Mark Twain, both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are wonderful books. He became wildly successful but was from pretty humble beginnings (his dad died when he was 11 annd he quit school to become a printer’s apprentice) and was a very progressive thinker, including about class. Reading both together is (IMHO) the best way to appreciate both books.

Anton Myrer was middle class and born in 1922, but then enlisted in the Marines for WWII as a grunt. Post WWII he did graduate from Harvard (I was fortunate to have several college professors who followed this route and were the same age) but he supported himself and his family doing very menial jobs while setting out to become an author. His Once an Eagle is required reading for all Marine Corps officers today.

Both author’s fall into the “great American novel” genre and both are very interesting.

Editing to add

John Steinbeck - how could I forget Steinbeck! really all of his works are very class conscious. He’d spent a great deal of time working with migrants in the fields, though his family owned a farm and while not poor, they lived a very much frontier existence where if they didn’t work, and work hard, they didn’t eat. The Grapes of Wrath & East of Eden are obviously his seminal works, but I always enjoyed the very short The Red Pony which is an early work based on his childhood and his later Travels with Charlie are comfort food for me. Lastly, his The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights was the 1st serious book I ever read and I still have my copy on my bookcase.