America has produced some amazing books – from poetry collections to scientific treatises. Here, chronologically, are what I consider to be America’s 50 finest - 25 fiction, 25 nonfiction. (Please note – I have not read all of America’s books. Omissions, therefore, are likely due to ignorance.)
1788 –
The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
The defense of America’s federal system and Constitution is still enjoyable in modern times – in the same category as the Adams-Jefferson correspondence or Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography.
1845 –
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Of the many slave narratives, Douglass’ is the finest, and presents his life unsparingly, while showcasing the powerful style of a gifted orator.
1849 –
Essential Stories and Poems, Edgar Allen Poe
Not all of Poe’s works are masterpieces, but any good collection of his essential tales and poems will have all the favorites: "The Raven", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "Annabel Lee", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and so on.
1851 –
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
The first great American novel, Moby Dick remains a worthy classic for its wonderful language, philosophical and literary themes, and iconic characters.
1855 –
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
The first edition of the work is the best (the collection later swelled to bloated proportions) and contains most of Whitman’s quintessential, ground-breaking works, if, admittedly, not all.
1862 –
Transcendentalist Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
Contains the four essential works of the movement: "Self-Reliance" and "Nature" by Emerson, and "Walking" and "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau.
1865 –
Great Speeches, Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was America’s finest speechwriter, and reflected profoundly on the nation’s struggles with slavery and the Civil War, in the famous House Divided speech, Gettysburg Address, and Inaugural Addresses.
1876 –
North American Indians, George Catlin
Catlin paints – literally! – sympathetic portraits of the indigenous peoples of North America, describing customs, habits, and beliefs with an enlightened ethnographic eye in this collection of his works by Penguin.
1884 –
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The second half, with Tom Sawyer, is unfortunately not as good – but the first half remains a cornerstone of American literature.
1891 –
Poems of Emily Dickinson
Arguably America’s greatest poet, any solid collection of her work is likely to be worthwhile, although a text with some annotations and explanations will likely be more worthwhile.
1902 –
American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, Zitkala-Sa
An essential read, comprised of a mixture of traditional legends and personal reflections, Zitkala-Sa’s writings include her description growing up during the “assimilation” period and being sent to a boarding school to learn “Western” ways.
1903 –
The Souls of Black Folk, WEB Du Bois
A direct critique of Booker’s Up From Slavery bootstrapping thesis, Du Bois’ work combines nonfiction sociological study and fiction together in a portrait of the black experience that would help lead to the Civil Rights movement half a century later.
1920 –
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
There are innumerable books on the life of small town America, but Lewis’ work, through the eyes of Carol Milford who abandons her dreams to live with the man she loves in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, is potentially the best by both depicting the pathos and gently satirizing the self-important denizens.
1927 –
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
The setting: New Mexico Territory – recently transferred from Mexico to the United States, after the War. In this beautiful, evocative, landscape, and era, Cather portrays a Catholic bishop dealing with his vast, desert, domain.
1932 –
Light in August, William Faulkner
I don’t like The Sound and the Fury and I don’t care who knows it – August is the better work, and definitely the superior story to Fury’s mess - the story of, I'm going to say Joe Christmas, is truly great.
1937 –
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Another controversial pick – Steinbeck isn’t really top-tier, and, although Grapes of Wrath is a very good novel, Of Mice and Men’s short length is a better investment in Steinbeck’s perfectly adequate prose.
1938 –
Experience and Education, John Dewey
Dewey was the lion of progressive education, and this short work makes the case for experiment, experiential learning, creativity, and what the purpose of school is – to nurture the individual, rather than to simply preserve order and the tradition of the status quo.
1940 –
Native Son, Richard Wright
Wright’s novel is both one of the great works of the black experience as well as one of the best novels ever set in Chicago – apologies to Augie March.
1942 –
The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder
It’s the Ice Age, and it’s also suburban New Jersey – a deeply funny and philosophical play, Wilder provides the story of human civilization that continues to eke out survival only by…Well, you know.
1946 –
All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
This must-read reflection on the dangers of fascism in America hopefully is powerful enough to counter the danger of Warren, a multiple Pulitzer-winning poet and author, being increasingly forgotten.
1952 –
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Only a handful of Nobel Prizes have been given for specific works – and Hemingway’s novel is both the most recent and very deserving, as it marked a massive shift in English-language prose in the mid-century.
1953 –
Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
The revelatory Pentecostal experience seems, to those of us not involved, as indescribable – and yet Baldwin manages to convey the experience in electrifying, inspiring prose.
1953 –
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
Focusing on the Salem Witch Trials, Miller’s landmark drama lambasted the McCarthy witch hunts of the Red Scare, and the dangers of fanaticism and fervor, generally.
1955 –
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O’Connor
Arguably the best collection of short stories in the American canon since Edgar Allen Poe – not only the requisite title tale, but the whole collection, provides a wonderful impression of the gothic South.
1956 –
Long Day’s Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill
It’s sometimes hard to remember that O’Neill’s greatest play, with its now-common themes of drug abuse, and the façade of suburban middle class society, was sufficiently radical to be posthumously published for fear of backlash.
1956 – The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman
The great mid-century sociologist / social psychologist, Goffman presents us with a view that our role in society is determined by trying not to embarrass ourselves, and other key insights.
1957 –
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Which postwar Beat work do you choose? I’m partial to Howl, but Kerouac’s novel of the restive chasing of the American dream is, I must say, an excellent story and worthy of inclusion.
1957 –
Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich
One of the most important, and increasingly overlooked, theologians of the 20th century, Tillich puts forth important questions in ways that lay readers can understand, including critical definitions of “belief” and “faith”.
1962 – Silent
Spring, Rachel Carson
Carson’s work is still an excellent read – not just an important one. It is incredible to reflect that modern understandings of the environment, and environmentalism, have been around for less than 60 years.
1963 –
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Hannah Arendt
In the decades after the holocaust and World War II the world tried to come to terms with what happened, and more importantly why and how (see, for example, Obedience to Authority by Milgram) – Arendt’s investigation is one of the best works to tackle these subjects.
1968 –
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
The chapter “On Keeping a Notebook” changed my life – and the rest of the collection is also excellent in prose and content, reflecting on her life in Southern California.
1968 –
Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey
Abbey’s work is among the greatest depictions since Muir of the allure of wilderness – and all the more relevant as Abbey, working as a park ranger, rails against the modern tourists who just drive around without getting to know the land, an issue Muir certainly never had to deal with.
1969 –
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Easily one of the finest autobiographies in the American canon, Angelou traces her childhood from Stamps and St. Louis to San Francisco, and the awe-inspiring perseverance she developed despite the trials she went through on her journey.
1969 –
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
A science-fiction masterpiece that deals with time travel, aliens, and the bombing of Dresden… It doesn’t sound like it’s one of America’s best 20th century novels, and yet…
1971 –
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Personally I prefer Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, but this work is probably more fun and better exemplifies Thompson’s hallucinatory, gonzo, style as he covers rallies in Las Vegas.
1974 –
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
A Sand County Almanac always struck me as a bit highfalutin – Dillard’s reflections on her little corner of Virginia are more accessible, and miles better than Walden…
1983 –
The Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918, Stephen Kern
Kern’s historical survey covers how people’s view of the world, even the fundamentals of how we process space and time, changed drastically during the turn of the century, thanks to everything from the invention of the bicycle to Proust.
1987 –
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Morrison’s masterpiece shows why she was awarded the Nobel Prize, by telling a gripping tale based on real events in Ohio during Reconstruction.
1990 –
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
A series of stories, or perhaps an unconventional novel, O’Brien’s depiction of the Vietnam War may be the best collection that deals with that all-important American conflict.
1991 –
Maus, Art Spiegelman
There are many great graphic novels, but Spiegelman’s biography of his father’s experience during the holocaust elevated the whole genre.
1992 –
Angels in America, Tony Kushner
One of America’s finest plays, Kushner’s work is, as the subtitle indicates, “a gay fantasia on national themes” which deals with the future of America, AIDS, and Mormonism.
1993 –
Six Easy Pieces, Richard Feynman
A short distillation of Feynman’s lectures, presented decades earlier, Six Easy Pieces is one of the best and most enjoyable introductory works on physics ever written.
1993 –
From Dictatorship to Democracy, Gene Sharp
Reprinted a few times, Sharp’s guide (which was used in the Arab Spring) tells protestors how to overthrow the yoke of a dictatorship and remains one of the best overviews of political action since Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
1997 –
Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
Diamond’s anthropological and geographical approach to world history was ground-breaking: historians have consequently rallied around his central theses for the past two decades.
2002 –
Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History, Ted Steinberg
This fascinating work answers questions you didn’t even think to ask, like: How did cities deal with loose pigs and horse manure; how did we switch from “an apple a day” to the cult of orange juice with breakfast; and what role did the invention of barbed wire have on the settling of the Midwest?
2003 –
Why Societies Need Dissent, Cass Sunstein
Sunstein is the greatest academic you may never have heard of – he is *the* most frequently cited legal scholar in America – and this intriguing short work simply sets out to answer the question posed in the title.
2005 –
A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
First published in 1980, the revised landmark text refocuses on the class struggles and working people of America’s past, instead of the Presidents and typical textbook heroes.
2010 –
Invisible Hands, Kim Phillips-Fein
How did the modern conservative movement begin? No, not with Citizens United, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley, or even Milton Friedman – but with a group of largely unknown businessmen who loathed the New Deal in the 1940s and began a crusade against the power of federal government.
2012 –
The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson
America’s greatest comic (at least in the last fifty years) was Calvin and Hobbes – for its humor, heart, and genre-defying artistry. This delightful compilation provides the complete arc of Calvin's childhood.
2018 –
These Truths, Jill Lepore
A massive one-volume American history that seeks to explain how views of citizenship and identity brought us to this moment, including stories from Phyllis Schlafly, Gallup Polls, and Campaigns Inc.
