The Greatest Books of All Time Set in American

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1865 Elmer Gantry Sinclair Lewis 1927 American English
1996 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
2670 This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff 1989 American English
2801 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
3113 The Life of Andrew Jackson Marquis James 1937 American English
3288 Stories of Washington Irving Washington Irving 1820 American English
3293 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3316 City Of Night John Rechy 1963 American English
3448 Look At Me Anita Brookner 1983 British English
3622 A Small, Good Thing Raymond Carver 1981 American English
3638 The Leatherstocking Tales James Fenimore Cooper 1823 American English
4166 Confederates Thomas Keneally 1979 Australian English
4310 The Hunters James Salter 1956 American English
4370 More Die Of Heartbreak Saul Bellow 1987 American English
4493 All The Little Live Things Wallace Stegner 1967 American English
4543 A New Life Bernard Malamud 1961 American English
4646 Friday The Rabbi Slept Late Harry Kemelman 1964 American English
4789 Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1840 American English
4900 The Poetry Of Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet 1867 American English
5248 Jews Without Money Michael Gold 1930 American English
5251 The Strange Career of Jim Crow C. Vann Woodward 1955 American English
5350 A Street In Bronzeville Gwendolyn Brooks 1945 American English
5355 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5649 The Bear William Faulkner 1942 American English
6005 Pylon William Faulkner 1935 American English
6005 Testimony Charles Reznikoff 1965 American English
6237 Tar Baby Toni Morrison 1981 American English
6304 Dreaming Of Babylon Richard Brautigan 1977 American English
6581 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6599 Benjamin Franklin Carl Van Doren 1938 American English
6839 The Awakening Of Helena Ritchie Margaret Deland 1906 American English
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6957 The Field Of Blood Joanne B. Freeman 2018 American English
7001 Collected Poems Jack Gilbert 2012 American English
7037 Bright Shiny Morning James Frey 2008 American English
7120 A Louis Zukofsky 1991 American English
7147 Captains And The Kings Taylor Caldwell 1972 American English
7216 Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye Horace McCoy 1948 American English
7565 Selected Poems Frank O'Hara 1974 American English
7717 The Southpaw Mark Harris 1953 American English
7736 The Wanderers Richard Price 1974 American English
7819 Sister Gin June Arnold 1975 American English
7877 Baumgartner Paul Auster 2023 American English
7944 Lover Bertha Harris 1976 American English
7994 A Relative Stranger Charles Baxter 1990 American English
8076 The Great Derangement Matt Taibbi 2008 American English
8198 Fifth Chinese Daughter Jade Snow Wong 1945 American English
8259 Christine Stephen King 1983 American English
8503 Collected Poems Jane Kenyon 2005 American English
8502 The Grass Harp Truman Capote 1956 American English
8542 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8574 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8655 Domestic Manners of the Americans Fanny Trollope 1832 British English
8665 The Bridge Hart Crane 1930 American English
8671 How Stella Got Her Groove Back Terry McMillan 1996 American English
8704 W.E.B. Du Bois David Levering Lewis 2000 American English
8774 Four Ways To Forgiveness Ursula K. Le Guin 1994 American English
8799 The Understatement Of The Year Sarina Bowen 2014 American English
8801 The Valley Of The Moon Jack London 1913 American English
8872 When Katie Met Cassidy Camille Perri 2018 American English
8876 April Morning Howard Fast 1961 American English
9132 My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout 2016 American English
9153 In A Cloud Of Dust And Smoke Raymond Fraser 2003 Canadian English
9183 What Salmon Know Elwood Reid 1999 American English
9192 American Rust Philipp Meyer 2009 American English
9192 Nemesis Philip Roth 2010 American English
9282 What Hath God Wrought Daniel Walker Howe 2007 American English
9323 The Beautiful Room Is Empty Edmund White 1988 American English
9533 Black Water Rising Attica Locke 2009 American English
9593 Alligator Lisa Moore 2005 Canadian English
9619 Give Us The Ballot Ari Berman 2015 American English
9685 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
9700 The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes Langston Hughes 1994 American English
9775 Racial Realignment Eric Schickler 2016 American English
9860 The Falcon John Tanner 1965 Unknown Unknown
9860 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
10086 Falling in Place Ann Beattie 1980 American English
10133 Shadow Ticket Thomas Pynchon 2025 American English
10233 We The People Jill Lepore 2025 American English
10289 There Is No Place For Us Brian Goldstone 2025 Unknown English
10306 Anywhere But Here Mona Simpson 1986 American English
10371 Still Can't See Nothin' Comin' Daniel Grey Marshall 2004 American English
10373 Complete Poems James Weldon Johnson 2000 American English
10394 Basic Documents in American History Richard Brandon Morris 1958 American English
10395 Mudwoman Joyce Carol Oates 2012 American English
10397 Sea Of Tranquillity Paul Russell 1994 Unknown English
10454 Washington's Crossing David Hackett Fischer 2004 American English
10454 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
10454 The Topeka School Ben Lerner 2019 American English
10454 The Life Of Langston Hughes Arnold Rampersad 1986 American English
10454 Arthur Ashe: A Life Raymond Arsenault 2018 Unknown English
10492 The Fate Of The Day Rick Atkinson 2025 Unknown English
10549 Rat Bohemia Sarah Schulman 1995 American English
10581 Strangers In The Land Michael Luo 2025 American English
10650 Bread Of Angels Patti Smith 2025 American English
10711 Black Folk Blair L.M. Kelley 2023 Unknown English
10726 In The Belly Of The Beast Jack Henry Abbott 1981 American English
10744 Imagine Me Gone Adam Haslett 2016 American English
10798 Code Talker Joseph Bruchac 2005 American English
10816 Dodgers Bill Beverly 2016 American English
10856 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
11004 The Ghost Writer Philip Roth 1979 American English
11086 The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen 2017 American English
11312 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11483 Ali Jonathan Eig 2017 American English
11489 I Shall Not Be Moved Maya Angelou 1990 American English
11573 Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway 1927 American English
11663 The New Yorker Stories Ann Beattie 2010 American English
11663 The Lay Of The Land Richard Ford 2006 American English
11663 Walt Whitman Justin Kaplan 1980 American English
11663 Walt Whitman Paul Zweig 1984 American English
11854 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation Allen Guelzo 2004 American English
11865 Welcome To The Goddamn Ice Cube Blair Braverman 2016 American English
11922 Skeleton Man Tony Hillerman 2004 American English
11932 Bad Dirt Annie Proulx 2004 American English
11934 Animals Strike Curious Poses Elena Passarello 2017 American English
12040 Ginseng Roots Craig Thompson 2024 American English
12127 The Pelican Child Joy Williams 2025 Unknown English
12137 The Powers That Be David Halberstam 1979 American English
12142 Drown Junot Diaz 1996 American English