Whenever I try a new author (who I really like) and they happen to be part of a larger literary movement, one that I've not spent all that much time familiarizing myself with or studying previously, I get all excited about exploring new territory. So my latest new thing is Depression era literature (is that actually a correct term? I think I've seen it used). Although obviously not a happy moment in history, it was really a rich one for literature and the arts and a period of rapid change with repercussions all the way through to the present day. I would really like to read more, so I skimmed my shelves to see what I have (there are a few titles I don't have but will be looking for them).
1. A Death in the Family, James Agee or Now Let Us Praise Famous Men: The American Classic in Words and Photograph, of Three Tenant Families in the Depression
2. Come Back to Sorrento, Dawn Powell - (originally published as The Tenth Month, this is another Ohio novel, and according to the intro Powell's "gentlest" novel).
3. Miss Lonelyhearts & Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
4. Butterfield 8, John O'Hara - (I read this years ago and my one overwelming memory is its despair and desolation. I'd like to reread it and see what I think now).
5. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser - (I have this sitting near the top of my TBR pile and would like to read it soon).
6. A Lost Lady, Willa Cather
7. Manhattan Transfer, John Dos Passos (he was a friend of Dawn Powell's).
8. Yonondio: From the Thirties, Tillie Olsen - (she's a Nebraska author, and this is an unfinished novel).
9. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck - (I've read very little Steinbeck, short stories mostly, and never this one, which I find extremely sad--how did I miss this?).
10. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
11. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
12. Passing, Nella Larsen
13. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
I expect I've left off all sorts of important authors from the period and no doubt some from my list are a bit earlier and maybe some a bit later, but these are all books I have on hand ready to read. If only my ninth grade English teacher could see me now, I'd make her proud. A little late, but I expect I'll enjoy these now far more than I ever would have when I was only fifteen!