A Response to David Handlin’s “One Hundred Best American Novels”

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The American Scholar, 101 Books

This is a contrasting list of One Hundred Best American Novels, 1770 to 1985 by author and feminist scholar Sandra M. Gilbert

I highly recommend reading her description of this list.

This list was originally published in 2014 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
15786 Charlotte Temple Susanna Haswell Rowson 1791 American English
15786 Hobomok Lydia Maria Child 1824 Hobomok English
10753 The Wide, Wide World Elizabeth Wetherell 1850 American English
6482 Ruth Hall Fanny Fern 1854 American English
2354 Our Nig Harriet E. Wilson 1859 American English
6482 Life In The Iron Mills Rebecca Harding Davis 1861 American English
1998 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
15786 The Morgesons Elizabeth Stoddard 1862 American English
15786 Work Louisa May Alcott 1873 American English
6482 The Story Of Avis Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 1877 American English
5851 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
15786 A Country Doctor Sarah Orne Jewett 1884 American English
6482 The Hidden Hand Or, Capitola The Madcap E. D. E. N. Southworth 1859 American English
337 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum 1900 American English
231 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
181 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
1154 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
15786 A Woman Of Genius Mary Austin 1912 American English
885 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
15786 Summer Edith Wharton 1917 American English
2544 The Enormous Room E. E. Cummings 1922 American English
853 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
15786 The Great American Novel William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
719 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
5851 Barren Ground Ellen Glasgow 1925 American English
1166 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
911 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
2154 Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska 1925 American English
15786 Show Boat Edna Ferber 1926 American English
1580 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
253 Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe 1929 American English
143 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
15786 The Sheltered Life Ellen Glasgow 1932 American English
1136 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
15786 Christ In Concrete Pietro di Donato 1939 American English
2249 Pale Horse, Pale Rider Katherine Anne Porter 1939 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
14107 The Human Comedy William Saroyan 1943 American English
15786 The Red Right Hand Joel Townsley Rogers 1945 American English
1117 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
2670 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
3898 Other Voices, Other Rooms Truman Capote 1948 American English
1458 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Carson McCullers 1951 American English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
15786 Ushant Conrad Aiken 1952 Ushant English
107 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
1261 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
3014 Pictures From An Institution Randall Jarrell 1954 American English
142 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
165 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
14068 Brown Girl, Brownstones Paule Marshall 1959 American English
2848 Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth 1959 American English
15786 Bid Me To Live Hilda Doolittle 1960 British English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
2117 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
2307 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
771 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
102 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
4301 Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing May Sarton 1965 American English
8441 Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me Richard Fariña 1966 American English
1716 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
2426 The Einstein Intersection Samuel R. Delany 1967 American English
2862 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
361 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
688 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
14810 The Third Life Of Grange Copeland Alice Walker 1970 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1312 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
4998 Dance Hall Of The Dead Tony Hillerman 1973 American English
827 Fear of Flying Erica Jong 1973 American English
558 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
17008 The Shadow Knows Diane Johnson 1974 American English
17008 The War Between The Tates Alison Lurie 1974 American English
417 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
1034 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
14108 Wife Bharati Mukherjee 1975 Indian English
2968 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
1082 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
17008 The Girl Meridel Le Sueur 1978 American English
17008 Umbertina Helen Barolini 1979 Umbertina English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
2344 The Salt Eaters Toni Cade Bambara 1980 American English
17008 Paper Fish Tina de Rosa 1980 American English
17008 A Bloodsmoor Romance Joyce Carol Oates 1982 American English
1829 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
159 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
1065 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
17008 The Woman Who Owned The Shadows Paula Gunn Allen 1983 American English
17008 The Cannibal Galaxy Cynthia Ozick 1983 American English
1632 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1316 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1888 Annie John Jamaica Kincaid 1985 Antiguan English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English