American literature at the beginning of 20th century contents introduction

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
Collection of fourteen short stories written by Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1927. These stories explore Hemingway’s frequently addressed themes of war, death, the male-female dynamic, honor, and virtue (Internet Archive 164).
Hemingway specialized in both fiction writing (novels and short stories) and journalism. Some of his other well-renowned works include novels A Farewell to Arms, a WWI story, and The Old Man and the Sea, the story of a Cuban fisherman named Santiago. The first of these echoes his own experiences working for the Red Cross in Italy during WWI. Hemingway’s style is marked by “short, declarative sentences” (Internet Archive 164) and his highlighting of the values of courage and piety through his stories’ protagonists.
What The Negro Thinks by Robert Russa Moton
First edition book by Robert Russa Moton; part of the Marion Thompson Wright Collection. In What The Negro Thinks, Moton dissolves the opinion that the white man knows and understands the black experience. He contends instead that in reality the black man knows the white man much better than the white man could ever know him. The book addresses black discrimination as it occurs in both public places and in the wider sphere of intellect and social structure. Moton offers a message of hope regarding the awareness of this discrimination and movement toward change. This first edition, published in 1929, includes an inscription and signature from the author on the interior dust jacket.
Robert Russa Moton was an early 20th-century educator and writer. He served as the principal at Tuskegee Institute beginning in 1915 and promoted a conservative approach to racial dynamics, advocating for increased collaboration between races and for the betterment of the black community by virtue of education.

All the Sad Young Men by F. Scott Fitzgerald

First edition book featuring a series of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, published one year prior. Nine stories constitute this collection: “The Rich Boy;” “Winter Dreams;” “The Baby Party;” “Absolution;” “Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les;” “The Adjuster;” “Hot and Cold Blood;” “‘The Sensible Thing;’” and “Gretchen’s Forty Winks.” Book was donated to the Sigma Tau Delta Collection of Rare Books and First Editions in Special Collections in April of 2015.
Despite the widespread popularity of his name today for the highly-acclaimed Gatsby, critics consider F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career a defeat, for the Depression suppressed appreciation and relevance of the Roaring Twenties, and he suffered many personal inhabitants to success (his wife faced mental instability while he simultaneously faced alcoholism and financial instability). Many of his short stories, like those included in All The Sad Young Men, are not well-known like Gatsby despite addressing similar matters. According to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, the primary themes highlighted in his works are “ambition and loss, discipline vs. self-indulgence, love and romance, and money and class.” His language has a certain elegance and a poetic undertone that distinguish it amongst other American authors. Regardless of his “success” at the time of his publications, it is evident that Fitzgerald has remained a powerful voice in the world of literary education and in the literary canon of classics.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
First edition, well-known novel by 20th century author John Steinbeck. Steinbeck grew up in Salinas Valley, California. This landscape inspired some of his works, whose “characters were often lonely, misunderstood farmers and ranchers” like those of the Valley (National Steinbeck Center). Of Mice and Men follows the story of two migrant workers, George and his friend Lennie who greatly dependent on his care and guidance. The novel explores the themes of human weakness and isolation, the complexity of friendship, and the unfeasible American Dream.


The Cavalier by George Washington Cable 
Early edition novel written by George Washington Cable, late-19th century and early-20th century southern writer. Cable was born to a well-off, slave-owning family in New Orleans, Louisian in 1844. His experiences serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War transformed his opinions on the South and slavery, and after the war he began his career as a writer. His stories highlight the New Orleans Creole experience and mixed-race society present in the south. Cable received criticism for numerous essays condemning racial injustice and slavery, and consequently his writings diverged toward different audiences and appeals— one being the call for change and justice in the “New South” and the other being romantic novels, “beginning with The Cavalier (1901),” which “attempt[ed] to retrieve an idyllic past, devoid of the problems of racism” (Richardson).