American Literature

read em or weep

What American writer of spy and military-science novels wrote The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger?

Tom Clancy

What American attorney, politician and author of legal thrillers wrote A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief and Runaway Jury?

John Grisham

What American author of thrillers and non-fiction created the Alex Cross and Michael Bennett series of novels as well as other series like NYPD Red and Crazy House?

James Patterson

What American science-fiction author penned the Foundation series and Nightfall and devised the "Three Laws of Robotics"?

Isaac Asimov

The 1997 film Starship Troopers was based on a science fiction novel by what American writer who also created Valentine Michael Smith in Stranger in a Strange Land?

Robert Heinlein

What American writer that is the great-great-grandson of Brigham Young wrote the series The Tales of Alvin Maker and also penned Ender's Game?

Orson Scott Card

What American writer penned Main Street?

Sinclair Lewis

What American writer penned A Streetcar Named Desire?

Tennessee Williams

What American writer penned The House on Mango Street?

Sandra Cisneros

“The Soul Selects her Own Society” was written by what “Belle of Amherst” and creator of “Because I could not Stop for death?”

Emily Dickinson

What American author wrote Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code?

Dan Brown

What male African-American novelist penned Black Boy and Native Son?

Richard Wright

What male African-American novelist penned Juneteenth and Invisible Man?

Ralph Ellison

What male African-American writer penned The Fire Next Time and If Beale Street Could Talk, as well as the essay collection Notes of a Native Son?

James Baldwin

What American writer was inspired by Ecclesiastes 1:5 when he titled his novel The Sun Also Rises?

Ernest Hemingway

What playwright wrote about Lena Younger moving her family to an all-white neighborhood in her play A Raisin in the Sun?

Lorraine Hansberry

This poet recited “On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. This
author borrowed a line from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem “Sympathy” to title her first autobiography in which she describes her grandmother and her brother Bailey. What author described her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?

Maya Angelou

What author wrote about an unnamed narrator's struggle to find his social place in New York in Invisible Man?

Ralph Ellison

What author wrote about Celie's abusive relationships with Alphonso and Mister and her healing
relationship with the songstress Shug Avery in The Color Purple?

Alice Walker

In one novel by this author begins by comparing men's dreams to ships before the protagonist narrates her story to Pheoby Watson. In that novel by this author, rabies is contracted by Tea Cake, forcing his partner Janie to shoot him. Identify this novelist of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Zora Neale Hurston

Poems like “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in)]" exemplify this poet's unconventional mechanics and grammar. Identify this poet who stylized his name in all lower-case letters.

e. e. cummings

What American author of Women and Economics is best-known for her semi-autobiographical short story “The Yellow Wallpaper?”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

What American naturalist author of McTeague wrote about the railroad industry in California in his novel The Octopus?

Frank Norris

In one novel by this author, the location of the deed to the property on which the title home was
built is revealed by Matthew Maule's descendant, Holgrave. Iin that novel by this author, the young Phoebe moves in with Clifford and Hepzibah. In addition to that novel about the Pyncheon family, The House of the Seven Gables, this author wrote a novel in which a tryst with Reverend Dimmesdale dooms the protagonist to wearing the title marker of adultery. Hester Prynne appears in what author's The Scarlet Letter.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

What author of Main Street and Babbitt was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Sinclair Lewis

What American author of The Crying of Lot 49 wrote about V-2 rockets in his novel Gravity's Rainbow?

Thomas Pynchon

This author took the date of Julius Caesar's assassination as the title of his novel The Ides of
March. A one-act play by this author detailed ninety holiday meals for the Barnard family and was entitled The Long Christmas Dinner. Brother Juniper attempts to learn more about the five people who died when the title structure collapsed in this author's novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Identify this author who wrote about Grover's Corners, New Hampshire in his play Our Town.

Thornton Wilder

What short story author's collection The Four Million contains such stories as “The Cop and the
Anthem" and “The Gift of the Magi"?

O. Henry (will accept William Sydney Porter)

What science fiction author is known for such short stories as “Nightfall" and “Runaround" which
introduced this author's Three Laws of Robotics?

Isaac Asimov

Identify this author is also known for novels like Pudd'nhead Wilson and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Mark Twain

What author of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is best-known for his unfinished epic poem, The Cantos?

Ezra Pound

What American modernist poet is known for his poems “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and “The Emperor of Ice Cream?"

Wallace Stevens

This author included the poems “Queen-Anne's-Lace" and "A Widow's Lament in Springtime" in his collection Sour Grapes. The line "By the road to the contagious hospital" opens this author's poem “Spring and All." This author wrote a five-volume epic poem that is named for a city in New Jersey as well as a poem about an object “glazed with rain water beside the white chickens." Identify this American author of Paterson and “The Red Wheelbarrow.”

William Carlos Williams

What author wrote about characters like Tris and Four in her Divergent series?

Veronica Roth

What author wrote about Hazel and Augustus in The Fault in Our Stars and about Margo Spiegelman in Paper Towns?

John Green

This author wrote about the protagonist and his sister discovering a secret land beneath their
apartment in the book Gregor the Overlander, the first in the series The Underland Chronicles. Mags sacrifices herself to some poisonous fog to save Finnick Odair in one of this author's novels, while in another, Prim is replaced by her sister in the title competition. Katniss Everdeen appears in what author's Hunger Games trilogy?

Suzanne Collins

In a work by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jordan Baker is associated with what sport?

Golf

In a work by Bernard Malamud, Roy Hobbs is associated with what sport?

Baseball

In a work of the same name by Sinclair Lewis, the title character Elmer Gantry was once a star in what sport?

Football

What short poem by Edgar Allan Poe contains the lines "To the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome"?

"To Helen"

What slightly longer poem by Edgar Allan Poe is set "many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea"?

“Annabel Lee”

What title objects of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe "tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" and are "keeping time, time, time / In a sort of Runic rhyme"?

“The Bells”

What California city serves as the setting for Dashiell Hammett's classic novel The Maltese Falcon?

San Francisco

What California city serves as the setting for Raymond Chandler's classic novel The Big Sleep?

Los Angeles

What real-life California city located on the central coast of the state serves as the basis for Salinas, an area used as a setting for many John Steinbeck works such as Tortilla Flat?

Monterey

Cherokee Sal dies during childbirth and her baby is named Thomas and raised by the men of the title place in what 1868 short story by Bret Harte whose climax sees Thomas and Kentucky die in a flash flood?

“The Luck of Roaring Camp”

A group of exiles including Piney and The Duchess perish after being trapped in a snowstorm, leading to the suicide of successful gambler John Oakhurst in what other Bret Harte short story?

“The Outcasts of Poker Flat”

Despite having a secret gem that is described as larger than a certain luxury hotel, the Washington family keeps it secret in order to keep the price of that gem up in what F. Scott Fitzgerald short story set in Montana?

“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz”

William Sydney Porter is the real name of what American author and short story writer who penned “The Ransom of Red Chief”?

O. Henry (prompt on “Henry” alone)

Victoria Lucas was a pen name used by what American author when she published her only novel The Bell Jar?

Sylvia Plath

What American author published books like Thinner and The Running Man under the pen name Richard Bachman while using his real name for horror novels like It and Carrie?

Stephen King

What short story focuses on the title clerk that works hard initially at being hired by a Wall Street office, but later refuses to make copies or perform any task, simply responding to requests with “I would prefer not to”

“Bartleby, the Scrivener”

What short story focuses on Tessie Hutchinson, who “wins” the annual title event, which results in her being stoned to death at the end of the story?

“The Lottery”

A helpful Schoolmaster with a first belief in the supernatural is scared off by Brom Bones disguised as the Headless Horseman in what short story by Washington Irving?

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

What American writer won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work Angels in America: Millennium Approaches?

Tony Kushner

What American writer won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work Glengarry Glen Ross?

David Mamet

What American writer won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work Lost in Yonkers?

Neil Simon

"A good walk spoiled" was how Mark Twain described what sports whose terms include eagle and birdie?

Golf

What American writer was inspired by Genesis 4:16 when he titled his novel East of Eden?

John Steinbeck

What American writer was inspired by 2 Samuel 19:4 when he titled his novel Absalom, Absalom?

William Faulkner

What American novel opens with the line "It was a pleasure to burn"?

Fahrenheit 451

What American novel opens with the line "In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my head ever since"?

The Great Gatsby

What American novel opens with the line "The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods"?

Babbitt

What famous short story focuses on a dream escape sequence experienced by Peyton Farquhar just prior to his execution by hanging for being a Confederate sympathizer?

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

What famous short story focuses on Della, who cuts her beautiful long hair to afford a pocket watch chain for her husband Jim, who ironically sold his pocket watch to buy her ornamental combs for her hair?

"The Gift of the Magi"

What famous short story focuses on a woman who believes she has freed a creeping woman behind the title horrid coverings while stuck in an old nursery in an attempt to cure her depression?

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

In this novel, one character creates a numbered list about cabinetry after declaring an object to be “on the bevel.” Another character seeks abortion medicine only to be raped by Doctor MacGowan soon after. A different character in this novel narrates a chapter repeating the lines, “My Mother is a Fish." That character, Vardaman is the brother of Cash, Darl and Dewey Dell in what William Faulkner novel about the burial of Addie Bundren?

As I Lay Dying

What playwright is the only four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, winning for such plays as Long Day's Journey into Night and Beyond the Horizon?

Eugene O'Neill

What playwright who won exactly three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama had his potential fourth win taken away for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? after the Pulitzer jury was overridden by objections from Columbia University trustees?

Edward Albee

The only other person to win more than two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, winning for Idiot's Delight, There Shall Be No Night, and perhaps his best-known work Abe Lincoln in Illinois?

Robert Sherwood

"A Noiseless, Patient " by Walt Whitman

Spider

A Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Tree

The Celebrated Jumping of Calaveras County by Mark Twain

Frog

What 1906 muckraking novel by Upton Sinclair focuses on Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and was an expose on the health violations and unsanitary practices undertaken by the meat packing industry?

The Jungle

What 1940 novel by Richard Wright focuses on Bigger Thomas, who deals with rampant racism while living in the impoverished South Side of Chicago and is later arrested for the murders of Bessie Mears and Mary Dalton?

Native Son

What 1900 novel by Theodore Dreiser focuses on Wisconsin-born Caroline Meeber, who moves to Chicago where she first becomes a mistress to several men before later becoming a famous actress?

Sister Carrie

What Jewish-born American playwright was blacklisted for her communist sympathies after WWII and wrote such plays as Watch on the Rhine, The Children's Hour, and The Little Foxes?

Lillian Hellman

What Jewish-born American playwright wrote a trilogy of autobiographical plays titled Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound, in addition to Lost in Yonkers and The Odd Couple?

Neil Simon

What Jewish-born American playwright who was active in the 1930s-50s wrote Clash by Night and told of cab drivers planning a labor strike in his play Waiting for Lefty?

Clifford Odets

What Jewish-born American author wrote the novels Billy Bathgate, Welcome to Hard Times, and Ragtime, all of which were made into films?

E. L. Doctorow

What Jewish-born American author and Nobel laureate wrote The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Humboldt's Gift?

Saul Bellow

What Jewish-born American author wrote the novel Cimarron, which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, as well as So Big and Show Boat?

Edna Ferber

What 1893 novella by Stephen Crane focuses on the title young girl, who moves in with Pete to avoid her father's drunken rages, but later becomes a prostitute and dies after Pete kicks her out?

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

What 1958 novella by Truman Capote focuses on the young country girl Holly Golightly, who receives gifts and cash by socializing with wealthy young men with the hopes of one day marrying one of them?

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The words consigliere and Cosa Nostra were introduced to English-speaking audiences in what 1969 novel by Mario Puzo focusing on the Corleone crime family and their war with other crime families in NYC?

The Godfather

Wedding by Eudora Welty and In Cold by Truman Capote

Blood

Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather and “Because I Could Not Stop for ” by Emily Dickinson

Death

The Plot Against by Philip Roth and The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in

America

In 1985, just one year after the award started to be given out annually, what first official U.S. poet laureate and author of All the King’s Men took home the medal?

Robert Penn Warren

The next year, the medal was shared by Richard Eberhart and what author poet who denounced capitalism in his poem “Howl?”

Allen Ginsberg

One of the earliest winners of the award was what poet who created characters like Tom Merritt, Carl Hamblin and A.D. Blood in his work Spoon River Anthology?

Edgar Lee Masters

What African-American poet from Dayton penned the collections Lyrics of Lowly Life and Oak and Ivy as well as the poem "Ode to Ethiopia"?

Paul Laurence Dunbar

What poet was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, doing so for her poetry collection Annie Allen? Her poems include "The Bean Eaters" and "We Real Cool."

Gwendolyn Brooks

What African-American poet wrote the poetry collections The Weary Blues and Montage of a Dream Deferred as well as the poems "Harlem" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"?

Langston Hughes

What self-freed slave wrote such narratives as My Bondage and My Freedom and edited the
abolitionist North Star newspaper?

Frederick Douglass

What female African-American novelist wrote about Janie Crawford's quest for identity in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God?

Zora Neale Hurston

What female African-American novelist and poet read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the second inauguration of President Bill Clinton?

Maya Angelou or Marguerite Johnson

What female African-American novelist wrote about the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove, a young girl from an abusive home who yearns for the title feature in her novel The Bluest Eye?

Toni Morrison

The narrator of what Edgar Allan Poe poem's narrator is visited by the title creature, who replies
“Nevermore” when asked about a woman named Lenore?

“The Raven”

The narrator of what Carl Sandburg poem calls the title Midwestern city a “Hog butcher for the
world," a “tool maker," and a “stacker of wheat"?

"Chicago”