You are probably looking for something like Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. There is lots of info on the Internet although I would recommend using your library as well. (This will impress your teacher.) He was an American citizen and he published a lot more than ten books. Good luck.
Other possibilities William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury; Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio; Hamlin Garland, Main Traveled Roads; Willa Cather, My Antonia; Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome; Kate Chopin, The Awakening.
