In writing INVISIBLE MAN in the late 1940s, Ralph Ellison brought onto the scene a new kind of black protagonist, one at odds with the characters of the leading black novelist at the time, Richard Wright.

Though his output was limited to only five novels, Dashiell Hammett remains one of the most influential writers of his time.

The work of William Styron, which includes novels such as SOPHIE’S CHOICE and THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER, has generated both praise and controversy over the past fifty years.

She became a writer at a time when writers were celebrities and their recklessness was admirable. Like Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Hammett, Lillian Hellman was a smoker, a drinker, a lover, and a fighter.

In the midst of post-war conservatism, Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs had become disenchanted and were experimenting with new forms of communication.

For more than a decade the group of tastemakers met daily at New York City’s Algonquin Hotel. They came to be known as the Algonquin Round Table and changed forever the face of American humor.

Considered the father of the screwball comedy, Preston Sturges was recognized as one of the great early writers in Hollywood.