Literature of the American South continues to evolve with the times, beginning with the rich antebellum years and gradually morphing into the post-Civil War era. The 1930s saw another incredible outburst of literature with greats such as William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.
This week we celebrate the life of author Saul Bellow, winner of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and three National Book Awards. He is most famous for his novels, The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Henderson the Rain King. How well do you know this classic American writer? Test your knowledge against these ten facts.
Although renowned as a novelist and screenwriter, Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry was above all a passionate book collector. A bookseller for more fifty years, McMurtry began writing as a way to fund his book purchases. He acquired quite a few—his own personal collection contains over thirty thousand volumes and his bookstore holds another 200,000. He said, "The tradition I was born into was essentially nomadic, a herdsmen tradition, following animals across the earth. The bookshops are a form of ranching; instead of herding cattle, I herd books.”
May 31, 1819 marks the birth of one of the nation’s most influential poets! Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, New York, the second of nine children to parents Walter and Louisa Whitman. He grew up in a family that would struggle financially throughout much of his childhood. When Whitman was three years old, his family left their ever-shrinking farm for what they hoped would be the riches of New York City.
Randolph Caldecott and John Newbery both made significant contributions to children's literature, but another figure gave us the volume that is arguably the best known children's book of the nineteenth century. Dr. Heinrich Hoffman wrote Der Struwwelpeter in 1841, and the book rapidly became a hit. Fifty years later, it would draw the attention of Mark Twain, whose own translation of the book would not be published until 35 years after Twain's death.
Dashiell Hammett lived many lives. Before he became a well-regarded writer, Hammett was a newsboy, a stevedore, a laborer, advertising copy writer, and a sergeant in the ambulance corps during World War I. However, it was his experiences as a detective that gave him the impetus to write mystery novels.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the most highly sought literary awards in the United States. Since its inception in 1917, 86 writers have won the prize—among them, some of the nation’s greatest talents. Yet not all has gone smoothly. Here are five instances where the awarding (or withholding) of the Pulitzer has erupted in controversy.
American writer Joseph Heller is notably recognized for writing Catch-22. Published in 1961, the novel takes place during the latter half of the Second World War, telling the story of John Yossarian, an Air Force captain for the United States military. Although the novel did not instantly top the bestseller’s lists, it has since gained popularity, adding the phrase “Catch-22” into the English Language.
William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29, 1863 in San Francisco, the son of the millionaire mining engineer, gold mine owner and US Senator, George Hearst. Because he came from money, Hearst's early life was certainly not one of hardships. He went to prep school at St. Paul’s School in Concord New Hampshire, and matriculated to Harvard in 1885. He, however, never actually finished his degree as he was eventually expelled for antics such as hosting massive beer parties in Harvard Square.
Nelle Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of To Kill a Mockingbird, was born on April 28, 1926 in the sleepy town of Monroeville Alabama. As a girl, she became friends with another future writer: Truman Capote. The two were outsiders among their peers but discovered an affinity for each other. According to Capote biographer, Gerald Clarke, “Nelle was too rough for most other girls, and Truman was too soft for most other boys.”
