# Bibilophiles! Need advice on buying 30K of American literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532 "2004-07-17T02:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/1 "2004-07-17T02:22:01Z")
Folks, what we have here is a golden opportunity. I have been charged with procuring approximately USD 30,000 worth of American literature. Fiction and non-fiction are the rough genres, going back to say, de Tocqueville and the Federalist Papers. It’s harder than you think. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/2 "2004-07-17T02:27:43Z")
I’m not going to italicize these, i’ll just make a list. [ul] [li]Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin[/li][li]David Walker’s Appeal[/li][li]Catch-22 by Joseph Heller[/li][li]A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith[/li][li]Every book by Tim O’Brien[/li][li]Every book by Toni Morrison[/li][li]Democracy by Joan Didion[/li][li]Every piece of literature by Alan Ginsburg[/li][li]Emerson’s Self Reliance[/li][li]To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)[/li][/ul] That’s all I have for now. I’m sure I can think of a bunch more later, but I want to see what other Dopers add first. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/3 "2004-07-17T02:36:54Z")
If you’re going for a complete library, you’ll have to include Hemmingway. I’d also vote for some Spider-Man, but that probably doesn’t fit your boss’ definition of literature. Hawthorne? Poe? Twain? Uncle Tom’s Cabin? I’m sure you can get dollar copies of these. Copy of the Constitution? I assume that you’re going for one of those cultural center sorts of things. How about Spillane (the man who nearly outsold the Bible), Hammett and Chandler? I have to admit that aside from the aforementioned, my knowledge of American literature sucks balls. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/4 "2004-07-17T03:24:51Z")
Civil Disobedience, Walking, Walden - Thoreau The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Stowe Moby Dick - Melville Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Douglass Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Jacobson Portrait of a Lady - James Huckleberryt Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Pudd’nhead Wilson - Twain The Red Badge of Courage - Crane An American Tragedy - Dreiser The Awakening - Chopin The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome - Wharton Up from Slavery - Washington My Antonia - Willa Cather The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald In Our Time, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms Hemingway Main Street or Babbitt - Lewis The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom - Faulkner The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck Native Son - Wright The Iceman Cometh - O’Neill A Streetcar Named Desire - Williams The Crucible and Death of a Salesman - Miller Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Albee Invisible Man - Ellison All The Kings Men - Warren Henderson the Rain King -Bellow Catcher in the Rye - Salinger Armies of the Night - Mailer Song of Solomon - Morrison The Natural - Malmud Go Tell It on the Mountain - Baldwin John Updike - any of the rabbit novels Little Women - Alcott I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Angelou Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury War and Rememberance - Wouk The Color Purple - Walker Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Capote 2001: Space Odyssey - Clarke The Last of the Mohicans - Cooper Poetry by T.S. Eliot e.e. cummings Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Robert Frost ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/5 "2004-07-17T03:29:20Z")
Darn… I forgot Some James Michener, any or all of it Some Stephen King The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang - Jack London Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/6 "2004-07-17T04:02:55Z")
Definitely some Raymond Chandler. And Jim Thompson. _Pop. 1280_ would be my pick. For Mark Twain, I’d go with the later stuff - _The Mysterious Stranger_ (usually part of a short story collection) is the perfect example. Also the “USA” trilogy by Dos Passos. Maybe _Last Exit To Brooklyn_ by Selby and _Naked Lunch_ by Burroughs for the more decadent, arty stuff. ANd I’ll second _Native Son_. Essential. Although I think _Invisible Man_ was boring as a turd. I’m sure I’ll think of more when I wake up. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/7 "2004-07-17T04:03:00Z")
A good site for some one-stop shopping: [http://www.loa.org/](http://www.loa.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/8 "2004-07-17T04:21:54Z")
• _Basic Documents in American History_, ed. by Richard B. Morris • Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, _The Federalist Papers_, ed. by Clinton Rossiter • Washington Irving, _The Sketch-Book_ • Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_ • Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_; short stories • Alexis de Tocqueville, _Democracy in America_ • Edgar Allan Poe, _The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Edition_, ed. by Stuart and Susan Levine • Harriet Beecher Stowe, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ • Henry David Thoreau, _The Annotated Walden_, ed. by Philip Van Doren Stern • Herman Melville, _Moby Dick_ and _Bartleby the Scrivener_ • Walt Whitman, _Leaves of Grass_ • Emily Dickinson, _Collected Poems_ • James Truslow Adams, _The Founding of New England_ • Mark Twain, _The Annotated Huckleberry Finn_, ed. by Michael Patrick Hearn • Henry Adams, _The Education of Henry Adams_, ed. by Ernest Samuels • William James, _The Principles of Psychology_; _Pragmatism_; _The Varieties of Religious Experience_; _The Meaning of Truth_ • Henry James, _The Ambassadors_ • Edith Wharton, _The Custom of the Country_; _The Age of Innocence_; _The House of Mirth_ • Frederick Jackson Turner, _Frontier in American History_ • Booth Tarkington, _The Magnificent Ambersons_ • Robert Frost, _Collected Poems_ • Sinclair Lewis, _Main Street_ and _Babbitt_ • Eugene O’Neill, _Mourning Becomes Electra_; _The Iceman Cometh_; _Long Day’s Journey Into Night_ • T.S. Eliot, _Collected Poems_ • William Faulkner, _The Sound and the Fury_; _As I Lay Dying_ • Benjamin Spock, _Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care_ • F. Scott Fitzgerald, _The Great Gatsby_ • Dale Carnegie, _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ • Ernest Hemingway, _Short Stories_ • Vladimir Nabokov, _Lolita_ • Saul Bellow, _The Adventures of Augie March_; _Herzog_; _Humboldt’s Gift_ • James McPherson, _Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era_ • Taylor Branch, _Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963_ • John Kennedy Toole, _A Confederacy of Dunces_ • Harper Lee, _To Kill a Mockingbird_ • Edmund Morris, _The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt_ • Betty Friedan, _The Feminine Mystique_ • Truman Capote, _In Cold Blood_ • John Cheever, _The Stories of John Cheever_ • Daniel J. Boorstin, _The Americans: The Democratic Experience_ • Perry Miller, _The Life of the Mind in America_ • Norman Mailer, _The Executioner’s Song_ • Ray Bradbury, _The Stories of Ray Bradbury_ ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/9 "2004-07-17T04:35:20Z")
[QUOTE=wmulax93] [li]Every book by Tim O’Brien.[/li][/QUOTE] Hey, I’m not the only one who remembers that complete genius. 🙂 At a minimum, you need _Going After Cacciato_, _The Things They Carried_, and _In the Lake of the Woods_. There are two other contemporary fiction writers you need to have in any decent collection. By Louise Erdrich, you need _Love Medicine_, _Tracks_, and _The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse_. And the greatest work of 20th Century American literature, bar none, David Foster Wallace’s _Infinite Jest_. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/10 "2004-07-17T04:49:39Z")
What a great assignment! In addition to the obvious greats of the past, these are the contemporary authors I think are going to matter in the future: Thomas Wolfe Richard Ford Jon Krakauer Walker Percy P.J. O’Rourke Don Delillo ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/11 "2004-07-17T04:52:55Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I’m sure I’ll think of more when I wake up. [aside] Hey, welcome back![/aside] ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/12 "2004-07-17T04:59:30Z")
For Fiction: A few years back, the folks over at Random House published a list of the [100 Best Novels of the Twentieth Century](http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100best.html). Of course, there was much dissention about the list. Some folks over at Radcliffe responded with a rival list, and Random House held a poll for the readers to come up with their own list. There are some definite stinkers on all the lists–the “readers” poll seemed to be skewed by a bunch of scientologists. And it encompasses all English Language works, not just American. But if an American book is mentioned on at least two of the lists, I’d say it’s probably worth having. And a suggestion for me: Don’t forget to include “Young Adult” novels. They are very important in American Literature. For Non-fiction: This is a lot harder, I think. It really depends what the purpose of the collection is. Is it supposed to be a repository of “Great American Books,” or is it supposed to be a reflection of American culture. Or both? Because a book like “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” may not be considered a “great book,” but it’s damned important to a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/13 "2004-07-17T10:57:18Z")
Thanks for all the great ideas. If these suggestions haven’t been incorporated yet, I’ll make it so. For the non-fiction, to answer **Green Bean’s** question, what we’re trying to create here is a rotating collection of lending books that capture Americana. Warts-and-all stuff is fine, but the emphasis is on what it means to be, and the various faces of, American. Or “North American” or “from the U.S.” or whatever phrase we’re supposed to use now. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/14 "2004-07-17T11:59:46Z")
The Library of America has a great collection, very high quality bindings, books that’ll last a long, long, time, and most of the best of American literature. I’m sure one of their Friendly Representatives would be happy to help you spend 30,000 on a well-rounded collection. They are definitely the way I would go if I had this much money and that goal. In fact, I have been a subscriber of theirs for years and so already have several thousand dollars worth of books. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/15 "2004-07-17T12:36:31Z")
Just wanted to toss in Tom Wolfe (aka “not Thomas”), Jack Kerouac, Evan Hunter, and mystery writers Ed McBain (Hunter’s alter ego) and Andrew Vachss. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/16 "2004-07-17T12:55:58Z")
> [@False\_God](#): > > Thanks for all the great ideas. If these suggestions haven’t been incorporated yet, I’ll make it so. > > For the non-fiction, to answer **Green Bean’s** question, what we’re trying to create here is a rotating collection of lending books that capture Americana. Warts-and-all stuff is fine, but the emphasis is on what it means to be, and the various faces of, American. Or “North American” or “from the U.S.” or whatever phrase we’re supposed to use now. I’m afraid my suggestions will be more ‘good books to read’ rather than ‘important books to read.’ Each book on my list is one I come back to time and again to reread. This isn’t to say that they don’t have their import, but I wouldn’t include Emerson or Thoreau, because while they’re important books, I haven’t reread either, and feel no need to do so. I’m also tempted to include a few of my favorite Canadian authors. For all that Canada and the US are two seperate cultures and countries, I think that Canada has as much in common with the US as it does witht the UK. Final note, my list is a series of supplements to those suggestions already listed, not a bunch of replacements. Non-Fiction - Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire. Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember, and Day of Infamy Edward L. Beach’s Around the World Submerged (Capt’s Beach’s fiction is also worth a look, especially Run Silent, Run Deep.) Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (an exception about rereading, but should be on the list, I think.) Somewhere in the Middle (and Canadian to boot) - Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf, as well as his autobiographical works - A Whale for the Killing, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, and The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float Fiction - Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels John Crowley’s Little, Big Tim Powers’ Last Call Madeleine L’engle’s Wrinkle in Time (The latter books as well, though not as good) S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders Daniel V. Gallery’s Now, Hear This (His non-fiction is also worth considering.) Harry Turtledove’s The Guns of the South Robert Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit, Will Travel; Double Star; and Starship Troopers. H.P. Lovecraft’s short stories. I’m more partial to his shorter works like “Pickman’s Model” than “Call of Cthulhu”. Lois McMaster Bujold’s Cordelia’s Honor L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (another canuck on the list, I know.) Graphic Novels - Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: The Killing Joke ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/17 "2004-07-17T13:29:18Z")
Mark Twain: [ul] [li] A Tramp Abroad[/li][li]Innocents Abroad[/li][li]Life On The Mississippi[/li][li]Roughing It[/li][li] A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court[/li][li]Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn[/li][li]Adventures Of Tom Sawyer[/li][li]Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven[/li][li]The Gilded Age _very timely, this one…_[/li][/ul] Both H.P. Lovecraft and Poe should be represented. **Take Back Your Government** byr Robert A. Heinlein is non-fiction; a do-it-yourself manual for getting involved in politics & political reform. **The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy** and **Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union** by Bell Irvin Wiley Non-fiction. A very important pair of books on US history from the ground up. ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/18 "2004-07-17T13:50:43Z")
> [@False\_God](#): > > Folks, what we have here is a golden opportunity. I have been charged with procuring approximately USD 30,000 worth of American literature. Fiction and non-fiction are the rough genres, going back to say, de Tocqueville and the Federalist Papers. It’s harder than you think. Any ideas? I’d suggest picking up several anthologies on American lit and poetry for the library, and then researching each author in there. American political speeches, lit/film/poetry/theater criticism. American music and theater is worth including, or at least writings about it (jazz is what makes American civil). Native literature (including Alaska and Hawaii) would be good. Hmmmm…I’m sure lists like this exist out there. By the way, where are you? What/whom are you buying this for? ---
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/19 "2004-07-17T14:26:37Z")
Anthology sets and the Library of America are both great ideas, as are all the individual suggestions, some of which I never would have thought of. Thanks again, folks and keep 'em coming. **drhess** I’m in Sri Lanka, and we’re buying this to serve as a rotating/floating lending library to educate people about Americana. Your tax dollars at work, in what I feel is a worthy way. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532/20 "2004-07-17T14:54:53Z")
Authors that haven’t been mentioned to add (mostly 20th century poetry) William Carlos Williams Charles Bukowski (personally, I’m not a huge fan of his, though I do like him, but I’ve a feeling his literature will stand the test of time. Moreso than Kerouac.) Adrienne Rich Charles Simic Langston Hughes Gwendolyn Brooks [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bibilophiles-need-advice-on-buying-30k-of-american-literature/255532.md?page=2)