Authors Flashcards
We won't blame you if you haven't read ALL of the books mentioned in this deck, but at the very least, learn to identify major writers and their best works.
Who is:
Harper Lee
- American author of the 20th century
- Her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published in 1960 and has since become a classic of American literature
- The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962
- Her second novel, Go Set A Watchmen, was published in 2015.
Who is:
J.D. Salinger
- American author of the 20th century most famous for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye
- From the mid-sixties on, he was reclusive and did not publish any new material; he died in 2010
Who is:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
- American author of the 20th century, part of the Jazz Age and a member of the Lost Generation of American writers in Paris in the 1920s
- He wrote five novels in all, one of them published posthumously
- His most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is one of his many short stories
Who is:
William Shakespeare
- English poet and playwright of the 16th and 17th centuries, typically regarded as the greatest Anglophone writer
- He wrote over 150 sonnets, and his plays include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Othello
- A large number of familiar English sayings and expressions come from his works
- He spent most of his life in London, where he managed the Globe Theatre
Who is:
Homer
- Ancient Greek poet, likely to have lived in the 7th or 8th centuries B.C., and author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are central to the history of literature
- It is believed that he was blind
Who is:
Miguel de Cervantes
- Spanish writer of the 16th and 17th centuries, greatly influential to the Spanish language in general
- His masterpiece was Don Quixote, published in two volumes (in 1605 and 1615)
- Don Quixote is considered the first modern European novel and a classic of Western literature
Who is:
Sophocles
- Ancient Greek playwright of the 5th century B.C.
- One of three Greek authors of tragedies, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, whose plays have survived
- His most famous tragedies feature Antigone and Oedipus
Who is:
Ernest Hemingway
- American author of the 20th century and a member of the Lost Generation of writers in the 1920s
- Known for his economical, simple writing and adventurous lifestyle, his novels include The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
John Steinbeck
- American author of the 20th century
- He is best known for his novels Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and East of Eden
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
William Faulkner
- 20th-century American author most known for his novels The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying
- He won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
Toni Morrison
- American professor and writer of the 20th and 21st centuries most known for her novels Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon
- In 2012 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Who is:
J.R.R. Tolkien
20th-century British writer and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Who is:
Herman Melville
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel Moby Dick
Who is:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel The Scarlet Letter
Who is:
Henry David Thoreau
- American abolitionist, author, philosopher, and transcendentalist of the 19th century
- He is best known for his essay “Civil Disobedience” and his book Walden
Who is:
Charles Dickens
- English author of the 19th century whose work was immensely popular during his lifetime
- Seen as one of the great writers of the Victorian era, his works include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield
Who is:
J.K. Rowling
British writer best known as the author of the widely read Harry Potter series, the best-selling book series in history
Who is:
Stephen King
- American author and columnist of the 20th and 21st centuries whose popular suspense novels and short stories have frequently been adapted into films
- Some of his notable works include The Shining, Carrie, Misery, and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Who are:
Emily and Charlotte Brontë
- English authors of the 19th century
- Emily most famously wrote Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre
Who is:
Jane Austen
- English novelist of the 18th and 19th centuries
- She was noted for her irony and social commentary, as well as for the love stories she crafted
- Notable works include Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century
- Her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published in 1960 and has since become a classic of American literature
- The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962
Harper Lee
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century most famous for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye
- From the mid-sixties on, he was reclusive and did not publish any new material; he died in 2010
J.D. Salinger
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century, part of the Jazz Age and a member of the Lost Generation of American writers in Paris in the 1920s
- He wrote five novels in all, one of them published posthumously
- His most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is one of his many short stories
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Name the author:
- English poet and playwright of the 16th and 17th centuries, typically regarded as the greatest Anglophone writer
- He wrote over 150 sonnets, and his plays include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Othello
- A large number of familiar English sayings and expressions come from his works
- He spent most of his life in London, where he managed the Globe Theatre
William Shakespeare