California
Click an author to read a biographical essay prepared by a local student.
There is no state in the Union whose writing could be discussed in detail in a short overview such as this one. The intent here is
simply to provide a snapshot of the kinds of writers who have called any state -- in this case, California -- home. We want you to add to this overview.As you develop materials about the writers in your
area and submit them to us, add a sentence or two that could be included in this brief essay, and tell us why you think the writer you are recommending is significant enough to warrant being mentioned. We'll e-mail your
teacher to let you know if your author makes the cut. The "Golden State" has been host to many fine writers and has been written about by many more. It can claim major contributions to the
detective novel, Asian-American literature, and Hispanic literature. It also gave rise to one of the most vigorous literary forms of the 20th century, the motion picture screenplay. Many early California writers
turned to the Gold Rush for background. They included the East Coast born Bret Harte, who settled in San Francisco, Missouri's Mark Twain ("The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County") and In the first two decades of this
century the film industry located itself in Los Angeles and began to crank out film scripts, including a number of world masterpieces. Some of the writers who rose to prominence in film began as screenwriters,
while others made their mark in other genres and other states and came to California to write for the movies. Any list of classic screenwriters would include the Epstein brothers,
Erich von Stroheim, Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur, Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Robert Riskind, Garson Kanin, Dorothy Kingsley, and Robert Towne (all Los Angeles).
Writers who went West to try their hand at the new form have included Dorothy Parker, The film industry -- the business of illusions -- has also provided many writers with material.
The hard-boiled detective novel was more or less invented in California by Dashiell Hammett (San Francisco) and polished by
During World War Two, Los Angeles became home to a colony of European writers, many of whom had fled the conflagration in Europe. They included Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, One of the most colorful literary movements to emerge from the state, the San Francisco
"Beats" briefly made the little community of North Beach into a creative hub. Among those who wrote there were poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Alan Ginsburg.
With its high Asian-American population, California has given rise to some ground-breaking fiction and nonfiction dealing with the Asian-American experience.
Hispanic writers include short story writer Gary Soto, essayist and biographer Richard Rodriguez, novelist and essayist Ana Castillo, and mystery writer Gregory Nava.