High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Younghill Kang (June 5, 1903 — December 2, 1972) was an important early Asian American writer. He is best known for his 1931 novel The Grass Roof (the first Korean American novel) and its sequel, the 1937 fictionalized memoir East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. He has been called "the father of Korean American literature."