Don DeLillo Throughout the twentieth century, humanity has had the privilege of reading the works of many fine authors. Authors like Toni Morrison, James Joyce, and even Robert Pinsky come to mind. But when you think of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, Don DeLillo is definitely one of them. Born in New York in a small Italian neighborhood in the Bronx, DeLillo was destined to become a writer. He attended Fordham University where, after graduation, he worked for an advertising agency. Dissatisfied, he left the agency in 1964 to begin working as a freelance writer. As a freelance writer, he makes a living on just two thousand dollars a year. DeLillo wrote on a wide range of topics including computers and furniture and began work on his first novel, Americana. It was his first published novel and took him almost four years to finish. Although DeLillo encountered many obstacles while working on Americana, he persevered through "constant interruptions to make money" (Charters 428). It was during this time that DeLillo knew he was a writer. Other novels were born after Americana. End Zone, written shortly thereafter, also achieved significant success. Over the next twelve years, DeLillo wrote five more novels, including the groundbreaking White Noise, published in 1985 and for which he won the coveted American Book Award. Other novels followed, including Libra in 1988 and the 1991 debut of Mao II, a novel about terrorism and political violence that earned DeLillo the PEN/Faulkner Prize for Fiction. In addition to his novels, DeLillo has also written plays, short stories, and essays on various contemporary topics. In 1997, however, DeLillo showed the writing world that… middle of paper… and researched what was happening in their field. Furthermore, Underworld is a novel that encompasses broad imaginings of the tensions, concerns, and foibles of modern America. Whether it is the Cold War or our love of the media and its flattening of character, we as a society rely on sources that are not relevant to our thinking. This was DeLillo's ultimate goal when he wrote Underworld. The ability to look at things and rely on one's source of thought to interpret their meaning is important to DeLillo. He encourages his readers to allocate their resources and discover the validity of their world and the problems that may arise. Works CitedCharters, Ann, ed. The story and its writer. Fifth edition. Ed. Anna Charter. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.DeLillo, Don. Underworld. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1997.