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/lit/ - Literature

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1423328 No.1423328 [Reply] [Original]

Americans.

I am an Englishman looking for the best American writer. So far I've read Steinbeck - and disliked it and its simplistic messages - and the Great Gatsby - which I liked.
So far I am inclined to name Fitzgerald the best American author. Who would you consider the best American author?

>> No.1423342

Living? Pynchon.

>> No.1423344
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1423344

>>1423328

>I read The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men for high school and now I'm an authority on who is the best American author

>> No.1423346

Hemingway. Hemingway Hemingway Hemingway Hemingway. It's Hemingway. You should read Hemingway because Hemingway Hemingway Hemingway Hemingway Hemingway.

Also Twain.

>> No.1423383

King
Clancy
Hitchens

>> No.1423385

Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hemmingway, Faulkner, William S. Burroughs, Pynchon.

>> No.1423396

Classic American writers: Mark Twain

Somewhere in between classic and modern: H.L. Mencken and William Faulkner

Modern American writers: William Gibson


Mencken and Twain are an excellent introduction to American philosophy imo.

>> No.1423410

>>1423385
How the fuck did I forget Melville?

>> No.1423420

>>1423383
no

>> No.1423435
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1423435

am i kawaii? uguu~

>> No.1423437

William F. Buckley

Willa Cather

William Faulkner

Ken Kesey

H.P. Lovecraft

Flannery O'Connor

H.L. Mencken

Margaret Mitchell

Thomas Paine (important for an understanding of American history)

J.D. Salinger

Donna Tartt

Mark Twain

Howard Zinn

Walt Whitman

Tom Wolfe

Richard Wright

>>1423383
Troll

>> No.1423452

>>1423437
Wait, why the hell do I have Zinn out of alphabetical order?
Whatever. He and Buckley are both important to read to get an idea of American politics. Both of them wrote pretty insightful stuff from completely opposite perspectives.

>> No.1423456

Prose: William Faulkner
Drama/short story: Tennessee Williams/Poe
Poetry: William Carlos Williams
Translations/misc.: Ezra Pound

>> No.1423465

I'm gonna throw a controversial opinion out there and say David Foster Wallace will probably be considered amongst all those listed above in the not-too-distant future.

>> No.1423470

IMO, Hemingway > Steinbeck > Twain.

That's my top 3, at least.

>> No.1423481

Fiction: Melville, Salinger, Faulkner, Poe, Hemingway, Sinclair

Philosophy: Mencken, Twain

Politics/History: Buckley, Zinn, Paine

Poetry: Frost, Thoreau

Biography/Autobiography: Franklin

>> No.1423483

... and Cornac McCarthy, also.

>> No.1423491

Fellow Britfag here.

It's between Mencken for politics, Hemmingway for storytelling.

>> No.1423499

>>1423481
Thomas Paine?

>> No.1423505

>ctrl F
>no Cormac McCarthy
>mfw.jpeg
>realize someone spelled it cornac
>mfw.tiff

>> No.1423506

Read Tom Wolfe.

He did a lot of academic work in the field of American Studies wrote a pretty large amount about the American underground cultures that were influential in the 70s.
Definitely a good author to read if you want a picture of American life that doesn't focus solely on the higher-ups and politicians who get the most attention in international media.

>> No.1423509
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1423509

>>1423499
That is correct.

>> No.1423514

>>1423505
>implying he can compete with Hemingway, Twain, Melville, etc.

>> No.1423516

William Gibson or Frank Herbert if you're at all into American popular fiction and speculative literature.

>> No.1423520

>>1423465

seconding this. underrated.

>> No.1423521

Thanks for the lists but could you make them a little more exclusive? Do you actually think all of those people are equally good?
>>1423437

>> No.1423531

>>1423521
It really depends on which aspects of America and American literature you want to study.

For example, I love J.D. Salinger, Donna Tartt, and Mark Twain's philosophical work (read his "Letters from the Earth"), and strongly dislike Margaret Mitchell, Willa Cather and Flannery O'Conner. Of course it's really all a matter of pesonal preference.

>> No.1423538

>>1423521
Start with Twain, Kesey, Mencken and Wolfe.

I'd recommend Faulkner as well but he's a little difficult to get into.

>> No.1423551

God dammit. I keep thinking up the names of authors to recommend in this thread and then suddenly remember that they were actually British.

>> No.1423555

Faulkner or Melville would probably be considered the "greatest" American writers, but they're both difficult.

Mark Twain is, in my opinion, the quintessential "American" writer.

>> No.1423578

Timothy Leary.
An American writer who has probably done the most intensive research into drugs and drug cultures out of, well, anyone.

For an exploration of American spirituality and mysticism Carlos Castaneda is a decent writer to explore, although most of the contents of his work have been debunked as fiction.

>> No.1423591

Christopher Paolini

>> No.1423597

Look into the works of James Branch Cabell. His works were infamous for their controversial content in the 1910s and 1920s.
He was kind of like an early 20th century American version of Terry Pratchett (though L. Frank Baum's deeply satirical Oz stories could just as easily claim that title)

>> No.1423600

>>1423435
>william_faulkner.jpg

Wat

>> No.1423627

I can't believe people forgot to mention Washington Irving in this thread. He's written some of the most famous American short stories in existence. His stories are so famous they're practically a part of the modern-day American mythology.

>> No.1423629
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1423629

What is /lit/'s opinion on Jonathan Safran Foer?

Not OP, to lazy to make my own thread.

>> No.1423638

>>1423629
I like him, but I've only read Everything Is Illuminated and liked it a lot. I think his style's very compelling.
Some people here hate his guts, apparently, but it is 4chan.

>> No.1423640

>>1423629

Shitty author. Moar like, "A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Shit".

Amirite? Am i?

>> No.1423647
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1423647

>>1423640

wat

>> No.1423648
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1423648

>>1423640
I hope you're trolling with that whole wrong-author-I'm-pretending-like-I'm-pretending-I've-read-it.

>> No.1423652

>>1423640
Dave Eggers is one of the most mediocre writers I've ever read.

>> No.1423805

>>1423437
As much as I love HPL you can't put him on a shortlist for best American author, unless you're looking for the best American pulp author.

>> No.1423811

Nabokov, Pynchon or Henry James OP. They are the only ones that can compete with god-tier British lit.

>> No.1423822

>>1423629

If I could kill him and get away with it, I would. I am completely serious. There are very few other human beings I hold as much hatred toward.

>> No.1423850
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1423850

Fellow Britfag here,

Best LIVING American author is Gene Wolfe. In case you were wondering.

Pic related. It's Gene Wolfe.

>> No.1423858

>>1423811

Have you even read Gravity's Rainbow or are you just bullshitting as usual?

>> No.1423877

I like Melville.

>> No.1423948

Prose: William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Henry James, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway

Poetry: Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot(He was kind of an Englishman at heart), Robert Frost, Hart Crane, Williams Carlos Williams.

Drama: Eugene O'Neil, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Arther Miller, Horton Foote

>> No.1423979

>>1423850
Tom Wolfe > Gene Wolfe

>> No.1423985

>>1423979

Mr. Wolfe > Tom Wolfe

>> No.1423988

>>1423805
No reason a list for best American writer shouldn't include the occasional pulp or genre writer.
A person that wants to familiarize themselves with American literature should explore every aspect of it, both mainstream popular fiction and classic literary.

>> No.1423994

>>1423811
>Nabokov

>American

He was Russian, you dipshit

>> No.1424003

>>1423994
American Writer. pleb.

>> No.1424005

Melville (and consequently, Pynchon), Hemingway, and Stephen King

>> No.1424012

>>1423850
Fantasy faggot detected.

>> No.1424014

>>1424005

>Stephen King.

u best be trollan

>> No.1424018
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1424018

harrumph

>> No.1424029

>>1424018
ahahahahahaha

>> No.1424032

>>1424018
>implying contemporary American literature isn't just mostly politically correct apologies for how horribly straight white males have treated women, gays and black people

>> No.1424037
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1424037

>>1424032
>politically correct apologies for how horribly straight white males have treated women, gays and black people

>> No.1424049

Saul Bellow

>> No.1424063

>>1424032
You live in a vibrant fantasy world.

>> No.1424129

>>1424063
>implying I don't simply live in a dismally inconvenient and annoying reality

>> No.1424134

>>1423396

William Gibson is Canadian.

>> No.1424140
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1424140

>Steinbeck
>its simplistic messages
You got me.
Which Steinbeck did you read ?

>> No.1424153

>>1423346
this is a valid argument.
DeLillo needs a mention for living writers.
A few folks have said Faulkner is hard to get into, try A Light in August, it's pretty straightforward and really good.
No one mentioned Poe, or did I miss it?

>> No.1424158

Kurt Vonnegut is highly respected. I don't know if he's the best but he may be my favorite.
Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe are both great journalists

>> No.1424165

>>1424140
Maybe he read that one where there are poor people struggling to eke a living in a harsh world

>> No.1424174

>>1424153

>mentions DeLillo
>calls Light in August "A Light in August"

confirmed for retard

>> No.1424182
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1424182

>>1424165
>he thinks Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, The Red Pony, The Pearl, The Short Reign of Pippin IV, America and Americans, Travels With Charley, The Moon Is Down, and Cannery Row all have the same message.

>> No.1424198

>>1424182

Is your love affair with D&E going sour?

In other news, Steinbeck is overrated. Get over it faggot.

>> No.1424206

>>1424198
Overrated doesn't mean bad...
The poor thing isn't the main subject (except for The Grapes). I suspect it's so rare to actually read about people who doesn't have an easy life that people stay focused on those aspects.

>> No.1424208

Cormac McCarthy is probably the one of our best modern writers.
They already teach The Road in high school classes, and it was only published four years ago, so i guess that says something.
Blood Meridian was better, though.

Philip K. Dick is awesome if you want Sci-fi. Although admittedly some of the things he wrote were complete bullshit. Read A Scanner Darkly.

>> No.1424213

Hey guys this is a great game we are playing pretending to tell people what they think the main subject or "message" of any book should be you guys are great at this audacious presumption stuff keep it up ;D

>> No.1424215

>>1424198
Is this the part where I give a damn that you dimly surmise one of the most famous American novelists of all time deserves less praise than he has consistently received for the past 3/4 of a century due to the cultural depth of his dialogue, the masterful meeting of theme and plot in his narratives, the enjoyable blend of melancholy and charisma of his storytelling style and the charm of his many characters beloved across generations?
Because I don't give a damn. Get fucked. This board dry-humps Hemingway's dessicated shotgun-hole 4 times a day and at least Steinbeck made you laugh sometimes instead of BAWWWW WAR IS AWFULS.

>> No.1424221

>>1424208
>placing value on the opinion of high school teachers

That's like getting a garbageman to assess the value of a diamond necklace.

>> No.1424225

>>1424213

All texts have clear, indisputable meanings, deal with it.

>> No.1424226

>>1423994
Nabokov was born in Russia, moved to Germany, moved to America, then went to Switzerland and died.

He had US citizenship.
But I don't really think you can call him anything considering the above. :/

>> No.1424227

Hemingway is the only correct answer

>huntan
>fishan
>drinkan
>bullfightan
>sharkfightan
>frontfightan
>faulkner dissan
>dolphin eatan

>> No.1424228

>>1424213
>Hey guys, writing isn't used to communicate! You're so dumb!
Yeahokbro.

>> No.1424230

>>1424221
Never mind the fact that it won a Pulitzer..
It's just an indication that people are paying attention to it so much that they teach it alongside Shakespeare.

>> No.1424238

>>1424215

I'm saying he didn't deserve the Nobel. That most of his novels were heavy-handed, especially in his later years. I don't think he deserves as much recognition as we give him. Have you ever read The Winter of Our Discontent? So much fail.

>> No.1424240
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1424240

>>1424225

>> No.1424244
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1424244

>>1424240

The meaning of Finnegans Wake is "fuck the Queen"

>> No.1424251

>>1424228
>>1424225

ho ho oh whoah

Broroviev you shouldn't be pulling out Bloom if you can't even take baby steps

>> No.1424258
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1424258

>>1424251
forgoot my pic

see also, death of le author, what is le author, etc then see Hirsch and we can have an argument

>> No.1424267

>>1424230
>Pulitzer

Shittiest prize ever. Even worse than the absolutely retarded Nobel. They keep not awarding it to the best works because they deem them to be "too offensive" (just like high school curricula). DeLillo hasn't won it, Dos Passos hasn't won it, Pynchon hasn't won it, and they're all WAY better than Cormac.

>> No.1424277
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1424277

>>1424251
Steinbeck had clearly identifiable themes. East of Eden was a re-telling of Cain and Able from a modern American perspective, I'm sure you're aware. Next you're going to tell me the Bible didn't have messages it tried to impart?
Of course it's all open to interpretation, and I know you're one of those "author's intent lel" types but we both know Steinbeck had themes and messages.
>The Rabbit Farm was just a farm for rabbits Lenny wanted.
Yeahokbro.

>> No.1424290

>>1424258

>see a couple of whiny Frenchmen who try to cope with the failure of leftist politics in France by transposing their hatred for authority onto the author in general

lol no

>> No.1424334

>>1424258
I also find it funny you can one day spew a bunch of new socialist rhetoric, then make a joke about Steinbeck just being "about poor people." Purposefully obtuse much?
>Steinbeck didn't have Communist/Socialist ideas he used in his work to show the flaws of capitalism and its power structures through the personal stories of characters representing a larger narrative of the oppression of the worker through economic control
Yeahokbro.

>> No.1424343

I've only read of Mice and Men tho and that was when I was 15

>> No.1424360

>>1424343
...
Please tell me you can at least look back and dimly remember the Rabbit Farm.
Got it?
Ok.
Now think about oppressed workers.
Got it?
Ok.
Now, Lenny is... GASP
an oppressed worker!
And Carl... GASP
promises him a rabbit farm!
When Lenny does something bad (he messes with the BOSS's woman)... GASP
THE BOSS COMES CHASING HIM TO KILL HIM
GASP!
Then Carl tries to help him escape, but he's not really helping well, and he's caught in the middle of it all anyhow (he's in the middle... the middle... like the middle between the low guy and the BOSS-- you following?)
So...
CARL BLOWS HIS FUCKING BRAINS OUT,
thinking himself that it's an act of mercy,
and promising him the rabbit farm to make him sit still and wait for the bullet.


"lol author's intent is dead it don't mean nothing."

>> No.1424369

Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K Dick. The rest of the US writers can suck a bag of AIDS ridden dicks.

>> No.1424372

>>1424360
Oh yeah I remember that time they were talking about the rabbit farm before they were even employed by anyone and they roped the geriatric with the shot dog and the cripple coon into it as well not so sure it is a simple as lolcapitalism there bro

>> No.1424387

>>1424372
>implying the symbolism of the rabbit farm as pacifier of the working-class only extends itself to the ending, the black man wasn't Steinbeck's portrayal of serfdom, and the dog and Lenny aren't supposed to represent the same things in different manners.
YeahokbroI'mdone.

>> No.1424427

>>1424369
Yeah, because Philip K. Dick and Vonnegut are where it's at and writers like Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Henry James, Walt Whitman, Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Harte Crane, Williams Carlos Williams, Eugene O' Neil, Eliot, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Warren, Lewis, Pynchon, West, Bellow, Wharton, Longfellow, Frost, Miller, ect, ect all shit.

Hey, maybe you should grow up and read more than six authors before making any judgments.

>> No.1425970

having a simplistic message doesn't mean the book is bad.

also have you read East of Eden by steinbeck?
I would read that before dismissing him at least.

>> No.1425989

Vonnegut was good, but overall he's like literature's Tim Burton. Both can produce some amazing stuff (The Sirens of Titan, Big Fish), but are more often than not talked about for their style rather than substance.

As far as Dick goes, I'll let you have him. Along with everybody else listed >>1424427 here.

>> No.1426013
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1426013

>>1423328
Kurt Vonnegut is the best american writer

>> No.1426035

Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O'connor, Charles Bukowski, Philip K. Dick, Harry Crews, Joe Lansdale and Tom Franklin are among my favorites.

>> No.1426050

Hemmingway and Whitman head and shoulders

>> No.1426058

Vonnegut > Mencken > Twain > London > McCarthy
Phillip k. Dick had some great stories but really wasn't a good enough writer to rank up there with the best.

>> No.1426061

>>1426013
Your opinion is wrong. Vonnegut is barely even worth mentioning when talking about American lit.

>> No.1426091

Hard to say but Wolfe and McCarthy are probably the best that are still alive. Also Ted Chiang but he writes like one short story a year so he doesn't really count.

>> No.1426123

>>1426061
>opinion
>wrong
Pick one

>> No.1426154
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1426154

>>1426091
>mfw Pynchon and DeLillo are still alive
They are miles above those two.

>> No.1426170

>>1424387
>implying you can know what the author's intentions were when all you have is the text

>> No.1426177

>>1424140
Of Mice and Men, East of Eden (nearly vomited in this book), Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
Have been up all night reading Faulkner. It's decent prose, but once again though I find the themes to be relatively simple and exaggerated.
I've also read McCarthy by the way - well, I've read The Road. Enjoyed the read but didn't think there was much to it.

Also D&E, Golding is probably the most insightful person I've ever met, and his prose is incredible. I think that you'll find American literature is equally obsessed with the way in which their society has evolved (parallel to the British Empire).

>> No.1426180

No one likes Frederick Pohl?

>> No.1426189

/lit/ is clearly the most arrogant board
>herp derp I've read every work by every american author ever clearly fgfcjjj is best american author
also Raymond Chandler is the best american author

>> No.1426193

>>1426123
That was the joke dumb ass.

>> No.1426196

>>1426154
>>1426154
DeLillo sucks and is in no way miles above of either of them. White Noise fucking sucks. Blood Meridian is better than DeLillo's entire career.

>> No.1426197

My favorite American author is Hemingway, but that's mostly because he's a totally non-homo tough guy like me.

But really, I haven't read many American authors so Hemingway is top of my list for the moment.

>> No.1426199
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1426199

>mfw two of the greatest living writers had to work as technical writers to get by

>> No.1426221

>>1426196
Great Jones Street, Libra, and Underworld are all great books. White Noise is immensely overrated because durr hurr TV is bad? my mind is blown after that bullshit people get sucked into.

Blood Meridian is good, but The Road sucked dog dick, which seem to be the only books people know him for. Old country was alright, as was all the pretty horses, but I wouldn't call them essentials of american literature that really define the post modern development like DeLillo and Pynchon have. The first 50-60 pages of Underworld are fantastic.

>> No.1426227

>>1426221
Roth is better than DeLillo too.

>> No.1426233

>>1424012
>implying there is anything wrong with that
>implying you're even familiar with his work
>>1424208
>Philip K. Dick is awesome if you want Sci-fi.
No, he wasn't. Shit sucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/mar/15/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.philipkdick
>>1426199
he didn't "have to", he was an industrial engineer its what he went to school for and his first career - designed the oven that cooks the Pringle, edited Plant Engineering magazine for years, etc

>> No.1426255

My personal favorites:
Dead: Fitzgerald
Living: Gene Wolfe

Wolfe is woefully underread; it's criminal.

>> No.1426268

Raymond Carver is one of the best short story authors in the last century.

>> No.1426271

Charles Bukowski

>> No.1426943

Ordered For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hopefully it will be good; he has lots more that I could read. My current list, going from most to least preferred:

1. Fitzgerald
2. Faulkner
3. McCarthy
12156. Steinbeck

>> No.1426980

I did a search and got no results, so I'm going to recommend this one:
All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

It's a pretty solid American novel.

>> No.1427012

>>1426268
Cannot believe I forgot to mention him. You can basically just read that best-of tome and never need/read any other short stories ever again. Though there's always room for Lovecraft.