20th Century American Literature: 1951-1960

Tsk9653 on 11/19/2008

20thCenturyAmericanLiterature19511960 Photo

The sixth decade of the 20th century - January 1, 1951 through December 31, 1960 - was a fertile period for American literature. This quiz consists of 15 questions concerning important or memorable American writers who were best known as novelists, poets, or playwrights and who were active during the relevant period. I have included no writers of science fiction in this quiz - not because no such writers are worthy of inclusion (Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein all would have qualified for this quiz) - but because this is not a genre that is among my favorites and because there was already a large pool of potential quiz material. Indeed, I could have easily come up with another 15 questions (while still excluding science fiction) of important American writers or works from the decade. This quiz presents a mix of questions that primarily seek the name of a notable American writer or the name of a significant work by a notable American writer.

Because this was the decade of the Beat Generation writers (who are covered in this quiz), I have elected to use an image of a young Allen Ginsberg to introduce the quiz.

Sources: Perkins, Perkins, and Leininger, eds., "Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature" (HarperCollins, 1991), Jane Rogers, ed., "Good Fiction Guide" (Oxford University Press, 2001), and Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia.

15 Questions

Rating:	(8.14/9)
Difficulty:	Somewhat Difficult
Taken:	84 times

Quiz Leaderboard

Player:		Level:	% Correct:	Time to Complete:
1	Tallactor	54	93.33%	250.98 seconds
2	Carreau	64	93.33%	328.94 seconds
3	Jodee79	1	86.67%	985.50 seconds
4	Spoonyj	50	80.00%	224.36 seconds
5	Lischulman	6	80.00%	253.27 seconds
6	Oldblue	3	80.00%	305.76 seconds
7	Mitchellg	3	80.00%	309.24 seconds
8	Finestkind	40	80.00%	451.42 seconds
9	Factacular	49	80.00%	478.00 seconds
10	Lcflcf	1	73.33%	193.37 seconds