author
Percy Marks
1891–1956
Best known for the 1924 bestseller The Plastic Age, this American novelist turned his experience as a college English instructor into sharp, lively fiction about campus life. His work caught the mood of the Jazz Age and stirred plenty of debate in its day.
1 Audiobook
The Plastic Age
by Percy Marks
About the author
Born in Covelo, California, in 1891, Percy Marks studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and later earned a master's degree from Harvard. He went on to teach English at colleges while building a writing career of his own.
Marks is chiefly remembered for The Plastic Age, a hugely successful 1924 novel about student life. Its frank picture of drinking, romance, and social pressures on campus made it a sensation and helped define the college novel for many readers of the era.
He wrote many other books as well, and his papers are preserved at Yale, where manuscripts, correspondence, and fan mail reflect a long and active literary career. Marks died in 1956.