This question partly stems from just recently discovering that a great deal of the books I grew up with come from the fifties. Catcher in the Rye for instance was written in 1951, and the first book of Lord of the Rings came out in 1957.
I’m curious what high school English classes were assigning to read, say, in the 1940s, before those books came out.
/u/EdHistory101 (under another alias) has previously answered "1984," "Animal Farm," and "Fahrenheit 451" were all published in living memory: How did they become emblematic of American high school English class so quickly? alongside /u/yodatsracist and /u/AshkenazeeYankee
EDIT: EdHistory101 has also answered Is there any documentation on the historical shift of literature taught in American high schools from the 19th to 21st century?
See below for another relevant answer.