Reading List of Southern Writers
CMM June 25th, 2008
Okay, so I have an undergraduate degree in English from a southern college. You probably expect me to be well read in southern literature, right? Well, wrong. I actually focused on Romantic and Victorian writing with a secondary focus on the history of the English language. Since American writers have only recently taken prominence on the literary scene (by recently, I mean the last century), only a small piece of my college reading included southern writers. As for my reading since graduation, I’ve been focused on non-fiction American history, politics, technology, and business. Throw in the required reading and study associated with getting an MBA, and there goes any hope for leisure reading. When I did have time for leisure reading, I’ve been working my way though the works of Christopher Buckley and Nick Hornby.
I’ve decided to fill this gap in my literary experience. After some research and consultation, I decided on the following criteria for selection:
- Author must be from the American southeast or spent a substantial amount of time in the American southeast
- The author must have received a Pulitzer or be credited with developing a specific style of writing
- The writing must be a novel
- The novel must be set in the American southeast
As such, here are the authors and works on the list:
- William Faulkner “The Sound and The Fury” (Pulitzer– 1955 and 1963)
- Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Pulitzer– 1961)
- Cormac McCarthy “Suttree” (Pulitzer– 2007)
- James Agee “A Death in the Family” (Pulitzer– 1958)
- Robert Penn Warren “All the King’s Men” (Pulitzer– 1948, 1958, and 1979)
- Tom Wolfe “A Man in Full” (founder of New Journalism)
Consideration went to:
- Pat Controy
- Truman Capote
- Rock Bragg
- Anne Rice
- John Grisham
- Mark Twain
