Great American Authors Since 1650
Presented by Jane Kaczmarek, Great American Authors Since 1650 presents the rich, literary tradition of American storytelling...No country has produced a more impressive group of writers in a shorter period of time than America. It has been an incredible journey of finding the nation's voice, beginning with the first colonists in the 17th century to a small cadre of brilliant, 19th century, New England writers who defined the unique American experience and soul, to the whole country speaking out in the 20th Century against war, poverty, racism and alienation.
- Title ID 19-GAA
- English, American Literature
- 8 Programs
- 28 Supplemental Files
- 10th Grade through Post Secondary
- Published by Ambrose Video Publishing Inc./Centre Communications
Included Programs
Supplemental Files
Reviews
Included Programs
1650 - 1845Running time is 28 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this first program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1650 - Anne Bradstreet, America's First Poet
- Anne Bradstreet was America's first poet.
- 1702 - Cotton Mather Publishes The Ecclesiastical History of New England
- Cotton Mather's history of the, Massachusetts Bay Colony and Puritans would be important to understanding the founding of America.
- 1773 - Phillis Wheatley becomes America's First Black Woman Poet
- Phillis Wheatley, America's first Black Poet, wrote "On Being Brought From Africa to America," which established as a great colonial poet.
- 1819 - Washington Irving Publishes Rip Van Winkle
- Washington Irving, the American author, wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- 1826 - James Fenimore Cooper Publishes Last of the Mohicans
- James Fenimore Cooper, wrote Last of the Mohicans, which introduced the archetype character of Natty Bumpo, also known as Hawkeye and Deerslayer, the first truly American character by an American Author.
- 1836 - Ralph Waldo Emerson Initiates American Transcendentalism with Nature
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, the founded of American Transcendentalism, was an American essayist who wrote The American Scholar.
- 1845 - Edgar Allan Poe Publishes The Raven
- Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Raven", one of the masterpieces of American poetry.
1846 - 1855Running time is 30 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this second program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1849 - Henry David Thoreau originates America's Proud History of Civil Disobedience
- Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden and was famous for his principles of Civil Disobedience.
- 1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne Writes The Scarlet Letter
- Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist who wrote The Scarlet Letter.
- 1851 - Herman Melville's Moby Dick is Published
- Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab and Billy Budd. Was an American novelist.
- 1852 - Emily Dickinson Publishes First Poem
- Emily Dickinson was the 19th century's greatest woman poet.
- 1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe Writes Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, the leading Abolitionist tale against, slavery and owning slaves.
- 1855 - Frederick Douglass Publishes My Bondage and My Freedom
- Frederick Douglass was a black author whose anti slavery book, My Bondage and My Freedom, was a call for abolition.
- 1855 - Walt Whitman Publishes Leaves of Grass
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and was a poet, who practiced transcendentalism.
- 1855 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Writes The Song of Hiawatha
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote The Song of Hiawatha, The Wreck of the Hesperus and Paul Revere's Ride, was an American poet.
1856 - 1906Running time is 26 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this third program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1868 - Louisa May Alcott writes Little Women
- Louisa May Alcott, who wrote Little Women, was a great novelist who helped establish the American women's identity.
- 1878 - Henry James Writes Daisy Miller
- Henry James wrote Daisy Miller, and was the first novelist to write American psychological novel.
- 1885 - Mark Twain Publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Mark Twain, who wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was one of the 19th century's American Humorists, whose real name was Samuel Clemens.
- 1906 - Upton Sinclair's Novel The Jungle is Published
- Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle, as muckrakers tell the truth about the nation.
- 1906 - The Whole Country Speaks-Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London
- Stephen Crane, O Henry, Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Jack London, Sherwood Anderson were poets and novelists who wrote about the country in The Red Badge of Courage, Gift of the Magi, Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Winesburg, Ohio.
1907 - 1925Running time is 28 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this fourth program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1913 - Poet William Carlos Williams Publishes His First Book of Poems, The Tempers
- William Carlos Williams was a leading Hispanic poet who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work.
- 1914 - Carl Sandburg Publishes his Poem Chicago
- Carl Sandburg wrote "Chicago" and became the first poet of the new realism school of American poetry.
- 1920 - Edith Wharton Wins a Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence
- Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence, and was the first woman novelist to win the Pulitzer Prize.
- 1922 - The Innovators; e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Henry Miller
- e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Henry Miller were poets and novelists known for their avant garde writing styles seen in, The Hollow men, The Wasteland, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn among others.
- 1923 - Robert Frost Publishes Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Robert Frost who wrote, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", became the most beloved poet of the first half of the 20th century.
- 1925 - F. Scott Fitzgerald Writes The Great Gatsby
- F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, beginning the lost generation era of writers.
1926 - 1939Running time is 29 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this fifth program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1929 - Thomas Wolfe Writes Look Homeward Angel
- Thomas Wolfe was a novelist of the lost generation and wrote Look Homeward, Angel, Of Time and the River, and You Can't Go Home Again.
- 1929 - William Faulkner Showcases the South with The Sound and the Fury
- William Faulkner, a novelist of the lost generation, wrote "The Sound and the Fury", "Absalom, Absalom!", and "The Reivers"
- 1930 - Sinclair Lewis Becomes the First American to Win the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Sinclair Lewis wrote, "Elmer Gantry", "Main Street", "Babbit", and was the first American novelist to win a Nobel Prize.
- 1931 - Pearl Buck Writes The Good Earth
- Pearl Buck, author of the "The Good Earth", was a novelist who wrote about China.
- 1936 - Playwright Eugene O'Neill Wins Nobel Prize for Literature
- Eugene O'Neill's plays "Long Day's Journey into Night", "Mourning Becomes Electra, and the Homecoming", made him a great American playwright.
- 1939 - Steinbeck Writes The Grapes of Wrath
- John Steinbeck, wrote "The Grapes of Wrath",, "Of Mice and Men", "East of Eden" and "Travels with Charley" and was a great novelist of the lost generation.
1940 - 1949Running time is 29 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this sixth program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1940 - Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is Published
- Ernest Hemingway wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Rises", "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Old Man and the Sea" and was the greatest novelist of the lost generation writers.
- 1941 - James Thurber Writes The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- James Thurber, who wrote The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, was a great American humorist.
- 1947-1953 - Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov Usher in the Era of Popular Science Ficti
- Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, were masters of Science Fiction, writing classics such as "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Foundation Series", "I, Robot", "The Illustrated Man", "Martian Chronicles", and "Fahrenheit 451."
- 1948 - Tennessee Williams Wins His First Pulitzer Prize for A Street Car Named Desire
- After Tennessee Williams, wrote "A Street Car Named Desire", he became the greatest American playwright, and the followed it up with "The Glass Menagerie" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
- 1949 - Arthur Miller Produced Death of a Salesman
- Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible" made him a leading American playwright, while his character, Willie Loman, became one of the best known characters in American literature.
1950 - 1957Running time is 28 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this seventh program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks Wins the Pulitzer Prize
- Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author, inspired the idea of 'Black is beautiful.'
- 1951 - Salinger and Plath Set the Stage for the Baby Boomer Generation
- J.D. Salinger wrote "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Franny and Zooey" while Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar, making Salinger a great novelist and Plath a great poet, and establishing Holden Caulfield as a great character of literature while Plath's poetry helped spur the women's movement.
- 1952 - Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin Speak for the American Black Male
- Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin were black American writers after the Harlem Renaissance who wrote, "Invisible Man", "Go tell it on the Mountain," and as novelists they helped the black cause of civil rights
- 1957 - Jack Kerouac Begins the Beat Generation in American Literature
- Jack Kerouac. The leader of the Beat Generation, wrote "On the Road", about a real life friend Neal Cassidy, while Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Ken Kesey, wrote classics of beat literature such as "A Coney Island of the Mind" and "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.
- 1957 - Dr Seuss Writes The Cat in the Hat
- Dr. Seuss, who wrote "The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs and Ham" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", was a great American humorist.
1958 - PresentRunning time is 29 minutes
US Authors and US writers, are examined in this eighth program on authors and writers creating the unique American voice.
Chapter List
- 1959 - Lorraine Hansberry's Play A Raisin in the Sun is Produced
- Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poitier, was a woman author and American playwright who opened the door for other Black playwrights on Broadway.
- 1961 - Joseph Heller Writes Catch-22
- Joseph Heller wrote "Catch 22", while fellow American Novelist, Philip Roth, wrote "Portnoy's Complaint."
- 1966 - Truman Capote Writes In Cold Blood
- Truman Capote, who wrote "In Cold Blood", "Other Voices, Other Rooms", and "Breakfast at Tiffany's", was an American novelist.
- 1969 - Kurt Vonnegut Writes Slaughterhouse Five
- Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "Ice Nine," was an American novelist, who wrote Science Fiction.
- 1982 - John Updike's Rabbit is Rich Wins Pulitzer Prize for Literature
- John Updike wrote "Rabbit is Rich", "Rabbit At Rest", "Rabbit, Rum", making him a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist.
- 1989 - Asian American Amy Tan Publishes The Joy Luck Club
- Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, is an American novelist writing about her Chinese culture.
- 1993 - Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and August Wilson Redefine the Black Experience
- Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, August Wilson, were great black American novelists and an American playwright, who wrote "Beloved", "The Color Purple" and the "Pittsburgh Cycle."
- 2007- Cormac McCarthy Wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Road
- Cormac McCarthy, who wrote "The Road", was an American novelist, famous for writing "All the Pretty Horses."
Supplemental Files
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 3A
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 4A
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 5A
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 6A
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 7A
- Authors Blackline Master Quiz 8A
- Blackline Master Quiz 1A
- Blackline Master Quiz 2A
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Eight
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Five
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Four
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program One
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Seven
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Six
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Three
- Great American Authors Teachers Guide Program Two
- Great American Authors Timeline
- MARC Records for GAA
- MARC records for the series Great American Authors Since 1650
- Reading List 1950 to Present
- Reading List for 1856 to1925
- Transcription for 1650 - 1845
- Transcription for 1846 - 1855
- Transcription for 1856 - 1906
- Transcription for 1907 - 1925
- Transcription for 1926 - 1939
- Transcription for 1940 - 1949
- Transcription for 1950 - 1957
- Transcription for 1958 - Present
Reviews
A useful, well-organized introduction to American literature to introduce or recap important literary periods and authors.
Booklist