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Is there a mistake in the period table for American literature in English that appears at 810.1-818? The year 1945 appears twice: it says to use notation 52 for the period 1900-1945, and to use notation 54 for the period 1945-1999.
The table you're referring to reads as follows:
| 1 | Colonial period, 1607-1776 |
| 2 | 1776-1829 |
| 3 |
1830-1861 For 1800-1829 , see 2 ; For 1861-1899 , see 4 . |
| 4 | 1861-1899 |
| 5 | 1900-1999 |
| 52 | 1900-1945 |
| 54 | 1945-1999 |
| 6 | 2000- |
Literary periods in the DDC are often defined by an event that had a strong impact on the country of the literature. For a work of literature, the dividing point for 1945 is before/after the end of World War II. For American literature, that would be V-J Day; for French literature, it would be V-E Day. Rarely, however, is it necessary to make such a fine distinction in selecting a literary period.
Remember: when classifying the work of a specific author, what matters is not when the particular work in hand was published but when the author flourished. See the Manual at Table 3-A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors: Literary periods:
Only one literary period is used for an author and all of the author's works, including works that may have been published earlier or later than the literary period. The literary period is determined in accordance with scholarly consensus about when an author flourished. Thus an author commonly regarded as an early 19th century writer is classed as such, even if the author published literary works at the end of the 18th century. If the period when an author flourished cannot be determined, use the date of the author's earliest known separate literary publication, disregarding magazine contributions, isolated student works, and juvenilia.
The period 1900-1945 should be used for authors who did not survive World War II, even if their work first became known after the War. Most authors who survived the War began to flourish clearly before or after the end of the War. But if there is real doubt, and if "the author's earliest known separate literary publication" was published during an unknown month in 1945, I would choose the postwar period.
If nothing else is specified, the date 1945 in a literary or historical period indicates the end of World War II. Something else can be specified, of course--as it is, for example, in the historical periods for the United States as a whole:
| 973.917 | Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945 |
| 973.918 | Administration of Harry S Truman, 1945-1953 |
The literary periods are similar to the historical periods in the 900s. In history, the precise dividing line between one period and another is more commonly an issue, for works about a specific event. There is a general explanation in the Manual at 930-990:
Last revised: 05 September 200301-09
Historical periods
The history of the area is usually subdivided into periods defined by the events that affected the area. The events, whether stated or implied in the heading, rarely occurred on either January 1 or December 31. Thus, the year during which the event occurred will normally be given at two different numbers. For example, 1861, the year when Kansas became a state, appears at both 978.102 Territorial period, 1803-1861 and 978.103 Statehood period, 1861-. In like manner, 1945, the year when World War II ended, appears at both 978.1032 1918-1945 and 978.1033 1945-.
The history of the area can also be subdivided by periods of time, such as centuries or decades. Since they start on January 1 and end on December 31, the year either beginning or ending the period will appear in only one notation. For example, in the development for the history of the Western United States, 978.02 1800-1899 and 978.03 1900-. (The DDC uses the convention that a century begins with the year 0 and ends with the year 99.)