By Alisha Caldwell
In the early 1900’s America was criticized by some for its lack of creativity. Literary critic Van Wyck Brooks stated "no ideas in America are really strong or bold.” (Alexander 1969). Within decade s these words were meaningless and “the harvest, hurried by the war and its disheartening aftermath, was at hand in the work of novelists like Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway; of poets like Robinson, Sandburg, Frost, and Jeffers; and of the playwright O'Neill.” (Alexander 1969) America’s literature had come of age.
The turmoil of the war and the depression spurred the literary imagination. The second age of Modernism and the Marxist movement provided for more radical beliefs and stances (New World). The period gave way to questions about sex, bonding, the raising of children and self-orientation (New World). New works resulted that would leave an imprint on American literature that could not be erased. The period of 1930-1945 saw many new works, both controversial and imaginative. As shown by the events and works mentioned below, it is a period that no one can deny was a period of luster for literary America.
1930 Events
Pulitzer Prizes:
Fiction: Laughing Boy, by Oliver La Farge
Drama: The Green Pastures by Marc Connelly.
Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on November 5th to Sinclair Lewis.
Boston courts banned Theodore Dreisers’s novel An American Tragedy for being obscene.
Popular readings of the time were The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper and The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passo.
1931 Events
The premier of Green Grow the Lilacs by Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs which was later adapted by Rodger and Hammerstein as “Oklahoma!”
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Years of Grace, Margaret Ayer Barnes
Drama: Alison's House, Susan Glaspell
1932 Events
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Drama: Of Thee I Sing, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin
Popular readings of the time included The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck.
1933 Events
Newsweek magazine was published for the first time on February 17th.
Esquire debuts as the first men's magazine
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Store, T. S. Stribling
Drama: Both Your Houses, Maxwell Anderson
Popular readings of the time included Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by: Gertrude Stein.
1934 Events
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Lamb in His Bosom, Caroline Miller
Drama: Men in White, Sidney Kingsley
The Flash Gordon comic strip is fist published.
1935 Events
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Now in November, Josephine Winslow Johnson
Drama: The Old Maid, Zöe Akins
Popular readings included Tortilla Flat by: John Steinbeck.
1936 Events
Life magazine is first published.
Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind published.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Honey in the Horn, Harold L. Davis
Drama: Idiot's Delight, Robert E. Sherwood
Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugene O'Neill
1937 Events
Look magazine goes on sale in the U.S.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Drama: You Can't Take It With You, Moss Hart and George S.
Popular readings included The Age of Innocence by: Edith Wharton.
The first issue of Detective Comics is released by the company that will eventually be named DC Comics.
1938 Events
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Late George Apley, John Phillips Marquand
Drama: Our Town, Thornton Wilder
Nobel Prize for Literature: Pearl S. Buck (US)
The trilogy USA by John Dos Pasos is published containing his three novels, The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936).
Popular readings included Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
Action Comics makes its first appearance, and features the first superhero ever, Superman.
1939 Events
A Christmas Carol is read before a radio audience.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Drama: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Kane introduces the Batman cartoon.
The big-screen adaptation of Gone with the Wind premieres
Popular readings included The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman.
Batman makes his first appearance in Detective Comics. Unlike Superman, Batman has no powers; he fights crime using martial arts, technology, and his mind. Timely Comics releases Marvel Comics, including Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and several other heroes. Timely will eventually be renamed Marvel.
DC introduces The Flash, a superhero who can run faster than the speed of light.
1940 Events
Pride and Prejudice is adapted for a motion picture.
The first Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Drama: The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan
Popular readings included For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway and Native Son by Richard Wright.
DC presents Alan Scott, who makes a ring that allows him to use the light of the Green Lantern. Brenda Starr debuts. The star of the strip is a redheaded reporter who often visits exotic places. It's notable for being created by a woman, Dale Messick. The strip continues to be female-created, now being written by Mary Schmich and drawn by June Brigman.
1941 Events
Fitzgerald’s unfinished work The Last Tycoon is edited and published by Edmund Wilson.
Pulitzer Prizes
Drama: There Shall Be No Night, Robert E. Sherwood
In what will become the Marvel universe, Steve Rogers is given super-soldier serum and a mighty shield, becoming Captain America. DC introduces Wonder Woman, designed by psychiatrist William Marston to embody female ideals of heroism. Redheaded teenager Archie Andrews makes his first appearance in Pep Comics. In 1945, the publisher will change its name from MLJ Comics to Archie Comics.
1942 Events
New York Times launches its Best Seller List.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: In This Our Life, Ellen Glasgow
1943 Events
George Orwell resigns from the BBC to become editor of the Tribune.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Dragon's Teeth, Upton Sinclair
Drama: The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder
Rodgers & Hammerstein's “Oklahoma!” opens and is the adaption of Green Grow the Lilacs by Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs.
Popular readings included Four Quartets by Burnt Norton.
1944 Events
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin
1945 Events
The first Ebony Magazine is published on November 1st.
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: A Bell for Adano, John Hersey
Drama: Harvey, Mary Chase
Popular readings included W. H. Auden, The Collected Poems, Gwendolyn Brooks, A Street in Bronzeville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up and Other Uncollected Pieces, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, Richard Wright, Black Boy, and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
Sources:
Alexander, C. (1969). Nationalism in American Thought, 1930-1945. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Yearly Information 1930-1945. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.infoplease.com/year/XXXX
Comic Information 1930-1945. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/comicstimeline.html
Modernism. Retrieved March 3, 2009 from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Modernism.
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