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

This is one of the 759 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
15914 Charlotte Temple Susanna Haswell Rowson 1791 American English
15914 Hobomok Lydia Maria Child 1824 American English
10783 The Wide, Wide World Elizabeth Wetherell 1850 American English
6493 Ruth Hall Fanny Fern 1854 American English
2362 Our Nig Harriet E. Wilson 1859 American English
6493 Life In The Iron Mills Rebecca Harding Davis 1861 American English
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
15914 The Morgesons Elizabeth Stoddard 1862 American English
15914 Work Louisa May Alcott 1873 American English
6493 The Story Of Avis Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 1877 American English
5862 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
15914 A Country Doctor Sarah Orne Jewett 1884 American English
6493 The Hidden Hand Or, Capitola The Madcap E. D. E. N. Southworth 1859 American English
340 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum 1900 American English
230 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
183 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
15914 A Woman Of Genius Mary Austin 1912 American English
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
15914 Summer Edith Wharton 1917 American English
2548 The Enormous Room E. E. Cummings 1922 American English
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
15914 The Great American Novel William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
720 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
5862 Barren Ground Ellen Glasgow 1925 American English
1167 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
2165 Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska 1925 American English
15914 Show Boat Edna Ferber 1926 American English
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
253 Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe 1929 American English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
15914 The Sheltered Life Ellen Glasgow 1932 American English
1137 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
15914 Christ In Concrete Pietro di Donato 1939 American English
2258 Pale Horse, Pale Rider Katherine Anne Porter 1939 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
14172 The Human Comedy William Saroyan 1943 American English
15914 The Red Right Hand Joel Townsley Rogers 1945 American English
1119 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
2675 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
3904 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
15914 Ushant Conrad Aiken 1952 Ushant English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
3023 Pictures From An Institution Randall Jarrell 1954 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
14132 Brown Girl, Brownstones Paule Marshall 1959 American English
2800 Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth 1959 American English
15914 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
2125 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
4308 Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing May Sarton 1965 American English
8460 Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me Richard Fariña 1966 American English
1718 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
2432 The Einstein Intersection Samuel R. Delany 1967 American English
2869 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
14898 The Third Life Of Grange Copeland Alice Walker 1970 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
5008 Dance Hall Of The Dead Tony Hillerman 1973 American English
827 Fear of Flying Erica Jong 1973 American English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
17155 The Shadow Knows Diane Johnson 1974 American English
17155 The War Between The Tates Alison Lurie 1974 American English
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
14173 Wife Bharati Mukherjee 1975 Indian English
2976 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
17155 The Girl Meridel Le Sueur 1978 American English
17155 Umbertina Helen Barolini 1979 Umbertina English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
2351 The Salt Eaters Toni Cade Bambara 1980 American English
17155 Paper Fish Tina de Rosa 1980 American English
17155 A Bloodsmoor Romance Joyce Carol Oates 1982 American English
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
1067 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
17155 The Woman Who Owned The Shadows Paula Gunn Allen 1983 American English
17155 The Cannibal Galaxy Cynthia Ozick 1983 American English
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1889 Annie John Jamaica Kincaid 1985 Antiguan English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English