Hungry Mind Review's "100 Best 20th-Century American Books of Fiction and Nonfiction"

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The books were chosen by five writers: Mary Moore Easter, Heid E. Erdrich, Bill Holm, David Mura, and George Rabasa, under the direction of Bart Schneider, editor of the Hungry Mind Review, and J. Otis Powell of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

The Hungry Mind Review list provides a compelling alternative to the Modern Library’s selection of "100 Best Novels published in the English language since 1900," announced last July. Although the Modern Library list was criticized for including only six books by nonwhite writers, only nine books by women, and very few books published after 1960, it initiated a lively national discussion. The HMR list reflects a far more realistic race and gender balance, and includes a good number of contemporary books. Our list is however limited to books written by Americans.

While the Modern Library list is restricted to novels, the Hungry Mind Review includes distinguished books of nonfiction and collections of short fiction. "Opening the list to nonfiction makes sense in a literary century that has witnessed the blurring of the line between fiction and nonfiction," according to Hungry Mind Review editor Bart Schneider. "It’s thrilling to have James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, as well as the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Alice B. Toklas, on this list," Schneider adds. "Essential 20th-century writers like James Baldwin, Joan Didion, and Gore Vidal, who each have collections of nonfiction included on the list, are commonly thought to have done their best writing in the essay form."

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  1. 1.
    ?
    The Education of Henry Adams (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Henry Adams

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  2. 4.
    Bless Me, Ultima
    by Rudolfo Anaya

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  3. 5.
    Winesburg, Ohio (Signet Classics (Paperback))
    by Sherwood Anderson

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  4. 6.
    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    by Maya Angelou

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  5. 7.
    La frontera/Borderlands
    by Gloria Anzaldua

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  6. 8.
    Go Tell It on the Mountain
    by James Baldwin

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  7. 9.
    ?
    The Price of the Ticket
    by James Baldwin

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  8. 10.
    Slaves in the Family (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
    by EDWARD BALL

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  9. 11.
    Herzog (Penguin Classics)
    by Saul Bellow

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  10. 12.
    The Sheltering Sky (P.S.)
    by Paul Bowles

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  11. 13.
    Naked Lunch
    by William S. Burroughs

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  12. 14.
    In Cold Blood
    by Truman Capote

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  13. 15.
    Cathedral
    by Raymond Carver

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  14. 16.
    O Pioneers! (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Willa Cather

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  15. 17.
    Death Comes for the Archbishop
    by Willa Cather

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  16. 18.
    Collected Stories
    by John Cheever

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  17. 19.
    The House on Mango Street
    by Sandra Cisneros

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  18. 21.
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays
    by Joan Didion

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  19. 24.
    Dreiser American Tragedy (Library of America)
    by Theodore Dreiser

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  20. 26.
    Invisible Man
    by Ralph Ellison

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  21. 27.
    Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.)
    by Louise Erdrich

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  22. 28.
    The Sound and the Fury
    by William Faulkner

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  23. 29.
    As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text (Modern Library)
    by William Faulkner

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  24. 30.
    Go Down, Moses
    by William Faulkner

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  25. 31.
    The Great Gatsby
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  26. 32.
    The Art of Eating
    by M. F. K. Fisher

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  27. 33.
    The Ordinary Seaman
    by Francisco Goldman

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  28. 34.
    Roots: The Saga of an American Family
    by Alex Haley

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  29. 35.
    Catch 22
    by Joseph Heller

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  30. 36.
    The Sun Also Rises
    by Ernest Hemingway

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  31. 37.
    The Short Stories (Scribner Classics)
    by Ernest Hemingway

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  32. 38.
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    Dispatches -Lib
    by Michael Herr

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  33. 40.
    Mean Spirit
    by Linda Hogan

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  34. 41.
    Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
    by Bell Hooks

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  35. 42.
    Their Eyes Were Watching God
    by Zora Neale Hurston

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  36. 43.
    The Wings of the Dove (Penguin Classics)
    by Henry James

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  37. 44.
    Blues People: Negro Music in White America
    by Leroi Jones

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  38. 45.
    On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
    by Jack Kerouac

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  39. 47.
    Annie John: A Novel
    by Jamaica Kincaid

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  40. 49.
    The Painted Bird
    by Jerzy N. Kosinski

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  41. 50.
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    by Harper Lee

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Created by K McQuage on Sep 30, 2009.
 

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