Heroes of American Literature #20

Sinclair Lewis, lounging.

Heroes of American Literature #19

Lillian Hellman

Heroes of American Literature #18

Alex Haley

Heroes of American Literature #17

John Steinbeck

Heroes of American Literature #16

Thomas Pynchon

Heroes of American Literature #15

Mary McCarthy

Heroes of American Literature #14

Sherwood Anderson

Heroes of American Literature #13

Ring Lardner

Heroes of American Literature #12

John Dos Passos

Heroes of American Literature #11

Nathanael West

Heroes of American Literature #10

Nelson Algren

Heroes of American Literature #9

Vladimir Nabokov

Heroes of American Literature #8

Carson McCullers

Heroes of American Literature #7

We here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . would like to note that, on this day, one of America's great writers of the last century, Ray Bradbury, turns 85. If you haven't read The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes or any of the dozens upon dozens of short stories he wrote in the 1940s through the 1960s, then you qualify as deprived (benignly so) in our book.

Heroes of American Literature #6

Lester Bangs

Heroes of American Literature #5

Zora Neale Hurston

Heroes of American Literature #4

Theodore Dreiser

Heroes of American Literature #3

Cormac McCarthy

Heroes of American Literature #2

John O'Hara

Heroes of American Literature #1

Tom Wolfe (Yes!)