Choosing an Author

This past week my English teacher told us we could pick any author, American, for our novel unit papers. The first paper is a biography of the author, the second is a summary and literary analysis of one of the author's books, and the third paper is a brief summary of what was going on in America during the author's life that would have influenced their work.
Okay, 1) I like many American authors and 2) It's difficult to pick just one author for pleasure reading alone, much less a graded paper, and 3) Some of the authors I like might not be very good for writing a paper on.
I thought about this as I held different books in my hands at the library. We need three sources, at least, for the papers, and so I looked down at the various books in my hand, trying to decide, officially, what author to write on. My dad was standing beside me. Our conversation went as follows:
"Nice, Abby, Hemingway, huh?"
"Yup, although do you think my teacher will mind the whole suicide thing?"
"Nah, it was part of his life."
"Good, because one of my other choices is Sylvia Plath, and she also committed suicide."
"Ah, okay, Abby. And is that a book on Edgar Allan Poe? Wasn't he a bit creepy?"
"Yeah, you know... ravens and hearts under floorboards, and swinging pendulums of death."
"What's the other author, Abby?"
"Twain."
"That's not so bad."
"Well, two of his children died, and he sunk into a depression he never quite recovered from, and he found one of his daughters dead in their family bathtub."
My dad scratched his head. "This isn't looking too good."
I ended up choosing Sylvia Plath. We haven't really talked about her peotry, or her book, The Bell Jar, in class, maybe because of her sad story and depression, but I think writing about her life will help me understand her work more. And even though she isn't my favorite author (my favorite authors are British and Chilean), I'm excited for this report.