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
2669 This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff 1989 American English
2799 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
3112 The Life of Andrew Jackson Marquis James 1937 American English
3287 Stories of Washington Irving Washington Irving 1820 American English
3292 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3316 City Of Night John Rechy 1963 American English
3447 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
4165 Confederates Thomas Keneally 1979 Australian English
4309 The Hunters James Salter 1956 American English
4369 More Die Of Heartbreak Saul Bellow 1987 American English
4491 All The Little Live Things Wallace Stegner 1967 American English
4541 A New Life Bernard Malamud 1961 American English
4644 Friday The Rabbi Slept Late Harry Kemelman 1964 American English
4787 Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1840 American English
4898 The Poetry Of Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet 1867 American English
5246 Jews Without Money Michael Gold 1930 American English
5249 The Strange Career of Jim Crow C. Vann Woodward 1955 American English
5348 A Street In Bronzeville Gwendolyn Brooks 1945 American English
5353 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5646 The Bear William Faulkner 1942 American English
6002 Pylon William Faulkner 1935 American English
6002 Testimony Charles Reznikoff 1965 American English
6233 Tar Baby Toni Morrison 1981 American English
6301 Dreaming Of Babylon Richard Brautigan 1977 American English
6579 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6597 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
7215 Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye Horace McCoy 1948 American English
7564 Selected Poems Frank O'Hara 1974 American English
7715 The Southpaw Mark Harris 1953 American English
7734 The Wanderers Richard Price 1974 American English
7818 Sister Gin June Arnold 1975 American English
7876 Baumgartner Paul Auster 2023 American English
7943 Lover Bertha Harris 1976 American English
7993 A Relative Stranger Charles Baxter 1990 American English
8075 The Great Derangement Matt Taibbi 2008 American English
8196 Fifth Chinese Daughter Jade Snow Wong 1945 American English
8257 Christine Stephen King 1983 American English
8498 Collected Poems Jane Kenyon 2005 American English
8497 The Grass Harp Truman Capote 1956 American English
8538 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8570 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8651 Domestic Manners of the Americans Fanny Trollope 1832 British English
8661 The Bridge Hart Crane 1930 American English
8667 How Stella Got Her Groove Back Terry McMillan 1996 American English
8700 W.E.B. Du Bois David Levering Lewis 2000 American English
8769 Four Ways To Forgiveness Ursula K. Le Guin 1994 American English
8794 The Understatement Of The Year Sarina Bowen 2014 American English
8796 The Valley Of The Moon Jack London 1913 American English
8868 When Katie Met Cassidy Camille Perri 2018 American English
8872 April Morning Howard Fast 1961 American English
9127 My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout 2016 American English
9148 In A Cloud Of Dust And Smoke Raymond Fraser 2003 Canadian English
9179 What Salmon Know Elwood Reid 1999 American English
9188 American Rust Philipp Meyer 2009 American English
9188 Nemesis Philip Roth 2010 American English
9277 What Hath God Wrought Daniel Walker Howe 2007 American English
9318 The Beautiful Room Is Empty Edmund White 1988 American English
9528 Black Water Rising Attica Locke 2009 American English
9588 Alligator Lisa Moore 2005 Canadian English
9615 Give Us The Ballot Ari Berman 2015 American English
9681 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
9696 The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes Langston Hughes 1994 American English
9771 Racial Realignment Eric Schickler 2016 American English
9856 The Falcon John Tanner 1965 Unknown Unknown
9856 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
10080 Falling in Place Ann Beattie 1980 American English
10128 Shadow Ticket Thomas Pynchon 2025 American English
10226 We The People Jill Lepore 2025 American English
10283 There Is No Place For Us Brian Goldstone 2025 Unknown English
10300 Anywhere But Here Mona Simpson 1986 American English
10365 Still Can't See Nothin' Comin' Daniel Grey Marshall 2004 American English
10367 Complete Poems James Weldon Johnson 2000 American English
10388 Basic Documents in American History Richard Brandon Morris 1958 American English
10389 Mudwoman Joyce Carol Oates 2012 American English
10391 Sea Of Tranquillity Paul Russell 1994 Unknown English
10448 Washington's Crossing David Hackett Fischer 2004 American English
10448 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
10448 The Topeka School Ben Lerner 2019 American English
10448 The Life Of Langston Hughes Arnold Rampersad 1986 American English
10448 Arthur Ashe: A Life Raymond Arsenault 2018 Unknown English
10486 The Fate Of The Day Rick Atkinson 2025 Unknown English
10542 Rat Bohemia Sarah Schulman 1995 American English
10574 Strangers In The Land Michael Luo 2025 American English
10643 Bread Of Angels Patti Smith 2025 American English
10704 Black Folk Blair L.M. Kelley 2023 Unknown English
10719 In The Belly Of The Beast Jack Henry Abbott 1981 American English
10737 Imagine Me Gone Adam Haslett 2016 American English
10791 Code Talker Joseph Bruchac 2005 American English
10809 Dodgers Bill Beverly 2016 American English
10849 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
10997 The Ghost Writer Philip Roth 1979 American English
11079 The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen 2017 American English
11305 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11479 Ali Jonathan Eig 2017 American English
11485 I Shall Not Be Moved Maya Angelou 1990 American English
11571 Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway 1927 American English
11660 The New Yorker Stories Ann Beattie 2010 American English
11660 The Lay Of The Land Richard Ford 2006 American English
11660 Walt Whitman Justin Kaplan 1980 American English
11660 Walt Whitman Paul Zweig 1984 American English
11852 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation Allen Guelzo 2004 American English
11863 Welcome To The Goddamn Ice Cube Blair Braverman 2016 American English
11920 Skeleton Man Tony Hillerman 2004 American English
11930 Bad Dirt Annie Proulx 2004 American English
11932 Animals Strike Curious Poses Elena Passarello 2017 American English
12038 Ginseng Roots Craig Thompson 2024 American English
12126 The Pelican Child Joy Williams 2025 Unknown English
12136 The Powers That Be David Halberstam 1979 American English
12141 Drown Junot Diaz 1996 American English