The Next 100 Great Southern Books: Part II

Yesterday, I gave you the first part of “The Next 100 Great Southern Books,” which was a sub-list of “A Southern List: 125 Great Southern Books,” which was compiled several years ago by the James Agee Film Project. (On Tuesday, I gave you “The Top 25 Great Southern Books” list, which was also a sub-list of “A Southern List.”)
Today, I give you the final part of “The Next 100 Great Southern Books.” This list, unlike the Top 25, is in alphabetical order, and I’m picking up where I left off with the list yesterday.
Those of you who read the posts on Tuesday and Wednesday will remember that this list was put together by the James Agee Film Project while they were working on the award-winning documentary series, “Tell About The South: Voices in Black and White.” The list of great Southern books was compiled after a poll of book editors, publishers, scholars and reviewers. They were each asked “which of the thousands of Southern prose works published in during the past century should be considered ‘the most remarkable works of modern Southern Literature.’”Without further ado, here are the rest of the books on “The Next 100 Great Southern Books” list:
- The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
- Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
- Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor
- Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
- Lancelot by Walker Percy
- Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy
- Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
- Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
- Edisto by Padgett Powell
- A Long and Happy Life by Reynolds Price
- Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price
- Collected Stories by Reynolds Price
- I’ll Take My Stand by John Crowe Ransom, et al
- Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
- O Beulah Land by Mary Lee Settle
- Oral History by Lee Smith
- Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
- Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith
- Killers of the Dream by Lillian Smith
- The Voice at the Back Door by Elizabeth Spencer
- The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Spencer by Elizabeth Spencer
- The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
- Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron
- Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
- The Fathers by Allen Tate
- The Collected Stories by Peter Taylor
- A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
- The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor
- Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker
- Jubilee by Margaret Walker
- World Enough and Time by Robert Penn Warren (pictured above)
- The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
- A Curtain of Green by Eudora Welty
- Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
- The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
- One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty
- The Robber Bridgegroom by Eudora Welty
- The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
- Losing Battles by Eudora Welty
- You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
- The Burden of Southern History by C. Vann Woodward
- The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
- Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright
In the end, I’d like to know if you’ve read any of these books. What did you think of them and which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.