Considered one of the most important Modernist writers, William Faulkner is known for his searing excavations into the core of the pain, pride, and prejudices of the antebellum South. His novels explore many subjects in many voices. His narrators range from children to murderers, the insane, and the
James Baldwin, one of the most prominent figures in American literature, rose to the highest of literary heights from the most trying of circumstances. Born into a poor Harlem family, he had to contend with an abusive stepfather. Despite the deplorable quality of Harlem's public schools, Baldwin mana
When, in his famous epic poem "Howl," Allen Ginsberg spoke of "the best minds of my generation," he could only have meant the Beats, that band of notorious writers and artists that formed his surrogate family. Ginsberg, the anti-establishment Buddhist homosexual, became themost widely known public pe
How can we explain the incredible talent that rises clear as a bell off the scratchy old recordings of bluesman Robert Johnson? If we believe the legends, Johnson got his gift on a lonely Mississippi road when he met up with Beelzebub himself. The devil offered Johnson a musical genius that would tea