Memorize these and recognize 29.4% of all American Literature clues.
| # | Answer | Count | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Fenimore Cooper | 16 | This novelist died in 1851 & is buried about a quarter-mile walk from the Baseball Hall of Fame |
| 2 | Ernest Hemingway | 14 | Injured on the Austro-Italian front of July 8, 1918, he also crossed the English Channel with U.S. forces on D-Day |
| 3 | Nathaniel Hawthorne | 13 | In 1830 he had 5 tales & sketches published in the Salem Gazette |
| 4 | Edgar Allan Poe | 12 | Upon seeing this author in the audience, a 19th c. actor worked "Nevermore, nevermore" into his dialogue |
| 5 | Jack London | 10 | This Jack of many trades sought fortune in the 1897 Klondike gold rush & used the experience in his books |
| 6 | Mark Twain | 9 | "Camelot", "The Pilgrims" & "A Postscript by Clarence" are chapters in a classic novel by this author |
| 7 | Faulkner | 9 | In 1950 the Swedish Academy said this Nobel Prize winner "is a regional writer" but called "his regionalism universal" |
| 8 | Herman Melville | 9 | His bestselling first novel, published in 1846, was set in Polynesia |
| 9 | Sinclair Lewis | 8 | Saying he was robbed earlier of the Pulitzer, he famously declined that honor for "Arrowsmith" |
| 10 | Washington Irving | 7 | In a periodical in 1807, he called New York City "Gotham, Gotham! most enlightened of cities" |
| 11 | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 7 | Born in 1896, this author was named for his distant cousin who penned the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" |
| 12 | John Steinbeck | 7 | The only native Californian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature |
| 13 | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 7 | This author of "The Courtship of Miles Standish" was descended from John & Priscilla Alden |
| 14 | Louisa May Alcott | 7 | Reluctant to write what became her most famous novel, she said, "Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters" |
| 15 | Willa Cather | 6 | This 1895 graduate of the University of Nebraska was both managing editor of the school paper & literary editor of her yearbook |
| 16 | Uncle Tom's Cabin | 6 | The title of this novel refers to "a small log building, close adjoining to 'The House'... his master's dwelling" |
| 17 | Henry James | 6 | His books "Daisy Miller" & "The Portrait of a Lady" are both about young American ladies in Europe |
| 18 | Stephen Crane | 6 | He died at age 28, just 5 years after his Civil War novel was published |
| 19 | The Great Gatsby | 5 | The old money & new money Long Island neighborhoods in this novel are East Egg & West Egg |
| 20 | Larry McMurtry | 5 | Author-run bookstores include Ann Patchett's Parnassus Books in Nashville & his Booked Up Inc. in Archer City, Texas |
| 21 | Harriet Beecher Stowe | 5 | Her 1896 New York Times obituary called her "the writer of probably the most widely read work of fiction ever penned" |
| 22 | Thoreau | 5 | Urged to make his peace with God, this "Walden" author replied, "I did not know we had ever quarreled" |
| 23 | William Styron | 4 | Though he would continue to write nonfiction & essays, "Sophie's Choice" was his last novel |
| 24 | Truman Capote | 4 | In 1958 he wrote, "Brazil was beastly but Buenos Aires was the best. Not Tiffany's, but almost" |
| 25 | The Sun Also Rises | 4 | Bullfights & heavy drinking are the order of the day in this 1926 novel with a title from Ecclesiastes |
| 26 | Sister Carrie | 4 | Caroline Meeber is the title character of this 1900 novel |
| 27 | L. Frank Baum | 4 | He wrote 1899's "Father Goose"; he came up with a "Wonderful" adventure the following year |
| 28 | Gertrude Stein | 4 | Clifton Fadiman dubbed this expatriate American "The Mama of Dada" |
| 29 | Carson McCullers | 4 | She was only 22 when she wrote "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" |
| 30 | Walt Whitman | 4 | He wrote several anonymous reviews praising the genius of his own "Leaves of Grass" |
| 31 | Theodore Dreiser | 4 | The hostile reception of his "Sister Carrie" contributed to his nervous breakdown |
| 32 | Winesburg, Ohio | 3 | This book by Sherwood Anderson consists of 23 stories about life in a small Ohio town |
| 33 | The Red Badge of Courage | 3 | By the end of this 1895 novel, Henry Flemming "had rid himself of the red sickness of battle" |
| 34 | The Natural | 3 | "Achilles in Left Field" was the title of Norman Podhoretz' review of this first novel by Bernard Malamud |
| 35 | the Civil War | 3 | MacKinlay Kantor's bestselling novel "Andersonville" is set during this war |
| 36 | Moby-Dick | 3 | Melville's white whale tale |
| 37 | Kurt Vonnegut | 3 | This author was sometimes called the Mark Twain of our time |
| 38 | Joyce Carol Oates | 3 | Her short stories include "Where Is Here?", "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" & "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" |
| 39 | Joseph Heller | 3 | When he began writing "Catch-22", he was an advertising writer for TIME magazine |
| 40 | John Dos Passos | 3 | His 2nd & lesser-known trilogy was called "District of Columbia" |
| 41 | Edna Ferber | 3 | Her "Giant" grew into an epic movie |
| 42 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 3 | As a war correspondant, this Tarzan creator witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor |
| 43 | Cormac McCarthy | 3 | On the passing of this "Blood Meridian" author, Stephen King called him "maybe the greatest American novelist of my time" |
| 44 | A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | 3 | Chapter 3 of this Mark Twain novel introduces us to the "Knights of the Table Round" |
| 45 | John Updike | 3 | This author of "The Witches of Eastwick" once worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker |
| 46 | Daniel Webster | 3 | In a popular short story, this famed orator saves a farmer who's sold his soul to the devil |
| 47 | Buck | 3 | In the 1930s she wrote biographies of her father & mother, who were Presbyterian missionaries to China |
| 48 | (James) Baldwin | 3 | "Go Tell It on the Mountain" that he finished the novel while in Switzerland in 1952 |
| 49 | Zane Grey | 2 | New York City dentist whose "Riders of the Purple Sage" made him a popular Western novelist |
| 50 | William Kennedy | 2 | With Francis Ford Coppola, this "Ironweed" author wrote the screenplay for "The Cotton Club" |
These appear 8+ times. Memorize these first.
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