Some novelists between two wars

The 1920's in America—a time of exhilaration and wild exuberance, of bravado and fast living to make up the wasted war years. A time of jazz, short skirts, new shiny automobiles; a time of lavish spending and "get-rich-quick" schemes. And yet, there were other things in these "roaring, mad" years too. Heartbreak for some who found their dreams of permanent peace and prosperity smashed; mounting hysteria and fear for others who knew that the gaiety and rejoicing could not last. And finally for all the insecurity and bewilderment of the sudden, if not unexpected, depression. The 1930's found a new group of Americans—older, wiser, often bitter, and decidedly more realistic. The era of youthful carelessness had passed; there were some who questioned whether it had ever really existed