American Literature timeline
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'The Fifth Column and the First 49 Stories' is Published
And so "The Fifth Column" is autobiographical drama. Philip Rawlings, its leading man and a Loyalist agent, justified his apparently dissolute... Read more
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'If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem' Is Published
Wild Palms/Old Man is a blend of two stories, a love story and a river story, entitled "Wild Palms" and "Old Man", respectively. Both stories tell... Read more
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William Faulkner Appears on the Cover of Time Magazine
Random House retitles Faulkner’s latest novel, which he originally called “If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem.” It becomes The Wild Palms, and when it is... Read more
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'The Grapes of Wrath' is Published
The Grapes of Wrath is the Oakies' saga. It is John Ernst Steinbeck's longest novel (619 pages) and more ambitious than all his others combined... Read more
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'Native Son' is Published
Native Son tells the story of a "bad nigger," coal-black, 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, who lives with his pious mother, a mild sister and brother in... Read more
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'The Hamlet' Is Published
The Hamlet is the first of the "Snopes" trilogy, completed by The Town (1957), and The Mansion (1959). The novel follows the exploits of the... Read more
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'The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter' is Published
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the debut 1940 novel by American author Carson McCullers. Written in Charlotte, North Carolina in a house on East... Read more
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'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is Published
This novel is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of Robert Jordan, a character inspired by Hemingway's own experiences in the... Read more
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Ernest Hemingway and Pauline Pfeiffer are Divorced
Pfeiffer married Hemingway on May 10, 1927 but the match was difficult. She was wealthy and he was a best-selling author (The Sun Also Rises) with... Read more
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Ernest Hemingway Marries Martha Gellhorn
Often travelling with Gellhorn, the two fell in love as they competed for quality stories. They would eventually marry in November of 1940, nearly... Read more
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'Go Down, Moses' is Published
Although originally published in 1942 as Go Down, Moses and Other Stories (apparently against the desires of the author) Go Down, Moses may be... Read more
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Ernest Hemingway Reports on World War II
In late August of 1944 Hemingway and his band of irregular soldiers entered Paris. Hemingway was always fond of saying he was the first to enter... Read more
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'To Have and Have Not' Premieres In New York
Although Howard Hawks had a high regard for Hemingway's works in general, he considered To Have and Have Not his worst book, a "bunch of junk," and... Read more
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Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn are Divorced
In the spring of 1944 Hemingway finally decided to go to Europe to report the war, heading first to London where he wrote articles about the RAF... Read more
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'All The King's Men' is Published
The summer fiction doldrums are over. An exciting new novel is published today. It isn't a great novel or a completely finished work of art. It is... Read more
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Ernest Hemingway Marries Mary Welsh
According to A. E. Hotchner, Hemingway supposedly considered divorcing fourth wife Mary Welsh. Hotchner reports in a new preface to Papa Hemingway,... Read more
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'Intruder In The Dust' Is Published
The novel focuses on Lucas Beauchamp, a black farmer accused of murdering a white man. He is exonerated through the efforts of black and white... Read more
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William Faulkner is Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel. Read more
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'Across the River and Into the Trees' is Published
Across the River and Into the Woods has a frame story of 50-year-old Colonel Cantwell duckhunting in Trieste. The first chapter is set in the... Read more
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'The Catcher in the Rye' is Published
The Catcher in the Rye introduces Holden Caulfield, who ranks with Huckleberry Finn among the most celebrated adolescent heroes in American... Read more
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'Requiem For a Nun' Is Published
Requiem for a Nun is a book written by William Faulkner in 1951. Like many of Faulkner's works, Requiem experiments with narrative technique—the... Read more
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'Invisible Man' is Published
Invisible Man is a remarkable first novel that gives 38-year-old Ralph Ellison a claim to being the best of U.S. Negro writers.*It makes him, for... Read more
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'Old Man and the Sea' Is Published
In September of 1952 The Old Man and the Sea appeared in Life magazine, selling over 5 million copies in a flash. The next week Scribners rolled... Read more
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'The Adventures of Augie March' is Published
Augie comes on stage with one of literature's most famous opening lines. "I am an American, Chicago born, and go at things as I have taught myself,... Read more
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'Fahrenheit 451' is Published
The book expands the concept of a short story that Bradbury wrote in 1947 under the titled “Bright Phoenix,” which was published in a revised form... Read more