eden"... The most famous stories are - Love of life, Make a fire, A piece of meat.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2011)

The great science fiction writer who captivated his readers in bright world fantasy, author famous works Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine.

This is not all American writers who glorified their country. Materials on Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and some others. The gap will definitely be filled.