Missouri
Click an author to read a biographical essay prepared by a local student.
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By Kimberly Richey
A state with cities as diverse as St. Louis, Kansas City, the Ozarks, Joplin and Cape Girardeau, extremes of urban and rural America, is entitled to a vast literary history. Since Lewis and Clark first wrote about the state in 1804, Missouri authors have been making valuable contributions to American literature. The authors themselves, however, don't always cooperate when one classifies them by state boundaries. Some of the artists with ties to the "Show Me State" only briefly passed through Missouri's state lines, while others spent their entire lives here. For purposes of this essay, therefore, writers will be considered a Missouri writer if they either influenced the state and its culture, or if the state influenced them, even if this means some authors will be claimed simultaneously by other states.
Name Droppers
Many literary critics have claimed that the American novel begins with Mark Twain, Missouri's most famous literary figure who featured his hometown, Hannibal, in his most
famous works. He dealt with social conflicts of his time, and his novels and witty essays make him a major part of American literary history.
Just the Facts
In addition to these very well known essentials of the literary canon, Missouri has a rich
heritage of newspapers and journalists. German and English newspapers brought national notoriety to St. Louis' intellectual and literary society in the 1800's. Missouri's literature
grew in large part out of a newspaper culture. In fact, not only did Mark Twain get his first writing experience for Missouri newspapers, but many other notable figures were also part of this heritage.
Breaking New Ground
In addition to its rich journalistic history, Missouri society fostered the career of many minority authors, both female and people of color, before it became politically correct to do
so. Kate Chopin returned to her native St. Louis after she was widowed in 1882 and wrote here until dismal sales of her feminist novel The Awakening caused her to abandon her
writing career. Marianne Moore, born in Kirkwood, edited an important literary journal, The Dial, in 1920's, and won prizes including the Pulitzer and Bollingen. Sara Teasdale, the
Missouri poet, won Columbia University's Poetry Prize for Love Songs in 1918. After attending high school and college in St. Louis, Fannie Hurst went on to publish works in
almost every genre; she became the world's highest paid short story writer in the 1920's. Zoe Akins won the Nobel Prize for drama in 1935 for The Old Maid; a play based on a
novella by Edith Wharton. More recently, Mona Van Duyn, a faculty member of Washington University, became the first woman appointed U.S. Poet Laureate in 1992. She won the National book Award and Pulitzer Prize for
Near Changes.
William Wells Brown, America's first black novelist, was brought to St. Louis as a slave in 1827. His slave narrative records an important piece of American history. Other minority authors born in Missouri include
Maya Angelou , Ntozake Shange, Quincy Troupe and Lanford Wilson. Angelou left Missouri early in her life, but writes about time spent her in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Shange also set her autobiographical novel Betsy Brown here. Troupe won two American Book Awards and has published poetry and prose. Wilson, often considered the "spiritual heir" of Tennessee Williams, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Talley's Folly and Burn This.One of Missouri's most famous female authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder, lived in Mansfield and wrote her Little House books after her daughter encouraged her to share the stories of life on the prairie at the turn of the century. She had been a journalist for The Missouri Ruralist before she published her first book at age 65. Two other authors of works for young people are Patricia and Fredrick McKissack; both have written historical fiction and biographies of African Americans. Together, they've won the Coretta Scott King Award and Caldecott honors.
Traditional Revolutionaries
Jack Conroy, a native of Moberly, has become famous for realistic fiction and nonfiction works about American workers. The Disinherited, his depiction of labor struggles and
class conflict, is set in his hometown. William Burroughs, born in St. Louis, is known for his experimental novels and influence on Beat Movement writers. Richard Rhodes, author of novels and nonfiction
, wrote several novels, and won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
The People's Choice
Some authors have won more popular acclaim than critical awards. Lester Dent of LaPlata, Missouri was a giant of the pulp magazine era. Millions of copies of his adventure stories
featuring Doc Savage in the 1930s and '40s became the prototype for Superman and Batman. Missouri is also represented in another best selling genre, romance authors;
Bobbi Smith Walton of St. Charles has three million copies of her books in print, and Janet Dailey of Branson has sold more than 100 million copies of her historical fiction.
Robert Heinlein grew up in Kansas City, and his novels and short stories are considered as "defining the golden age of science fiction." Stranger in a Strange Land was one of the first science fiction best sellers. Heinlein was the first author to sell young adult science fiction to a major publishing house; he won four Hugo Awards and the Nebula Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement.
While no short overview like this could ever completely examine the writers who've recorded and created Missouri's literary heritage, I would be remiss if I left out several other celebrities associated with the state. Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People) was born and spent his early life in Maryville. St. Joseph's Walter Cronkite has written several books on politics and the press, in addition to gaining fame as a newscaster. The radio talk show host from Cape Girardeau, Rush Limbaugh, has written several best selling books on politics and pop culture.
The writers in today's Missouri continue to inspire, entertain and inform readers across the country and around the world. Whether they acquire the recognition and fame of these authors, they can be proud of the long heritage of Missouri authors.
Kimberly Richey teaches at Belleville East High in Illinois.