Who are the most influential literary figures in American history?

Question

Recently the Atlantic Monthly asked historians who were the most influential figures in American history. Their top 100 included ten literary figures (listed below in order):

Mark Twain
Walt Whitman
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Harriet Beecher Stowe
William Faulkner
Henry David Thoreau
James Fenimore Cooper
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
Herman Melville

Would you accept this list? Do you see serious omissions? Do you disagree with any of the ten listed? If you had to choose ten, how might your list differ from this one?

Answer 1

I would include Edgar Allen Poe. Not only are his poems and stories excellent reads, but he basically created detective fiction with one of his short stories. He is one of the undisputed masters of terror, and should be included.

Answer 2

Well the question was 100 most influential figures in US history and it was asked of historians. That is why HB Stowe is on the list, not because she was a great writer. If the question was who were the most influential figures in US literature the list would look somewhat different.

Answer 3

All lists are subjective.
But for me, Truman Capote is a shocking omission. The highest paid and most avidly read writer of the twentieth century. He kept Random House waiting 10 years for the three chapters that comprised his final book (Answered Prayers). They were so eager for the chapters they kept giving Capote a $1 million dollars every few years in the hope that he would finish the work.
Now that's respect.

Answer 4

I think Edgar Allen Poe should be included on this list because he invented the Single Effect Theory for writing short storys, which states that each word in the story should evoke the single effect of the entire work and that any word diminishing the single effect should be left out. In the past he was credited with writing the first detective story.

Answer 5

I'd have to say that the Atlantic Monthly is right on the money; these individuals have helped to shape American literature into what it is today.

Answer 6

I'd like to see Emily Dickinson on that list. Bump Cooper.

Answer 7

Poe and Hawthorne should be on the list.

Answer 8

You're missing Poe and Pound.

Answer 9

I think I would omit Cooper. I surely think that Eudora Weldy should be added.