If you are headed to graduate school, and you take American literature courses there, you will encounter books in the "canonical" section again and again. In other words, these books are unavoidable, even if you despise them for whatever reasons. (So they are not necessarily "canonical" because they are great artistic works or treasure-troves of wisdoms, but because people use them and discuss them very often.) Most of the books in the "canonical" and "important" sections have shaped American literary traditions, and thus have probably shaped you in some way.
As always, this list is not final or total, and I may make changes to it in the future. I do not necessarily recommend any of these books for any reason other than academic study.
Canonical:
- Thomas Paine, Common Sense
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Federalist Papers
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
- Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
- Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature; Essays, First and Second Series
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; all short story collections
- Edgar Allan Poe's poetry and short stories
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; Billy Budd; "Benito Cereno"; "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855, 1860, 1891-92)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Emily Dickinson, poems
- Mark Twain, Huck Finn
Note: The big-name authors with whom you must have some familiarity are Ben Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain. Uncle Tom's Cabin is historically important as well.
Important:
- Phyllis Wheatley, poems
- Philip Freneau, poems
- William Bartram, Travels
- Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative and Life of Olaudah Equiano
- Charles Brockdon Brown, Wieland; Edgar Huntly
- James Fenimore Cooper, the Leatherstocking novels
- William Cullen Bryant, poems
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha
- Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century
- Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail; histories of colonial America
- Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills
- Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces
- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
- Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Roughing It, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Pudd'nhead Wilson
- Henry James, novels
- William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham
- Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage; poetry
Interesting But Not Well Known:
- John Filson, Life and Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon
- Joel Barlow, The Vision of Columbus
- Hannah Foster, The Coquette
- John Taylor, Arator
- Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie
- William Apess, essays
- John Tanner, The Falcon
- David Crockett, Narrative of the Life of David Crockett
- William Gilmore Simms, novels
- Henry Bibb, Narrative of Henry Bibb (runaway slave)
- William Wells Brown, Clotel
- John Rollin Ridge, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta
- Bret Harte, short stories
- William Cody, The Life and Adventures of William Cody (aka Buffalo Bill)
- George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes
- Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (early sci-fi novel)
No comments:
Post a Comment