American Authors Research Project
Booklist for American Author Research Project
This list is not exhaustive; you may choose an author not on the list, but the novel you choose must be a significant American novel that has stood the test of time. Novels we read at Irvington as part of the English curriculum may not be chosen (we have tried to indicate these in parentheses below). Choose a novel rather than a play, a collection of short stories, or a collection of poetry for this project. Ask if you have any questions!
Sample Outline for American Authors Research Paper
Alexie, Sherman
Anaya, Rudolfo (but not Bless Me, Ultima)
Angelou, Maya (*autobiographical works rather than novels are OK for this author)
Asimov, Isaac
Baldwin, James
Bellow, Saul
Bradbury, Ray (but not Fahrenheit 451 or Something Wicked This Way Comes)
Buck, Pearl S. (but not The Good Earth)
Butler, Octavia E.
Cather, Willa
Chopin, Kate
Cisneros, Sandra (but not The House on Mango Street)
Conroy, Pat
Crane, Stephen
Diaz, Junot
Dreiser, Theodore
Erdrich, Louise
Faulkner, William
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (but not The Great Gatsby)
Gaines, Ernest
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Heinlein, Robert A.
Heller, Joseph (but not Catch-22)
Hemingway, Ernest (but not The Old Man and the Sea)
Hurston, Zora Neale (but not Their Eyes Were Watching God)
Irving, John
James, Henry
Kerouac, Jack
Kesey, Ken
King, Stephen
Kingston, Maxine Hong
Lahiri, Jhumpa
Larson, Nella
Lee, Harper (but not To Kill A Mockingbird)
Le Guin, Ursula
Lewis, Sinclair
London, Jack
McCarthy, Cormac
McCullers, Carson
McMurtry, Larry
Melville, Herman
Mitchell, Margaret
Momaday, N. Scott
Morrison, Toni
Norris, Frank
Plath, Sylvia
Rand, Ayn
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Smith, Betty
Stein, Gertrude
Steinbeck, John (but not Of Mice and Men)
Styron, William
Tan, Amy (but not Joy Luck Club)
Twain, Mark
Vonnegut, Kurt (but not Slaughterhouse Five)
Walker, Alice (but not The Color Purple)
Warren, Robert Penn: especially recommended--All The King's Men
Wharton, Edith
Wharton, William
Wright, Richard
