Rachel Carson (1907-1964). DDT seemed like a miracle when it was developed during World War II, and in some ways it was; cer- tainly it saved the lives of thousands of American soldiers who would otherwise have died of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. But after the war DDT and other long-lasting pesticides began to be used in agriculture without restraint; and then the birds started to die. Rachel Carson—whose 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us combined good scientific observation with a talent for poetic description—was the one who put the picture together; her book Silent Spring (1962) galvanized the nascent environmental movement and ultimately sparked an environmental revolution. The book itself is still a wonderful read, both as an indictment of human stu- pidity and greed, and as a principled call to action.
Willa Cather (1873-1947) lived most of her adult life in or near New York City, but used memories of her early years on the plains of Nebraska as the source of her literary inspiration. Her first popular success came with My Antonia (1918), which draws on her plains childhood in semiautobiographical fashion. In her later novйis she explored the experiences of other early settlers in the Amйricas; two of the best of these are Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) set in Spanish colonial New Mйxico, and Shadows on the Rock (1931), set in French colonial Quebec.
John Cheever (1912-1982) was as brilliant a master of the short- story genre as can be found in ali of American literature. His most characteristic stories are set in the well-to-do suburbs and exurbs of the Northeast, and scrutinize, with a gimlet eye softened by irony and wry humor, the foibles of people who, away from the office, spend too much time at the country club, drink too much, and are too attracted to their neighbors' spouses. His crystalline prose exem- plifies the old "New Yorker style" at its best. Feast on his Collected Stories (1978).
Robertson Davies (1913-1995), even more than Margaret Atwood, seemed to personify twentieth-century Canadian fiction. Davies was a master storyteller, with such a sure grasp of humor, such control of language, and such a genius for plot that he was able to make ideas the real subjects of his novйis without impeding their narrative drive at ali. My favorites of his many novйis are those of the Cornish Trilogy: The Rebel Angels (1981), What's Bred in the Bone (1985), and The Lyre of Orpheus (1988).
E.L. Doctorow (1931- ) is a fluent and exceptionally clever storyteller whose novйis characteristically are set in the American past and blend real events with fictional ones, made-up characters with historical figures. His best-known novel, Ragtime (1975), is a com- pelling story of crime, race, and aspirations at the start of the twenti- eth century.
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) was the leading American practi- tioner of the school of writing called "naturalism," which attempted to substitute an unflinching realism for the artificial proprieties of the Victorian novel. Dreisers first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), tells the story of a young woman who successfully makes her way in the world as a "kept woman." It would have been considered scandalous had it been noticed at ali; instead it was ignored by critics and the public alike. Only very much later was it recognized for the master- work it is. Read also An American Tragedy (1925), Dreisers most celebrated novel, a harrowing fictional account of a murder and its consequences.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955). I would have liked to include Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity in The New Lifetime Reading Plan itself, but reluctantly concede that it would prove too heavily mathematical for most general readers. Still, it is worth trying for what you can get out of it—read past the equations, and dont let yourself be deterred by them. In his first American lectures (1921), Einstein presented a systematic explanation of his theory of relativity, one of the great intellectual achievements of our time. This book, based on those lectures but revised and expanded by Einstein himself several times over the years, repays multiple readings; more of the meaning will emerge each time.
Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) published only one novel in his life, but The Invisible Man (1952) had a literary and social impact suffi- cient to guarantee him a lasting place in twentieth-century American letters. Ellison's nameless young Black protagonist is liter- ally, to the world, invisible as a person; he is merely a black face. He uses his invisibility as a mask, observing the world that ignores him; but ultimately he must retreat entirely into a world of his own to preserve his sense of wholeness. Part allegory, part realism, this novel of the Black experience continues to resonate strongly today.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1886-1940) came from the Midwest and attended college at Princeton, the formative experience of his life. There he found social success and a clear literary vocation that led in the 1920s to three of his most successful and enduring works: This Side of Paradise (1920), Tender Is the Night (1924), and The Great Gatsby (1925)—the latter perhaps the quintessential American short novel. His flame burned brightly, but not for long; by the 1930s his life had begun to be ruined by alcoholism, feckless- ness, and a (realistic) sense that he would never again equal his early work.
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939). Ford's greatest contribution to modern literature probably came from his tireless (and often unre- quited) championing of other modern writers. As editor of the short-lived Transatlantic Review in the mid-twenties, for example, he published work by Hemingway, Joyce, Pound, Gertrude Stein, and others of their rank. His own work has gone through a long period of disesteem but may be poised for a criticai re-evaluation. See for yourself. His best-known novel, and the best place to start reading his work, is The Good Soldier (1915).
William Gaddis (1922- ) is a controversial figure in American literature, much admired by many other writers and perhaps the most influential little-known writer of our time. His works are long and knotty, filled with protracted sentences and a sometimes Joycean opacity of language (opacity, that is, that can become transparent upon repeated reading and reflection). He publishes infrequently; try his first two novйis, The Recognitions (1955) and J.R. (1975), both of which dissect the evils and banalities of modern America.
Federico Garcнa Lorca (1898-1936) was the foremost Spanish poet of the early twentieth century; his verse, obsessed with violence and death, has lost none of the emotional power and technical bril- liance that brought the poet fame during his own lifetime. An artist of formidable power and creative range, Garcнa Lorca was a dramatist as well as a poet, and was intensely interested in Spanish music—many of his poems are in the form of songs. He himself came to a tragically violent end when he was murdered by Nationalist troops during the Spanish Civil War. Of his Collected Poems (1991), be sure to read some of his "Gypsy Ballads," and his masterpiece, the "Lament for Ignacio Sбnchez Mejнas," mourning the death of a bullfighter.