1.	The Colonial Period (1607 – 1775)

2.	The War of Independence (1775 – 1789)

2.1.	Thomas Jefferson

2.2.	Benjamin Franklin

3.	From Independence to the Civil War (1789 – 1865)

3.1.	Washington Irving

3.2.	James Fenimore Cooper

3.3.	Nathaniel Hawthorne

3.4.	Herman Melville

3.5.	Walt Whitman

3.6.	Edgar Allan Poe

4.	From The Civil War to World War I. (1865-1914)

4.1.	Mark Twain (1845-1910)

4.2.	Henry James

4.3.	Jack London

4.4.	Theodor Dreiser (1871-1945)

4.5.	O. Henry (1862-1910)

5.	From World War I. up to present

5.1.	Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961)

5.2.	Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

5.3.	William Faulkner

5.4.	John Steinbeck

6.	After World War II.

6.1.	Norman Maillor

6.2.	Joseph Heller

6.3.	William Styron

6.4.	John Irving

6.5.	Ken Kesey (1935-2001)

7.	The Beat Generation

7.1.	Jack Kerouac

7.2.	American Drama

"1. The Colonial Period (1607 – 1775)
- existing literature was brought from mother country (England), people didn´t have time for either reading or writing, and literature which was written at that time described countryside, animals, nature

2. The War of Independence (1775 – 1789)
- literature has a political character, mainly patriotic songs and ballads about the heroes

Thomas Jefferson – „The Declaration“ , important statesman and scholar (učenec), very educated lawyer

Benjamin Franklin - „Autobiography“ – remained unfinished, was very popular in Europe – especially in France because he was the first ambasador of the US´in Europe

1783 – Britain recognized the USA
1788 – The Constitution
1789 – the first election  George Washington the first president

3. From Independence to the Civil War (1789 – 1865)
(north against the south)
- literature gets to a higher level, we can see the influence of European literature (France, Germany, England, romanticism)

Washington Irving
- one of the first professional writers, he travelled a lot, a minister to Spain, he became famoýuse for his book : „A History of New York“ and collection of 32 stories – „The Sketch Book“ (e.x. Legend of The Sleepy Hollow)

James Fenimore Cooper
- „Leather-Stocking Tales“ (The Last of The Mohycans)

Nathaniel Hawthorne
- „Scarlet Letter“

Herman Melville
- „Moby-Dick“
- the gratest symbolist of american literature

Walt Whitman
- symbolist, a poet
- „Leaves of Grass“

Edgar Allan Poe
- Allan – a man who tried to adopt him, but didn´t suceed
- „The Raven“ – translated into twelve languages
- a poet, short story writer, considered to be a father of a first horror story – „The Black Cat“, „The Pit and The Pendulum“, „The Murder in The Rue Morque“, „The Fall of The Usher´s House“, „The Mask of The Red Death“"