cover image American Literacy: Fifty Books That Define Our Culture and Ourselves

American Literacy: Fifty Books That Define Our Culture and Ourselves

J. North Conway. William Morrow & Company, $18 (317pp) ISBN 978-0-688-11963-8

Conway, teacher and humorist, here sketches background information on the writers of 50 published works that he believes have had the greatest impact on American society. The selections are a combination of the author's personal preference and the results of a survey which questioned such distinguished Americans as former president Jimmy Carter and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. While most of the literature is book length, Conway also includes The Man with the Hoe (1899) and several influential essays--for example, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (1849). Several choices deal with societal ills: Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor (1881), which detailed the mistreatment of Native Americans, and The Octopus (1901), a novel by Frank Norris focusing on the negative impact of the railroads. Disappointingly, the most recent selection is dated 1971, Daniel Ellsberg's The Pentagon Papers . And although Conway describes each title and profiles the author, his thesis would have been strengthened by excerpts of the selections. (Nov.)