The American Writer

The American writerboth real and fictitious, famous and obscurehas traditionally been situated on the margins of society, an outsider looking in. From The Great Gatsbys Nick Carraway to the millions of bloggers today, writers are generally seen as onlookers documenting the human condition. Yet their own collective story has largely gone untold. Tracing the role of the writer in the United States over the last century, this book describes how those who use language as a creative medium have held a special place in our collective imagination.