2. Literature of the 1930's
Focused on the rejection of the notion of progress and a desire to return to an earlier age of purity and simplicity. Disillusioned with capitalism, many intellectuals and writers formed allegiances to the Communist Party.

3. Ernest Hemingway
Born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. Worked briefly as a reporter for THE KANSAS CITY STAR.Used a plain, forceful prose style characterized by simple sentences and few adjectives or adverbsCreated the "Hemingway hero," who faces violence and destruction with couragePart of the "Lost Generation"Produced numerous short stories, and novels.Received both the Noble Prize, and Pulitzer Prize

4. James T. Farrell
Wrote a trilogy of novels about an Irish American named Studs Lonigan and his attempt to rise above his poor.Farrell displays his own thoughts and feelings about a number of aspects of his life through the story.Often wrote in a "stream of consciousness" styleCreated a "tragic hero" and depicted the struggles of the Great Depression

5. Richard Wright
Born in Roxie, Mississippi to a sharecropper and teacherLooks at the issue of racial prejudice and the plight of blacks in Native SonGained fame with his work Uncle Tom's ChildrenHis work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century.

6. Erskine Caldwell
Born in Coweta, Georgia As a child he traveled with his father and developed a concern for the poor.Gained notice with his novel, Tobacco Road, that illustrated the life of poor white sharecroppers in the south.By the late 1940s Caldwell had sold more books than any author in America's historyHis attacks on poverty, racism and the tenant farming system, had a significant impact on public opinion.

7. John Steinbeck
Born in Salinas, CaliforniaWrote numerous influential including, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath His experiences among the working classes in California lent authenticity to his depiction of the lives of the workers, who remain the central characters of his most important novels.Novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labor, but there is also a streak of worship of the soil in his booksConsidered one of the Best American Authors