American Classic Checklist


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I found this fantastic list from Bridgett on her blog Writing and MusingHow many of these have you read? Comment which ones you have, how many out of 50, or do a blog post about it to keep sharing it and link below in the comments.

I’ve read only about 8 of these…so I need to get my act together and start getting through them. Those underlined are the ones I’ve read.

How about you?


 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

My Antonia by Willa Cather

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave by Frederick Douglas

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J.  Gaines

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Call of the Wild by Jack London

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

Anthem by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Native Son by Richard Wright


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0 thoughts on “American Classic Checklist

  • theorangutanlibrarian

    Great list- I always get a little to into going through these. I’ve read:
    Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (wonderful!)
    Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (not bad- bit of a poor man’s “Notes from Underground” if you ask me)
    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Amazing!)
    The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Ok- bit pointless)
    The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (ughh)
    Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (loved it!)
    On the Road by Jack Kerouac (ughhhhh)
    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (fabulous- everyone should read this)
    The Crucible by Arthur Miller (great!)
    Beloved by Toni Morrison (not very memorable)
    The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (pretty dark, but pretty good)
    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (good)
    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (sublime)
    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (a good quick read)
    The Color Purple by Alice Walker (disappointing)
    Native Son by Richard Wright (not great)
    There are loads more on this list I wanna read- particularly catch 22 (that I have sitting in front of me) and Farenheit 451