Books that shaped America

[MBAustin]

is the title of the current exhibit at the Library of Congress. They selected 88 books by American authors that had significant impact on the development of American culture. Here's the list:

Exhibition Items - Books That Shaped America -  Exhibitions - myLOC.gov (Library of Congress)

I heard about it on NPR Talk of the Nation today - if you're interested in the discussion, the audio should be posted in a couple of hours
How Books Shaped The American National Identity : NPR

There's an interesting mix of fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and several children's books. I've heard of most but have read less than half.

I was surprised that nothing by Poe was included. What others were missing that you would have expected to see?

 

[haha]

is the title of the current exhibit at the Library of Congress. They selected 88 books by American authors that had significant impact on the development of American culture. Here's the list:

Exhibition Items*-*Books That Shaped America*- *Exhibitions*-*myLOC.gov (Library of Congress)

I heard about it on NPR Talk of the Nation today - if you're interested in the discussion, the audio should be posted in a couple of hours
How Books Shaped The American National Identity : NPR

There's an interesting mix of fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and several children's books. I've heard of most but have read less than half.

I was surprised that nothing by Poe was included. What others were missing that you would have expected to see?

Lot of stretching to be PC. But, considering that PC is the main current of thought in America today, I guess that should be expected in a list of "the most influential books", which is quite different from a lost of good, or entertaining, or interesting books.

Ha

 

[W2R]

Some much beloved books are on that list. It was fun just to read it and to be reminded of them. I do agree that the list is not perfect, probably because compiling the list would be such a daunting task.

For some reason I expected to see some works by James Fenimore Cooper, such as The Last of the Mohicans, on the list. Among other things, his books contain staggeringly beautiful passages describing our native forests, and surely influenced some of us.

 

[Purron]

Where's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"?

 

[donheff]

Where's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"?

+1

 

[braumeister]

A vey good list, although I would probably have made a list at least twice that long. I was surprised that I was only familiar with 53 of them, but I plan to rectify that.

Thanks for the post.