# The Five Essential American Literature Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028 "2010-08-22T02:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MadMatto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MadMatto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadMatto)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/81 "2010-08-31T17:07:44Z")
The Great Gatsby Last of the Mohicans The Right Stuff Ben Hur Tom Sawyer ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/82 "2010-08-31T19:22:30Z")
> [@](#): > > The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin- As good a work as any for the beginnings of America (which yes, I know, had been inhabited by Euros for a century when Franklin was born, BUT it was in his life that a national identity emerged and a nation formed [in highly debatable order]) Ooh, good call. I was so focused on fiction that I overlooked that. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/83 "2010-08-31T20:11:27Z")
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Moby Dick, Herman Melville Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/84 "2010-08-31T20:44:29Z")
My offerings: [The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay](http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-Clay/dp/0312282990/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283287082&sr=8-1), by Michael Chabon [A Prayer For Owen Meany](http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Owen-Meany-Irving-John/dp/074750458X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283287156&sr=1-2), by John Irving [A Confederacy of Dunces](http://www.amazon.com/Confederacy-Dunces-John-Kennedy-Toole/dp/0802130208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283287210&sr=1-1-spell), by John Kennedy Toole [All the Pretty Horses](http://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Horses-Border-Trilogy-Book/dp/0679744398/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283287365&sr=1-1) by Cormac McCarthy [The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao](http://www.amazon.com/Brief-Wondrous-Life-Oscar-Wao/dp/1594483299/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283287409&sr=1-1) by Junot Diaz mmm ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/85 "2010-08-31T20:53:44Z")
Sometimes a great notion - Kesey The winter of our discontent - Steinbeck Oh, and the Catcher in the rye is terrible. Nobody wants to hang out with moody, whiny teenagers, even in books ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/86 "2010-08-31T22:21:59Z")
My suggestions would be: _Huckleberry Fi_nn by Mark Twain \*East of Eden \*by John Steinbeck _Invisible M_an by Ralph Ellison _The Great G_atsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald _Moby Di_ck by Herman Melville. I would expand it to seven by adding Steinbeck’s _The Grapes of Wra_th and Dashiell Hammett’s _The Maltese Falcon_ ---
**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:** [August 31, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/87 "2010-08-31T23:43:04Z")
I had to suggest 6. \*Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas Huckleberry Finn The Old Man & The Sea Gone With The Wind The Maltese Falcon The Virginian (by Owen Wister, first great novel of the American West)\* ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/88 "2010-08-31T23:44:52Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Ooh, good call. I was so focused on fiction that I overlooked that. [/QUOTE] Autobiographies are some of the best fiction in American history.😃 ---
**Author:** ![dflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dflower/32/3270_2.png) [@dflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dflower)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/89 "2010-09-03T14:58:50Z")
Beloved Absalom, Absalom To Kill a Mockingbird Call of the Wild Catch 22 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028/90 "2010-09-03T15:15:56Z")
Well - coming at this both as a reader and a collector of first editions, it is interesting to see how the collectibility and value of books suggests how important those books are to our culture. From the first half of the 20th century, you have the Big 5: - \*\*Fitzgerald \*\*- go with The Great Gatsby - \*\*Hemingway \*\*- go with Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms - as a reader I would recommend The Fifth Column and The First Forty-Nine, his collection of short stories, because to me, that was the format he did his best work in - \*\*Faulkner \*\*- go with As I Lay Dying, because the structure is complex, but not nearly as comples and Sound and Fury, and yet it captures the love/hate relationship he has with his southern people - \*\*Steinbeck \*\*- go with Grapes of Wrath, but I would prefer Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row; I much prefer the magical-realist Steinbeck to the gritty populist. - \*\*Sinclair Lewis \*\*- first American to win the Nobel; he was as respected as the others in his day, and many of his titles are still taught. I would go with Babbitt, which wonderfully captures the emergence of the modern businessman. Outside of Lit, and more into genre, I would go with \*\*Hammett \*\*- Red Harvest. I would also add \*\*Native Son by Richard Wright \*\*over Invisible Man by Ellison. Second half of the 20th Century: - To Kill a Mockingbird - Catcher in the Rye - Gravity’s Rainbow - Catch-22 - On the Road I would add plenty of sci-fi (Dune), noir (Elmore Leonard and so many others) and others… 19th Century: - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Red Badge of Courage - Moby Dick [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-essential-american-literature-books/551028.md?page=4)