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

Mank -- Thank you for the best, and most interesting question of the day. I hadn't see this list; it's quite something. What about some of the great poets and playwrites? What about Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller? What about T. S. Eliot and e.e. cummings and Robert Frost?

And while I can appreciate the historical significance of H. B. Stowe, I strongly object to her inclusion. Yes, I know Uncle Tom's Cabin helped ignite the Civil War; but as a piece of literature (examined entirely for its extant merits, the work is very amateurish. Sorry, but I see her inclusion as more a bow to political correctness than literary merit). The same is true for Thoreau and Emerson. As for Cooper -- he's dated.

Okay. Most of the other selections make perfect sense. Here's my list.

1. Mark Twain.
2. Ernest Hemmingway
3. John Steinbeck
4. Robert Frost
5. William Faulkner.
6. Tennessee Williams.
7. Herman Melville.
8. Tom Wolfe (Not "Thomas" Wolfe).
9. Toni Morrison.
10. John Updike.

Thanks again for an interesting question. Cheers.

Answer 2

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 3

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tennessee Williams

Answer 4

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Answer 5

I like this list, but I could see adding Langston Hughes for the Harlem Renassance poetry, or Toni Morrison, or J.D. Salinger, and if I had to drop one of their top ten, I would probably toss Cooper.

Answer 6

I would change the order, and put Hemmingway as 2nd.I would also add some female authors. I think Mya D'Angelo has shaped todays women and society.