Since the 1980’s, literary scholars have complained of a “fixed” and “restrictive” canon of American literature. While working on another project, my curiosity was aroused. What actually is the American literary canon, as determined by what literary scholars actually work on?
Over the past 25 years, Henry James has been the top-ranked American writer, according to the latest MLA International Bibliography. More than 3,000 pieces of scholarship have been devoted to him in whole or part since 1987. Only William Faulkner approaches him in volume. If the scholarship is counted since 1947, however (the date of the earliest entries in the Bib), Faulkner is the runaway leader with 7,108 scholarly pieces on him. And James trails with 6,760.
One of the changes over the past 25 years, then, is that James has supplanted Faulkner as America’s best or most important writer. T. S. Eliot and Herman Melville have also swapped places. After that, things get interesting. Vladimir Nabokov has become of the five most talked-about American writers, and Toni Morrison (whose Beloved will be 25 years old in September) has jumped from far back into the top ten. The reputations of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Twain, Fitzgerald, and Frost have slipped badly. Poor William Dean Howells has fallen out of the top 25 altogether (to be replaced by Richard Wright). Has the literary scholars’ 25-year worship at the holy shrine of race, class, and gender brought about major changes in the canon? You be the judge.
Here are the top 25 American writers as determined by the amount of scholarship on each. In brackets is the rise or fall of each writer when compared to his or her ranking since 1947.
( 1.) Henry James (3,188 items) [+1]
( 2.) William Faulkner (2,955) [-1]
( 3.) T. S. Eliot (2,659) [+1]
( 4.) Herman Melville (2,579) [-1]
( 5.) Vladimir Nabokov (2,290) [+5]
( 6.) Ernest Hemingway (2,220) [-0-]
( 7.) Edgar Allan Poe (1,958) [-2]
( 8.) Toni Morrison (1,950) [+9]
( 9.) Nathaniel Hawthorne (1,751) [-4]
(10.) Walt Whitman (1,647) [-2]
(11.) Emily Dickinson (1,623) [+2]
(12.) Ezra Pound (1,620) [-3]
(13.) Willa Cather (1,482) [+5]
(14.) Ralph Waldo Emerson (1,326) [-3]
(15.) Wallace Stevens (1,122) [-1]
(16.) Edith Wharton (1,087) [+5]
(17.) Henry David Thoreau (1,076) [-5]
(18.) F. Scott Fitzgerald (1,002) [-3]
(19.) Flannery O’Connor (935) [+3]
(20.) Mark Twain (882) [-4]
(21.) John Steinbeck (823) [+2]
(22.) William Carlos Williams (772) [-0-]
(23.) Saul Bellow (706) [+2]
(24.) Richard Wright (670) [+2]
(25.) Robert Frost (661) [-5]
Disclaimer: These rankings are based entirely on the research of the author, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the Modern Language Association in any way.
Who are the top twenty five living authors that are being "worked on"? I'd also be curious about the top 25 Jewish authors who are being used as dissertation fodder…and women,and Latino authors,and black authors-and although I realize that that sort of breakdown defeats the purpose and intent of the article ,I think such genre "hit parades" would satisfy curiosity.(Science fiction and mysteries I imagine are being "worked on" these days in schools.)……… And to avoid being misinterpreted,I'd like to state for the record that I don't think any special pleading in terms of race,class ,or gender,or colonial status is an intellectually legitimate basis for studying or promoting any authors.If the inherent limitations of alternative canons are acknowledged, I don't think there's any harm in compiling those lists………..Let's face it-fragmentation is a fact ,and real people read real books based on considerations far removed from academic concerns,and I'm not referring to Junk novels that are sold in airport book kiosks …
what happened to William Shakespeare? Or were those books really written by Edward de Vere? Inquiring minds want to know.
So how long until first person shooter games are blamed do you think, few hours?
It is usually sort of pathetic to pick on people who e.g. apparently think that William Shakespeare is an American writer. But when that person winkingly namedrops Edward de Vere, then all bets are off.
Super interesting! Would love to see scholarship trends through the years. n nCould you say a little bit about your methodology? I tried to perform a similar search in the MLA International Bibliography by searching for author names as subjects (SU) from 1947-present, but got different figures (eg 6800 results for Henry James).
To place Pound above Twain? That's as insane as Pound himself. And to include Richard Wright at all in preference over Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes? That just plain crazy.
Oh no. And how could I have failed to notice this? There is absolutely not a single dramatist on that list! Eugene O'Neill, anyone?
who are these people?
Hmmmm. . . although only in possession of an undergrad degree in English, I still find it a wee bit of a stretch to include T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound as great "American" poets. Yes, both were born here, but — T. S Eliot moved to the British Isles and became a subject of His Majesty in 1927. n nEzra Pound, while born in Idaho, rejected America for the pleasures of the continent where he became active in the Fascist movement. He returned to the US in 1945 and was arrested for treason. He was tried, acquitted, but then interned in a mental institution. Upon his release from the hospital, he fled back to Italy where he died. n nNow, it seems to me that the places these two names occupy might be better filled by others. We have a rich and varied literary tradition in the US; undoubtedly, these two poets are among the greatest in the ENGLISH LANGUAGE, but do they really represent a decidedly American sensibility? n nBut, I forget — this was a sort of Bizzaro World Miss America Contest, based solely upon popularity among thesis and dissertation hunters, and tenure seekers. Perhaps the MLA will come up with a list based upon more substantive criteria in the future!
There is a larger issue here — exactly how much academic scholarship is even worth the paper upon which it is printed, and how much is nothing more than a politicized ideological elite writing to itself? The "higher ed bubble" is far bigger than the housing bubble ever was, and she is going to burst big time and soon….
Spoken like the rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in the mirror.