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Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) grew up in Massachusetts, and her upbringing in a poor but happy environment gave her stories a strong autobiographical element. Wholesome without being condescending, her deceptively simple writing style made her works instantly popular, and so they have remained. ‘Little Women’ was her finest work, and was loved for its touching portrayal of American family life.

L. Frank Baum (1856 – 1919) was an American writer and dramatist, who wrote on a part-time basis until he published ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ at the age of 44, at which time he retired to write on a full-time basis. In all he wrote a further thirteen ‘Oz’ books, and these works have been hugely popular ever since.

Susan Coolidge was the pen name of Sarah Chauncy Woolsey (1835-1905), the creator of ‘What Katy Did’ and its four sequels. This ever-popular series was very influential on later books in the same genre.

Eleanor H(odgman) Porter (1868 – 1920) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose children’s story ‘Pollyanna’ became the Harry Potter of its day. Pollyanna’s irrepressible optimism is illustrated by the ‘glad game’, in which she would find the positive in any situation. ‘Glad Clubs’ were formed, and the book was adapted for the theatre, cinema and television.

Jack London (1876-1916) is a good example of how the popularity of a writer can wax and wane over the years. In the first fifteeen years of the twentieth century, London’s stories of his native America monopolised the market like few authors before or since, yet following his early death interest in his work dwindled. It was not until the 1960s that his work began to be re-evaluated, and he is now considered one of America’s finest, and most widely translated, writers.

The writing career of Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) peaked early, with his early novels, such as ‘Typee’ becoming best sellers. By the mid-1850s his popularity declined sharply, and by the time he died he had been largely forgotten. Yet in time his novel ‘Moby Dick’ came to be regarded as one of the finest works of American, and indeed world, literature, as was ‘Billy Budd’, which was not published until long after his death, in 1924.

Although many books have been influential on their times, Abraham Lincoln is said to have suggested that ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ caused the American civil war. When Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) wrote the book, she could not have envisaged its success – sales of the book in the nineteenth century were second only to the bible, and she became a central figure in the fight against slavery.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 -1910) alias Mark Twain, is considered one of America’s greatest ever writers. Not only did he write enormously popular novels, such as ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, but also a series of classic travel books, including ‘Life on the Mississippi’ and ‘The Innocents Abroad’. Probably his finest work is ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, which is rated as one of the finest American novels ever written.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was an American novelist who, at the height of his fame, was one of the world’s most widely read writers, and could claim to be America’s first popular novelist. Although no longer enjoying the same reputation of past times, his novels, ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ and ‘The Deerslayer’ are fine pieces of work.