Novels to read that take place in the 1920's

Tepelus · Sep 8, 2014

My WIP is not an historical, but it does take place in 1923 in my home town. I consider it more Gothic (whether it'll lean toward horror or romance remains to be seen once the first draft is done) in genre than historical, but I do want to give it an historical feel. I've been doing research on my town during this time frame of the summer of 1923 as much as I possibly can, but I would also like to read books set during this time to get a feel for the language of the time and the mindset of the people, plus learn a bit more about the history of the 20's. I know some, but I haven't studied it much.

I'm mostly interested in works that take place in small towns or the Midwest, or better yet, in Michigan since it is there that the story takes place. I borrowed The Great Gatsby from the library and thought it would be a start. It's not that long of a read so it shouldn't take me long to get through it despite me being a slow reader.

Also, if you know of any websites that are a great source for information regarding the twenties, I'd appreciate those too.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

alleycat · Sep 8, 2014

Sinclair Lewis comes to mind.

Ken · Sep 8, 2014

wikipedia is great for this
have used it for a different era and found lots of good novels

here's one for the 20's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1920s_novels

benbenberi · Sep 8, 2014

Seconding Sinclair Lewis.

Slightly older but still relevant is Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio - 1919, a rather bleak cycle of short stories.

One very good way to get a sense of the language and mindset of a period is to look at the popular literature of the day. This page lists the bestsellers for every year in the 1920s. Magazines, like the Saturday Evening Post, are another great resource - some are online, others are easily found through libraries.

Jack Asher · Sep 8, 2014

Penrod and Sam.

flapperphilosopher · Sep 8, 2014

This Side of Paradise is a good one, especially if you have younger characters-- Fitzgerald's first novel, written in his late teens and early 20s and published in 1920. It's mostly set in the East, at boarding school and Yale (or Princeton? I forget) but the main character is originally from Minnesota. He's totally not Fitzgerald though, being born in Minneapolis instead of St. Paul.

This book was also a bestseller at the time--it really struck a chord with the college-age kids. I guess it's set in the 1910s really but it belongs very much to the generation coming of age in the 1920s.

A lot of Hemingway's earlier short stories are set in the Midwest, too (he of course was from Illinois). A couple in the Hemingway short story book I have on hand are: "Up in Michigan," "The Three-Day Blow," "Soldier's Home," and "Big Two-Hearted Rvier."

Also you probably already discovered this but it seems like most people at the time called it the "Middle West," instead of the "Midwest"-- I think both terms were in use, just Middle West was more common.

Tepelus · Sep 8, 2014

Thank you much, everyone! I knew I could count on this forum to give me great recs.

gothicangel · Sep 9, 2014

If you are looking for language of the time, rather than what someone in later decades thinks it was, I suggest reading authors who wrote in the 1920s but not necessarily your genre.

L Frank Baum
Colette (One of my sister's favourite writers)
Agatha Christie
Joseph Conrad
Robert Frost
DH Lawrence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_in_literature#New_books

flapperphilosopher · Sep 9, 2014

Another great thing to look at is letters written in the time period. They're absolutely invaluable for giving a sense of the way people used language informally (and without censorship!). You can see the kinds of slang and phrases people actually used ("swell" was used all the time, "the cat's meow" pretty much never), the kinds of things they chatted about, the way they related to each other. I confess I've never systematically searched out letters for time periods, but social histories often have some or excerpts, and famous figures often have lots of letters published posthumously. These days a lot of libraries and archives probably have them online-- I've worked digitizing old letters (which I invariably read while doing so, haha). Both for research and for fun I highly recommend Hemingway's letters from the late teens and early to mid 20s-- he wrote a lot and people have saved a lot, he's Midwestern, and, honestly, his letters are great. With his friends he would often be really silly, sometimes to absurdity, and he really liked playing with words.

KTC · Sep 9, 2014

Google

Novel 1923...

It will give you a list of novels published that year, with covers...

with toggle arrows to check out other years...

Lil · Sep 9, 2014

You might look at Emily Post's Etiquette. You can find the 1922 version at http://www.bartleby.com
That will give you a good idea of expected behavior.

Magnanimoe · Oct 17, 2014

You might want to check out the memoir Waiting For the Morning Train by Civil War historian Bruce Catton. His boyhood was a little before your time, but it's a great portrait of small town Michigan (Benzonia).

I think you might want to rethink your research focus. Life for the super wealthy on Gatsby's Long Island in the 1920s would bear little to no resemblance to life in small-town Michigan, where farming would have ruled the day. Also, the ethnic history of that town would be very influential as to what it would be like. A town founded by German Lutherans (Frankenmuth) would have a different culture than a town with a large Irish population (Clare) or Dutch (Holland/Zeeland), or a town with a large Native American population.

RN Hill · Dec 5, 2014

Tepelus -- coming to the party late, but I second the idea of finding letters written in the 1920s. I ran across a cache of them at an estate sale once, and the language! They used the abbreviation "b/4!"

Quick question -- where in Michigan are you located? I'm researching a nonfiction historical about a guy who was originally from Michigan, so I'm always looking for connections.

Alessandra Kelley · Dec 5, 2014

"We Shook the Family Tree" by Hildegarde Dolson.

Hilarious memoir by a New Yorker humorist who grew up in the 1920s. Lots of small town detail, slang, fads and fashions.

There are some really good readable histories too, like "Only Yesterday" by Frederick Lewis Allen. All about the 1920s and it was published before Prohibition was repealed.

Vito · Dec 14, 2014

The books listed below are currently on my "to-read" list, so please take my comments as suggestions rather than recommendations.

Legs by William Kennedy. It's a fictionalized (or whatever the word is) biography of the 1920s gangster, Legs Diamond.

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. Not sure if this one actually takes place in the late 1920s or early 1930s, but I've been told that it's a "Fitzgerald-ish" tale of a successful young man whose life spins out of control.

Herman Wouk's City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder, about a little kid growing up in NYC during the '20s.

Novels to read that take place in the 1920's

Tepelus

And so...

alleycat

Still around

Ken

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

Jack Asher

Differently rational

flapperphilosopher

Tepelus

And so...

gothicangel

Toughen up.

flapperphilosopher

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Lil

Magnanimoe

RN Hill

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Vito

Recalled to life