125 Great Southern Books

Given by James Agee Film Project

122 Works 448,351 Books 7,797 Reviews 4.1
A list compiled by the James Agee Film Project, based on a poll of editors, publishers, scholars, and reviewers. Focused on prose works published during the past century, considered "the most show more remarkable works of modern Southern Literature." Despite the list name, there are only 123 books in it. Only the top 25 are ranked.

Full list and information here. show less
WorkOrder Label
Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison
1
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939) by James Agee
2
The Sound and the Fury (1929) by William Faulkner
3
The Mind of the South (1941) by W. J. Cash
4
Look Homeward, Angel (1929) by Thomas Wolfe
5
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
6
The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker
7
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston
8
Absalom, Absalom! (1936) by William Faulkner
9
Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (1941) by William Alexander Percy
10
All the King's Men (1946) by Robert Penn Warren
11
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1980) by Eudora Welty
12
The Civil War: A Narrative (1958) by Shelby Foote
13
The Moviegoer (1961) by Walker Percy
14
Tobacco Road (1932) by Erskine Caldwell
15
Black Boy (1945) by Richard Wright
16
Cane (1923) by Jean Toomer
17
Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright
18
As I Lay Dying (1930) by William Faulkner
19
Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell
20
Up from Slavery (1901) by Booker T. Washington
21
The Last Gentleman: A Novel (1966) by Walker Percy
22
Complete Stories (1971) by Flannery O'Connor
23
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (1964) by Katherine Anne Porter
24
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) by Ernest J. Gaines
25
A Death in the Family (1957) by James Agee
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou
The View from Pompey's Head (1954) by Hamilton Basso
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977) by Wendell Berry
Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories (1600) by Doris Betts
Black Thunder: Gabriel's Revolt: Virginia, 1800 (1936) by Arna Bontemps
Dirty Work (1989) by Larry Brown
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories (1992) by Robert Olen Butler
God's Little Acre (1933) by Erskine Caldwell
Brother to a Dragonfly (1656) by Will D. Campbell
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) by Truman Capote
I Am One of You Forever: A Novel (1985) by Fred Chappell
The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin
The Prince of Tides (1986) by Pat Conroy
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place (1978) by Harry Crews
Deliverance (1970) by James Dickey
Speak Now Against The Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South (1707) by John Egerton
Go Down, Moses (1942) by William Faulkner
Intruder in the Dust (1948) by William Faulkner
Sanctuary (1931) by William Faulkner
The Unvanquished (1938) by William Faulkner
Flannery O'Connor: Mystery and Manners (1969) by Sally Fitzgerald
Independence Day (1995) by Richard Ford
From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (1947) by John Hope Franklin
Cold Mountain (1997) by Charles Frazier
A Gathering of Old Men (1983) by Ernest J. Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying (1993) by Ernest J. Gaines
Death of the Fox (1971) by George Garrett
Ellen Foster (1987) by Kaye Gibbons
Victory over Japan: A Book of Stories (1984) by Ellen Gilchrist
Barren Ground (1925) by Ellen Glasgow
The Keepers of the House (1964) by Shirley Ann Grau
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1989) by Allan Gurganus
Roots (1976) by Alex Haley
Dreams of Sleep (1984) by Josephine Humphreys
Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography (1942) by Zora Neale Hurston
Mules and Men (1935) by Zora Neale Hurston
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) by James Weldon Johnson
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (1992) by Randall Kenan
Our Southern Highlanders (1913) by Horace Kephart
The Velvet Horn (1957) by Andrew Lytle
Shiloh and Other Stories (1982) by Bobbie Ann Mason
All the Pretty Horses (1992) by Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy
Suttree (1979) by Cormac McCarthy
The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories (1943) by Carson McCullers
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers
The Member of the Wedding (1946) by Carson McCullers
The South and the Southerner (1963) by Ralph McGill
Elbow Room (1972) by James Alan McPherson
Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968) by Anne Moody
North Toward Home (1967) by Willie Morris
Train Whistle Guitar (1974) by Albert Murray
Wolf Whistle (1993) by Lewis Nordan
Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories (1965) by Flannery O'Connor
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955) by Flannery O'Connor
The Violent Bear It Away (1960) by Flannery O'Connor
Wise Blood (1952) by Flannery O'Connor
Lancelot (1977) by Walker Percy
Love in the Ruins (1971) by Walker Percy
Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (1939) by Katherine Anne Porter
Ship of Fools (1962) by Katherine Anne Porter
Edisto (1984) by Padgett Powell
Collected Stories of Reynolds Price (1993) by Reynolds Price
Kate Vaiden (1986) by Reynolds Price
A Long and Happy Life (1961) by Reynolds Price
Mumbo Jumbo (1972) by Ishmael Reed
O Beulah Land (1965) by Mary Lee Settle
Fair and Tender Ladies (1988) by Lee Smith
Oral History (1983) by Lee Smith
Killers of the Dream (1949) by Lillian Smith
Strange Fruit (1944) by Lillian Smith
The Stories of Elizabeth Spencer (1981) by Elizabeth Spencer
The Voice at the Back Door (1956) by Elizabeth Spencer
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) by William Styron
Lie Down in Darkness (1951) by William Styron
Sophie's Choice (1979) by William Styron
The Fathers (1938) by Allen Tate
The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor (1969) by Peter Taylor
The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) by Peter Taylor
A Summons to Memphis (1986) by Peter Taylor
A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) by John Kennedy Toole
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) by Alice Walker
Jubilee (1966) by Margaret Walker
World Enough and Time (1950) by Robert Penn Warren
A Curtain of Green and Other Stories (1941) by Eudora Welty
Delta Wedding (1946) by Eudora Welty
The Golden Apples (1947) by Eudora Welty
Losing Battles (1970) by Eudora Welty
One Writer's Beginnings (1983) by Eudora Welty
The Optimist's Daughter (1972) by Eudora Welty
The Ponder Heart (1954) by Eudora Welty
The Robber Bridegroom (1942) by Eudora Welty
You Can't Go Home Again (1934) by Thomas Wolfe
The Burden of Southern History (1960) by C. Vann Woodward
The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955) by C. Vann Woodward
Uncle Tom's Children (1938) by Richard Wright

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