Turn of the 20th Century |
Turn of the 21st Century |
February 20, 1895: Frederick Douglass, a former slave and autobiographer, dies. Douglass's death marks the decline of the slave narrative style so popular in the latter half of the 19th century.
November 8, 1900: Theodore Dreiser writes Sister Carrie, a novel that illustrates the restlessness of the society of the late 1800's. The book deals with realistic topics such as women's labor and economic changes. 1903: The Call of the Wild is published, a book written by Jack London. A story about the Klondike Gold Rush, the novel epitomized the literary naturalist movement that gained popularity in the early 1900's. February 28, 1906: Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle, which exposes the horrors of the working conditions of the meat-packing industry. Readers are outraged at the food safety violations shown in the book. April 21, 1910: Mark Twain, an American novelist best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, dies. Twain's realistic writing style becomes less popular following his death. 1920: Edith Wharton pens The Age of Innocence. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel questioned the upper class society of New York in the 1900's. April 10, 1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby, depicting the lives of the upper class in the Roaring 1920's. The Great Gatsby is considered to be one of the great American novels. 1929: Ernest Hemingway publishes A Farewell to Arms, his most famous novel. The book centers on the romance between an American and a Scot during World War I, bringing up the subjects of the reality of war and desertion. |
January 21, 1985: White Noise, by Don DeLillo, is published. One of the driving themes is the fear of death and mortality. The book is a exemplification of postmodern literature.
1985: John Irving writes The Cider House Rules, bringing up controversial topics such as abortion. The book focuses on how there are more than one set of rules for every place in society, whether or not they are written or even followed. September 1, 1998: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is first published in the United States. About the magical Hogwarts school and the young wizards that attend, the series soon swept the nation as one of the best-selling series of all time. March 2003: Dan Brown writes The Da Vinci Code. A thriller about the search for the holy grail, the book raised religious controversy, claiming Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene, among other things. October 5, 2005: Twilight, the first in a saga by Stephenie Meyer is published. The novel started a vampire and paranormal craze in young-adult and adult literature, commonly called the 'Twilight' effect. September 26, 2006: Cormac McCarthy writes The Road, a book about the a father and son's journey in a post-apocalyptic world. The novel is reviewed as having "stunning, savage beauty." September 6, 2007: Juton Diaz publishes The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The book deals with the lives and challenges of the de Leon family who seem to be cursed by fuku. The book is one of many that have emerged with minorities and immigrants as the main characters. |