American literature

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
The 17th century
The 18th century
- The new nation
- Notable works of the period
  - Poets and poetry
  - Drama and the novel
The 19th century
- Early 19th-century literature
- American Renaissance
  - New England Brahmins
  - The Transcendentalists
  - New England reformers and historians
  - Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman
- From the Civil War to 1914
  - Literary comedians
  - Fiction and local colorists
  - The naturalists
  - Henry James
  - Critics of the gilded age
  - Henry Adams
  - Poets of the era
The 20th century
- Writing from 1914 to 1945
  - Experiments in drama
  - The new poetry
  - Fiction
    - Critics of society
    - Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck
    - Lyric fictionists
  - Literary criticism
    - Socio-literary critics
    - Moral-aesthetic critics
- After World War II
  - The novel and short story
    - Realism and “metafiction”
    - Southern fiction
    - African American literature
    - New fictional modes
    - The influence of Raymond Carver
    - Multicultural writing
  - Poetry
    - Formal poets
    - Experimentation and Beat poetry
    - “Deep image” poets
    - New directions
    - Autobiographical approaches
  - Drama
    - Miller, Williams, and Albee
    - The Off-Broadway ascendancy
  - Literary and social criticism
    - Literary biography and the “new journalism”
    - Theory

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

John Smith: Map of Virginia

American poetry portal

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Movements in American poetry

Poor Richard's almanac

How did Phillis Wheatley become a poet?

Washington Irving, 19th-century print

Discover science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's views on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Read Next

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company

Periods of American Literature

Girl Reading On Turquoise Couch

9 American Countercultural Books

poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192).

World Poetry Day

Discover

Estimated battle casualties, Normandy invasion, World War II. WWII, D-Day

Estimated Battle Casualties During the Normandy Invasion and Campaign to Liberate Paris (June–August 1944)

An ancient egyptian hieroglyphic painted carving showing the falcon headed god Horus seated on a throne and holding a golden fly whisk. Before him are the Pharoah Seti and the goddess Isis. Interior wall of the temple to Osiris at Abydos, Egypt.

11 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Deck chairs under a beach umbrella.

When Does Summer Start?

Secret Service Agent Listens To Earpiece

Secret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. Presidents

Cuban Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) single adult male, Zapata peninsula, Cuba, Caribbean.Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world.

Queen Mab’s Stable: 7 of the Smallest Animals

Prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, April 16, 1945, liberated by American troops of the 80th Division. Elie Wiesel (7th from the left on the middle bunk next to the vertical post) World War II Holocaust

What Is the Origin of the Term Holocaust?

American bison (Bison bison) also known as buffalo or plains buffalo on the prairie, western U.S.

What’s the Difference Between Bison and Buffalo?

American literature: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: May 09, 2025

News •

'Hamilton' author Ron Chernow's new book takes on an icon of American letters, Mark Twain • May 9, 2025, 11:17 AM ET (AP)

Photos and Videos

John Smith: Map of Virginia

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Poor Richard's almanac

Washington Irving, 19th-century print

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe, c. 1880

Walt Whitman, c. 1870

American humorists, 1868

How did Phillis Wheatley become a poet?

Discover science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's views on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”

The video thumbnail image shows a black and white image of Robert Frost against a sepia-toned background.

An image of Joy Harjo, a Native American woman, imposed on a background of a notebook. A blue arrow points to Harjo with the label "poet laureate."

See All Videos, Images and Interactives →

Topics

lyric fiction deep image poet African American literature 13 Great Indigenous Writers to Read and Celebrate poet laureate muckraker National Book Awards Frost Medal Pulitzer Prize Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize English literature French literature African literature Arabic literature Italian literature German literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

A. Bartlett Giamatti

American baseball commissioner

Harold Bell Wright

American author

Norton Juster

American author

Joseph Krumgold

American author

John Martin

American dance critic

Will James

American author

William Peter Blatty

American screenwriter and novelist

Ruth Sawyer

American writer

Charles Edward Russell

American writer

Charles Dudley Warner

American essayist

Jim Backus

American actor

Martin E. Johnson

American adventurer and photographer

Eric Knight

American author

Laura E. Richards

American author

Tom Lea

American artist and writer

Ira Levin

American author

Jonathan Safran Foer

American author

Walter M. Miller, Jr.

American writer

Albion W. Tourgée

American lawyer, judge, journalist, and novelist

Richard Matheson

American author and screenwriter

Quiz

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

List

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company

Periods of American Literature

Girl Reading On Turquoise Couch

9 American Countercultural Books