Recommended Reading

A LIBRARY OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE
— Clyde Wilson, 2010

Southern writing, from the early eighteenth century to the present time, is a rich treasure of almost all forms of literature—poetry, fiction, essays, criticism, history, humour, political philosophy. (An exception is drama, which requires big cities and money—two things the South was long short of. The late exception to the exception being Tennessee Williams.) In fact, it is very possible that in the long view of history, Southern literature may be the most significant American contribution to civilisation. The body of Southern literature certainly constitutes the profoundest, world-class element of the generally superficial American culture. This lifetime reading list is drawn up in the understanding that Southern literature is Southern in a long continuing and unbroken tradition.

Anyone approaching Southern literature (and history) must be aware that there is an immense body of scholarly and popular work written from the viewpoint that the Southern experience is 1) culturally insignificant and indistinguishable, 2) worthy of attention (negative) because of the race question alone, 3) a peculiar Other the defects and failings of which are to be explained by superior outsiders, and 4) anything that is Southern and good is not really Southern but "American."

This reading list is prepared in rejection of that viewpoint. It should be regarded as only an introduction to the high points and variety of an immense body of literature, a cultural achievement that will be remembered when today's politicians, scholars, and trendy authors are long lost in oblivion.

Reference

Jay B. Hubbell, The South in American Literature
Library of Southern Literature, 16 vols., ed. by Edward A. Alderman and Joel Chandler Harris
Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 3 vols.

18th and 19th Centuries

James John Audubon, Journals
Myrta Lockett Avary, Dixie After the War
James Adair, The History of the American Indians
William Bartram, Travels in North and South Carolina.
Robert Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia
Albert Taylor Bledsoe, Is  Davis a Traitor?
William Byrd II, History of the Dividing Line
             Secret Diaries of Col. William Byrd of Westover
John C. Calhoun, The Essential Calhoun
Robert Lewis Dabney
             Life and Campaigns of Lt. Gen. T.J. Jackson
             Secular Discussions
Jefferson Davis, Letters, Speeches, and Papers
Marshall L. DeRosa, ed., The Politics of Dissolution
William Elliott, Carolina Sports by Land and Water
Walter Fleming, ed., Documentary History of Reconstruction
Hugh A. Garland, The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke
Charles Gayarre`, Louisiana: Its' Colonial History and Romance
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, The Creed of the Old South
George Washington Harris, Sut Lovingood stories
Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus stories
Johnson Jones Hooper, The Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs
Thomas Jefferson,
            Letters and Public Papers
            Notes on the State of Virginia
Mary Johnston, The Long Roll
            Cease Firing
John Pendleton Kennedy, Horseshoe Robinson
Grace King, Balcony Stories
             New Orleans
Robert E. Lee. Letters
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Georgia Scenes
Robert M. Myers, ed., Children of Pride
Thomas Nelson Page, The Burial of the Guns
                               In Ole Virginia
Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Edgar Allan Poe, 
              Essays and Criticism
              Poetry
              Tales
Elizabeth Allston Pringle, A Woman Rice Planter
Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War
David Ramsay, History of the American Revolution
                      History of South Carolina
Anna Rutledge, House and Home, or the Carolina Housewife
Abram J. Ryan, Father Ryan's Poems
Raphael Semmes, Memoirs of Service Ashore and Afloat
William Gilmore Simms,
              The Cassique of Kiawa, ed. by Sean R. Busick
              The Golden Christmas, ed. by David Aiken
               Life of Francis Marion, ed. Sean R. Busick
              Paddy McGann
              The Partisan (and other Revolutionary War novels)
              Sack and Destruction of the City of Columbia, ed. as A City Laid Waste by David Aiken
              Selected Poems of William Gilmore Simms, ed. James E. Kibler
              Stories and Tales
              Views and Reviews: American History and Literature
              Woodcraft
              The Yemassee
John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Capt. John Smith
Walter Sullivan, ed., The War the Women Lived
John Taylor,
              Arator:  Being a Series of Agricultural Essays, Political and Practical
              Construction Construed, or Constitutions Vindicated
              An Inquiry into the Principles and Tendencies of Certain Public Measures
Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction
William Hannibal Thomas, The American Negro
Henry Timrod, Poems
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Augusta Jane Evans Wilson, Macaria
William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry

20th Century: Fiction

Harriette Arnow
       The Dollmaker
James Warner Bellah
        The Valiant Virginians
Wendell Berry
      Hannah Coulter
      Jayber Crow
      The Memory of Old Jack
      Watch with Me
James Lee Burke
       Two for Texas
Fred Chappell
      I Am One of Your Forever
     Brighten the Corner Where You Are
     Look Back All the Green Valley
     Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You
Donald Davidson,
       Big Ballad Jamboree
William Faulkner
     Absalom, Absalom
     Collected Stories
     Go Down, Moses
     The Reivers
Snopes Trilogy: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion
     The Unvanquished
George Garrett
      Death of the Fox
      Entered from the Sun
      The Succession
John Graves
        Hardscrabble
Caroline Gordon
       Aleck Maury,Sportsman
       None Shall Look Back
        Penhally
Madison Jones
         Nashville: 1864
James E. Kibler
        Child of the Waters
       The Education of Chauncey Doolittle
        Memory's Keep
Andrew Lytle
        Alchemy
        At the Moon's Inn
        The Long Night
         Stories
Cormac McCarthy
        All the Pretty Horsemen
        Cities of the Plain
       The Crossing
       The Road
Caroline Miller
        Lamb in His Bosom
Margaret Mitchell
         Gone with the Wind
Thomas G. Moore
        The Hunt for Confederate Gold
Flannery O'Connor
        Stories
        The Violent Bear it Away
        Wise Blood
Walker Percy
         The Last Gentleman
         Love in the Ruins
         The Second Coming
Tito Perdue
          Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture
Charles Portis
          True Grit
Elizabeth Maddox Roberts
           The Great Meadow
           The Time of Man
Robert C. Ruark
          The Old Man and the Boy
          Something of Value
Ferrol Sams
           Run with the Horsemen
Franklin Sanders,
           Hieland
Mary Lee Settle
          O Beulah Land
John W. Thomason
           Lone Star Preacher
Robert Penn Warren
          All the King's Men
          Night Rider
Eudora Welty
           Stories
Owen Wister
          Lady Baltimore
Thomas Wolfe
          O Lost!
Tom Wolfe
         Bonfire of the Vanities
        I am Charlotte Simmons
        A Man in Full
Daniel Woodrell
        Woe to Live on (Ride with the Devil)

20th Century Poets:

Wendell Berry
Fred Chappell
Donald Davidson
James E. Kibler
David Middleton
John Crowe Ransom
Robert Penn Warren

20th Century:  Essays, Studies, Nonfiction

Wendell Berry, What Are People For?
                     The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
M.E. Bradford, A Better Guide than Reason
                      Generations of the Faithful Heart
                      Remembering Who We Are
Cleanth Brooks, Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha
        The Language of the American South
H. Lee Cheek, Jr., Calhoun and Popular Rule
Donald Davidson, Attack on Leviathan
         Southern Writers in the Modern World
William Faulkner, Essays, Speeches, and Public Letters, ed. James B. Meriwether
Thomas Fleming, The Politics of Human Nature
George Garrett, The Sorrows of Fat City
                        My Silk Purse and Yours
Eugene Genovese, The Southern Front
John Graves, Goodbye to a River
Michael L. Grissom, Can the South Survive?
Kevin R. Gutzman, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution
Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road
I'll Take My Stand, by Twelve Southerners
Donald and Ronald Kennedy, The South Was Right!
James E. Kibler, Our Fathers' Fields
Florence King, Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye
Donald Livingston, Philosophical Melancholy and Delirium
Andrew Lytle, From Eden to Babylon
Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners
Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos
Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, Cross Creek
John Shelton Reed, The Enduring South
Ben Robertson, Red Hills and Cotton
Will Rogers, Broadcasts
Mary Lee Settle, All the Brave Promises
Lewis P. Simpson, Mind and the American Civil War
R. Gordon Thornton, The Southern Nation
John Donald Wade, Selected Essays
Robert Penn Warren, The Legacy of the Civil War
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences
            In Defense of Tradition
            Southern Essays
            Visions of Order
Walter Prescott Webb, Divided We Stand
Who Owns America?, ed. by Herbert Agar and Allen Tate
Why the South Will Survive, by Fifteen Southerners
Clyde N. Wilson, Defending Dixie
Mark R. Winchell,
           Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism
           Where No Flag Flies: Donald Davidson and the Southern Resistance
           God, Man, and Hollywood
          Reinventing the South
Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up
           The Painted Word
           The Right Stuff 

Selected Southern History:

Richard Adams, Traveller
John R. Alden, The First South
Felicity Allen, Jefferson Davis: Unconquerable Heart
Charles Barrow et. al., Black Confederates
M.E. Bradford, Original Intentions
Phillip A. Bruce, Social Life in Old Virginia
            The Virginia Plutarch
Walter Brion Cisco, War Crimes Against Southern Civilians
Margaret Coit (Elwell), John C. Calhoun: American Portrait
Frank Connor, The South Under Siege
E. Merton Coulter. The South During Reconstruction
Avery O. Craven, The Coming of the Civil War
Marshall L. DeRosa, The Confederate Constitution
Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier
Thomas DiLorenzo, The Real Lincoln
T.R. Fehrenbach. Lone Star:  A History of Texas and Texans
John Gould Fletcher, Arkansas
Howard Floan, The South in Northern Eyes
Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross
Shelby Foote, The Civil War:  A Narrative
Douglas Southall Freeman, R.E. Lee
                                       George Washington
                                       The South to Posterity
Gary W. Gallagher, The Confederate War
Richard M. Gamble, War for Righteousness
Eugene Genovese, A Consuming Fire
          Roll, Jordan, Roll
          The Slaveholder's Dilemma
Rod Gragg, The Illustrated Confedrate Reader
Susan-Mary Grant, North over South
Lewis Cecil Gray, A History of Agriculture in the Southern United States
J. Evatts Haley, Charles Goodnight, Cattleman and Plainsman
           A Texan Looks at Lyndon
Robert Selph Henry, The Story of the Confederacy
       The Story of Reconstruction
       "First with the Most" Forrest
Duncan L. Heyward, Seed from Madagascar
Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee
       Boy's Book of Robert E. Lee
       Invisible Empire
Marquis James, Andrew Jackson, Border Captain
Ludwell H. Johnson, North Against South
Raimondo Luraghi, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation South
Brion McClanahan, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers
Bill C. Malone, Country Music U.S.A.
Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time
Glover Moore, The Missouri Controversy
Anne Norton, Alternative Americas
Frank L. Owsley, The Plain Folk of the Old South
Ulrich B. Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South
James I. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson
Francis Butler Simkins and Charles P. Roland, A History of the South
John S. Tilley, Facts the Historians Leave Out
          Lincoln Takes Command
Glenn Tucker, Zebulon Baird Vance
John Donald Wade, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet
Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains
       The Texas Rangers
Bell I. Wiley, The Plain People of the Confederacy
Clyde N. Wilson, Carolina Cavalier: The Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew
           From Union to Empire
Raymond Wolters, The Burden of Brown
       Race and Education
W. Kirk Wood, Nullification: A  Constitutional History
C. Vann Woodward, American Counterpoint
        Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel
Louis B. Wright, The Colonial Search for a Southern Eden
        The First Gentlemen of Virginia