What We Said:

Slang was still a decade away from being a prominent part of popular culture. One slogan did, however, enter the American lexicon:

"When It Rains It Pours" (1911): This advertising slogan let consumers know that Morton salt would not clump up and stick together, but it was made popular in a different way. The expression came to mean that once something happens, it may set in motion a string of unstoppable events.

What We Read:

The Rosary (1909): The best-selling novel of 1910, this sentimental romance was written by an English woman named Florence Barclay. The novel was translated into eight languages and had sold over a million copies by 1921.

Books by Theodore Dreiser: Dreiser became the dominant American realist writer with several books published during the decade: Jennie Gerhardt (1911), Sister Carrie (1911 [first published in 1900 but suppressed by the publisher]), The Financier...