[SonOfDarkSkies]

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn... American writing comes from that. There was nothing before.

IIRC Moby Dick predated Huck by about 30 years. There's also Nathaniel Hawthorne.

That said, Clemens is clearly an American treasure.

[Artemis Webb]

Moby Dick is unreadable.
Find me somebody that claims they’ve read it front to back (not an abridged version) and I’ll show you a liar.

[noinfringers2]

As a grade school boy who lived in a town on the Mississippi where Twain once lived, I and others studied Twain’s writings including Huckleberry Finn. I thought I had a copy of the book. However, right now I can’t locate it. However I do have my One Volume Edition of ‘ The Complete Short Stories and Famous Essays of MARK TWAIN’. It has over 1000 pages about Twain with his stories. Copywrites are from late 1880s to early 1900s. The one not in the Book is about ‘Huckleberry Finn’. Twain was a remarkable and prolific teller of stories and about world places and conditions.

[noinfringers2]

As a grade school boy who lived in a town on the Mississippi where Twain once lived, I and others studied Twain’s writings including Huckleberry Finn. I thought I had a copy of the book. However, right now I can’t locate it. However I do have my One Volume Edition of ‘ The Complete Short Stories and Famous Essays of MARK TWAIN’. It has over 1000 pages about Twain with his stories. Copywrites are from late 1880s to early 1900s. The one not in the Book is about ‘Huckleberry Finn’. Twain was a remarkable and prolific teller of stories and about world places and conditions.

[eclecticEel]

What no mention for Edgar Allen Poe?

[mlo]

"IIRC Moby Dick predated Huck by about 30 years. There's also Nathaniel Hawthorne."

I believe Hemingway "American Literature", not just literature written by an American.