America's greatest early authors and their works come alive in Great American Authors 1650-1845. Host Jane Kaczmarek takes us from when the nation was founded to the middle of the 19th Century as seen through the eyes of literary giants such as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. As the American colonies moved toward becoming an independent nation, a unique and distinctive voice poured forth from the pens of its authors. Their inspiring stories and poems could have only come from the heart and soul of this fledgling country.

Between the War of 1812 and the Mexican American War that ended in 1848, America experienced an exuberant period of growth, and it was during this time that American authors produced the nation's first great wave of classic literature. In this program, literary giants such as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow make their mark on the American psyche. Contrasting dark and enlightening themes such as slavery, injustice, freedom, transcendentalism and death are explored and brought to the fore in the works from these renowned authors.

After the Civil War, the modern American novel began to take shape, with Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain and Henry James leading the way. Authors from all over the country and from various walks of life began publishing books, fulfilling the dreams of James and Emerson who talked about authorship from the everyday man.

As America moves onto the world stage, its authors struggle with the problems that accompany modernization and industrialization. William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandberg, Edith Wharton and Henry Miller, among others, wrestled with the uncomfortable and sometimes controversial subjects of poverty, corrupt government, miserable working environments and sexuality.

The most turbulent period in American history encompassed the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. It gave rise to America's greatest writers, known collectively as the lost generation, consisting of greats such as William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Pearl Buck and Steinbeck. Rejecting traditional storytelling, this "Lost Generation" of authors developed new formulas for novels and characters, in many, works some of which are "Grapes of Wrath," "Look Homeward, Angel" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

America entered the technological age through the darkness of WWII and its aftermath. Science fiction and plays became widespread through popular culture and mass media, with Ray Bradbury, James Thurber and Tennessee Williams leading the way. Though alcoholism, broken families, personal, political and wartime trauma would weigh on the authors of this era, classic works such as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Martian Chronicles," and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" still stand to show the undying talent and fortitude of their authors.

If the lost generation authors were searching for identity and meaning, the group of authors in this program rejected everything about mainstream America. Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg, among many others, wrote to rebel against the unrealistic expectations of American culture to hold people to defined, cookie-cutter molds. Ultimately, their works would speak to the baby boomer generation, on topics of being "beat down by establishment (the beat generation)," racism and segregation, homosexuality, drug use and individualism. America rattled as nuclear power, rock and roll, youth culture, civil rights and mass media reinvented the idea of being an American.

This generation of writers witnessed and participated in WWII, The Korean War, The Cold War, The Civil Rights movement, and Vietnam. These experiences shaped them intellectually, spiritually and emotionally in ways that were translated into their writing. This final chapter of Great American Authors features Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, and Toni Morrison, among others, and shows how modern-day American authors have created literary themes based on experiences and social climates wholly unique to their day and age.