NationStates Jolt Archive

As the title says, who are the Greatest/Best or your favorite US "literary" authors?
(As opposed to narrower genre authors.)

Hemingway is mine.
Poe, London, and Raymond Chandler are also great.

Doesn't that depend on how you define your terms?
Poe and Chandler could both be considered genre authors rather than literature, and even Jack London published a fair bit of SF and anthropomorphic fantasy.

First, a caveat-I am in no way well read or studied enough on the subject to say.

That being said, the ones I've read the most and have enjoyed have been Mark Twain and Paul Auster. I've recently gotten into the 'natural' stories of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (such as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)

As the title says, who are the Greatest/Best or your favorite US "literary" authors?
(As opposed to narrower genre authors.)

Hemingway is mine.
Poe, London, and Raymond Chandler are also great.
There you go.
I was gonna say Hemingway even before I entered this thread just by reading the title. Good work! (And Poe would've been high on my list as well...). :p

Ambrose Bierce.

Robert Penn Warren and William Faulkner

As he now lives in the States (nautralised American maybe?), I would like to say that Neil Gaiman is a personal favourite, "American Gods" is a breath taking book IMHO.

However, as I study German, Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language" is a personal favourite of mine :D

Don't know about "best" or "greatest", but "favorite" would have to be Chaim Potok, John Steinbeck, Kate Chopin, Jim Harrison (and, if I might slip in the odd Canadian, Michael Ondaatje). Sometimes also Stephen King - when he's good, he's good, but most of the time he's just plain mediocre.

Of course, I also have favorite American books that aren't written by any of these people. To qualify for "favorite author" a writer must have written several books I really like.

Frank Herbert or Philip K. Dick - sorry, but I've not read much 'classical' American literature :)

Kate Chopin,
Really? I couldn't stand The Awakening, the whole thing seemed like a cop out (and how does a sea gull break it's wing in mid-flight? Was it hit with the metaphor hammer?...) I haven't read anything else by her though, and to each their own...

(and how does a sea gull break it's wing in mid-flight? Was it hit with the metaphor hammer?...)

Heh, I can't stop laughing about this. Very nice.

Just the other day I had a discussion with an old friend about good books we'd read lately. I told him that I thought "The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime" was terribly overrated - and he says it was one of the few books he's read lately that really pulled him in. Then, he almost picked a fight with me because I didn't like another one of his all-time favorite books that many people like but I happen to find incredibly grating.
And finding that someone doesn't like a book you recommended to them because hello, how could anybody not love that book, is always a big disappointment.

So, I guess as far as books are concerned, one has to agree to disagree. :) (Of course, you're still completely wrong about the cop-out ;) )


*still chuckling about the metaphor hammer. I should totally start a signature just to put this in there*

My honest answer: Vonnegut.
He deserves to win the nobel prize, in my opinion.

Not to say I dont love Hemmingway, twain, &al dearly, but i've liked vonnegut since I was a kid, ditto my favorite non-american authors, like solzhenitsyn and hesse.

For the last 100 years, I'd have to say F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Twains' Huck Finn is the greatest American Novel of all time.

Twains' Huck Finn is the greatest American Novel of all time.

I beg to differ. That honor belongs to The Great Gatsby.

I beg to differ. That honor belongs to The Great Gatsby.


I beg to differ as well.

Really? I couldn't stand The Awakening, the whole thing seemed like a cop out (and how does a sea gull break it's wing in mid-flight? Was it hit with the metaphor hammer?...) I haven't read anything else by her though, and to each their own...

The Awakening was about stupid people doing foolish things for petty reasons. It should have been a comedy, but instead the story was told as if everyone was supposed to sympathize with the characters and their "dilemas". There are enough stupid people in real life; I don't want to have to read a book about them unless I get to laugh at them.

Frank Herbert or Philip K. Dick - sorry, but I've not read much 'classical' American literature

I'd rank Robert Heinlein among my favorite American authors, both because he was a great writer who happened to be American and because his books seemed to capture the essence of Americana.

I beg to differ as well.

Huck Finn pwns Gatsby, but clearly, To Have and Have Not pwns them all.

For the last 100 years, I'd have to say F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I think I'd go along with that.

Spartiala: do you rate Heinlein for his prose though? His style was very stiff indeed, and a lot of his characterisation doesn't work that well. Some fine conceits, but most of what I admire about his books is engineering not delivery, to be honest.
(Though he probably is a better writer than Frank Herbert, who has much the same problems.)

HP Lovecraft. ;)

Huck Finn pwns Gatsby, but clearly, To Have and Have Not pwns them all.

Hemingway's prose, especially his dialogue, was too stilted.

Spartiala: do you rate Heinlein for his prose though? His style was very stiff indeed, and a lot of his characterisation doesn't work that well. Some fine conceits, but most of what I admire about his books is engineering not delivery, to be honest.
(Though he probably is a better writer than Frank Herbert, who has much the same problems.)

Heinlein's prose is what I like best about him. His writing was clear, concise and slick. His use of colloquialisms was brilliant and gave his writing a very distinctive feel, often a very American "melting pot" feel. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is written entirely in broken English, as if it's being spoken with a Russian accent, yet the effect is so subtle that after a few pages I ceased to notice it and by the end of the book I was in the habit of thinking in broken sentences. I have read the likes of Twain, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, yet I think that Heinlein's prose is often more entertaining and paints a more vibrant picture of American-style English.

Hemingway's prose, especially his dialogue, was too stilted.

After reading my first Hemingway novel, I held the same opinion, but after a few months I came back to his work and found that I had gained an appreciation for his terse minimalist style. It really grew on me. Have you read much Hemingway? If not, then perhaps you just need to give him another try.

After reading my first Hemingway novel, I held the same opinion, but after a few months I came back to his work and found that I had gained an appreciation for his terse minimalist style. It really grew on me. Have you read much Hemingway? If not, then perhaps you just need to give him another try.

Read all of his novels and most of his short stories, as a matter of fact.

Read all of his novels and most of his short stories, as a matter of fact.

Fair enough then. I haven't read nearly that much of him, so perhaps if I read more I'd come around to your way of seeing it. By the by, if you don't like his style, why did you read all his novels?

Fair enough then. I haven't read nearly that much of him, so perhaps if I read more I'd come around to your way of seeing it. By the by, if you don't like his style, why did you read all his novels?

Had to study a single American author for a Lit class, and when it got to be my turn to pick, Hemingway was the best remaining option really.

I take it nobody reads Melville or Hawthorne anymore, then?

I take it nobody reads Melville or Hawthorne anymore, then?
Both yes. But Melville is better.

Go back and read Moby Dick, and fish out that newspaper headline in the beginning of the book, and tell me if he was psychic.

Not to mention, "How many barrels (of oil) will thy vengeance fetch thee, even if thou gettest it Captain Ahab?"

Both yes. But Melville is better.

Go back and read Moby Dick, and fish out that newspaper headline in the beginning of the book, and tell me if he was psychic.
Very perceptive man, it's true. I think Hawthorne's short stories are better than his, though.

I have to qualify my choice of vonnegut by saying I dont believe he's the 'greatest' american author, just my favorite.

I would say that the best American novel is To Kill a Mockingbird. I wouldn't call Harper Lee the best American writer, however, as that is her only work. Rather, I'd reserve that title for Ray Bradbury and Mark Twain.

As the title says, who are the Greatest/Best or your favorite US "literary" authors?
(As opposed to narrower genre authors.)

Hemingway is mine.
Poe, London, and Raymond Chandler are also great.

Emmerson.

I always found Twain's style of writing very refreshing compared to the other authors at the time he lived.