SHS Advanced and AP English Summer Reading Assignment for 2014
THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT respects your ability to read and explore literature on your own. Learning should be an intrinsic endeavor, and graded summer work seems to frustrate and discourage even the most dedicated students. As teachers, we often lament that work produced over the summer remains substandard and reinforces bad reading and writing habits.
As a result, students are not required to read or write anything this summer for their advanced classes. Instead of spending the summer completing assignments that sap their love of reading, they should read books that they want to read. For accelerated and AP Literature, students should read a variety of fiction novels, short stories, and poems (classic and contemporary). For AP Language, students should read a variety of nonfiction books and publications. We suggest reading at least two to three books over the summer months.
Students still will be prepared for the rigorous course work during the school year because we assume that students who sign up for advanced classes would be reading during the summer regardless of an existing summer project. The absence of a formal assignment will allow them to choose their own reading material and foster more positive reading habits than a traditional summer reading assignment.
Attached is a complete list of works that have appeared on the AP Literature Test since 1971 as well as a list of authors that AP Language students should read. These are works and authors that we suggest reading, if not this summer, at some time in the future, or never – it’s your life. They represent a wide range of difficulty, content (sometimes adult because those are the types of books that show up on the AP test), and genre. Choosing books and authors from this list ensure that you are reading the level of books appropriate for advanced and AP classes. The books marked by an asterisk are books that an advanced or AP teacher at Scott will likely teach during the coming year. Below is a short list of additional books that will exponentially increase your ability to read and write well.
Additionally, to give small incentive to actually read and talk to other people about your reading, the English department will give a few prizes for the best tweets about your summer reading. A few of your teachers will be tweeting about their own summer reading, and we’re looking for some positive interaction. This isn’t mandatory, but it might be fun. You can even follow a few of us: @HensonClassroom, @SHSRen, @aharrisclass, @welpclass and @TClarkClassroom. We will tweet using #EaglesRead if you are interested. Have a great summer, and happy reading!
Additional Books to Consider Reading
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Foster
The Bible (especially Genesis, Exodus, and the Gospels)
Mythology by Hamilton
Bird by Bird by Lamott
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Truss
Titles from Open Response Questions*
Updated from an original list by Norma J. Wilkerson.
Works referred to on the AP Literature exams since 1971 (specific years in parentheses)
Please note that only authors were recommended in early years, not specific titles.
A
Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner (76, 00, 10, 12)
Adam Bede by Eliot (06)
The Adventures of Augie March by Bellow (13)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain (80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 07, 08, 11, 13)
The Aeneid by Virgil (06)
Agnes of God by Pielmeier (00)
The Age of Innocence by Wharton (97, 02, 03, 08, 12, 14)
Alias Grace by Atwood (00, 04, 08)
All the King’s Men by Penn Warren (00, 02, 04, 07, 08, 09, 11)
All My Sons by Miller (85, 90)
All the Pretty Horses by McCarthy (95, 96, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 13)
America is in the Heart by Bulosan (95)
An American Tragedy by Dreiser (81, 82, 95, 03)
American Pastoral by Roth (09)
The American by James (05, 07, 10)
Angels in America by Kushner (09)
Angle of Repose by Stegner (10)
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy (80, 91, 99, 03, 04, 06, 08, 09)
Another Country by Baldwin (95, 10, 12)
*Antigone by Sophocles (79, 80, 90, 94, 99, 03, 05, 09, 11, 14)
Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare (80, 91)
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Richler (94)
Armies of the Night by Mailer (76)
As I Lay Dying by Faulkner (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07, 09)
As You Like It by Shakespeare (92 05, 06, 10)
Atonement by McEwan (07, 11, 13)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by Johnson (02, 05)
*The Awakening by Chopin (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 07, 09, 11, 14)
B
“The Bear” by Faulkner (94, 06)
Beloved by Morrison (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 10, 11, 14)
A Bend in the River by Naipaul (03)
Benito Cereno by Melville (89)
Billy Budd by Melville (79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 99, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08)
The Birthday Party by Pinter (89, 97)
Black Boy by Wright (06, 08, 13)
Bleak House by Dickens (94, 00, 04, 09, 10)
Bless Me, Ultima by Anaya (94, 96, 97, 99, 04, 05, 06, 08)
The Blind Assassin by Atwood (07, 11)
The Bluest Eye by Morrison (95, 08, 09)
Bone: A Novel by Ng (03)
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Tan (06, 07, 11)
*Brave New World by Huxley (89, 05, 09, 10)
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Danticat (13)
Brideshead Revisted by Waugh (12)
Brighton Rock by Greene (79)
Broken for You by Kallos (09)
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevski (90, 08)
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Marshall (13)
C
Candida by Shaw (80)
Candide by Voltaire (80, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 04, 06, 10)
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (06)
The Caretaker by Pinter (85)
Catch-22 by Heller (82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11)
The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger (01, 08, 11, 13)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Williams (00)
Cat’s Eye by Atwood (94, 08, 09, 13)
The Centaur by Updike (81)
Ceremony by Silko (94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 03, 05, 06, 07, 09, 12)
The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov (71, 77, 06, 07, 09, 10)
The Cider House Rules by Irving (13)
The Chosen by Potok (08, 13)
“Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau (76)
Cold Mountain by Frazier (06, 08)
The Color Purple by Walker (92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09, 12, 13)
Coming Through Slaughter by Ondaatje (01)
Copenhagen by Frayn (09)
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Jewett (10)
Cry, The Beloved Country by Paton (85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07, 09)
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevski (76, 79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 09, 10,11)
“The Crisis” by Paine (76)
The Crossing by McCarthy (09)
*The Crucible by Miller (71, 83, 86, 89, 04, 05, 09, 14)
D
*Daisy Miller by James (97, 03, 12)
Dancing at Lughnasa by Friel (01)
David Copperfield by Dickens (78, 83, 06, 13)
*“The Dead” by Joyce (97)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy (86)
Death of a Salesman by Miller (86, 88, 94, 03, 04, 05, 07, 12, 14)
Delta Wedding by Welty (97)
Desire under the Elms by O’Neill (81)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Tyler (97)
The Divine Comedy by Alighieri (06)
The Diviners by Laurence (95)
Doctor Faustus by Marlowe (79, 86, 99, 04, 11)
Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak (10)
A Doll’s House by Ibsen (71, 83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09)
The Dollmaker by Arnot (91)
Don Quixote by Cervantes (01, 04, 06, 08)
Dreaming in Cuban by Garcia (03)
Dutchman by Baraka/Jones (03, 06)
E
East of Eden by Steinbeck (06)
Emma by Austen (96, 08)
An Enemy of the People by Ibsen (76, 80, 87, 99, 01, 07)
Equus by Shaffer (92, 99, 00, 01, 08, 09)
Ethan Frome by Wharton (80, 85, 03, 05, 06, 07, 14)
The Eumenides by Aeschylus (in The Orestia) (96)
F
The Fall by Camus (81)
A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway (99, 04, 09)
The Father by Strindberg (01)
Fathers and Sons by Turgenev (90)
Faust by Goethe (02, 03)
The Federalist by Hamilton (76)
*Fences by Wilson (02, 03, 05, 09, 10)
A Fine Balance by Mistry (03)
Fifth Business by Davis (00, 07)
The Fixer by Malamud (07)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway (03, 06)
Frankenstein by Shelley (89, 00, 03, 06, 08)
A Free Life: A Novel by Jin (10)
G
A Gathering of Old Men by Gaines (00, 11)
Germinal by Zola (09)
A Gesture Life by Lee (04, 05)
Ghosts by Ibsen (00, 04)
The Glass Menagerie by Williams (71, 90, 94, 97, 99, 02, 08, 09, 10, 12)
The God of Small Things by Roy (10, 11, 13)
Going After Cacciato by O’Brien (01, 06, 10)
The Golden Bowl by James (09)
The Good Soldier by Ford (00, 11)
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck (95, 03, 06, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13)
Great Expectations by Dickens (79, 80, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 10, 12, 13)
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald (82, 83, 88, 91, 92, 97, 00, 02, 04, 05, 07, 10)
Go Tell It on the Mountain by Baldwin (83, 88, 90, 05, 09)
Gulliver’s Travels by Swift (87, 89, 01, 04, 06, 09)
H
The Hairy Ape by O’Neill (89, 0994, 97, 99, 00)
*Hamlet by Shakespeare (88, 94, 97, 99, 00)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood (03, 09)
Hard Times by Dickens (87, 90, 09)
*Heart of Darkness by Conrad (71, 76, 91, 94, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 09, 10, 11, 12)
The Heart of the Matter by Greene (71)
Hedda Gabler by Ibsen (79, 92, 00, 02, 03, 05)
Henry IV, Parts I and II by Shakespeare (80, 90, 08)
Henry V by Shakespeare (02)
A High Wind in Jamaica by Hughes (08)
The Homecoming by Pinter (78, 90)
Home to Harlem by McKay (10)
A House for Mr. Biswas by Naipul (10)
House Made of Dawn by Momaday (95, 06, 09)
The House of Mirth by Wharton (04, 07, 10)
The House of Seven Gables by Hawthorne (89)
The House on Mango Street by Cisneros (08, 10, 13)
I
The Iliad by Homer (80)
*The Importance of Being Earnest by Wilde (06)
The Inheritance of Loss by Desai (10)
In the Lake of the Woods by O’Brien (00)
In the Time of Butterflies by Alvarez (05)
Invisible Man by Ellison (76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13)
J
Jane Eyre by Bronte (78, 79, 80, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 00, 05, 07, 08, 10, 13)
Jasmine by Mukherjee (99, 10, 13)
J.B. by MacLeish (81, 94)
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by Wilson (00, 04)
The Joy Luck Club by Tan (97, 03, 13)
Joseph Andrews by Fielding (99)
Jude the Obscure by Hardy (71, 76, 80, 85, 87, 95, 04, 09, 10)
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare (82, 97, 05, 07, 09)
The Jungle by Sinclair (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 09)
K
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami (08)
King Lear by Shakespeare (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 14)
The Kite Runner by Hosseini (07, 08, 09)
L
Lady Windermere’s Fan by Wilde (09)
A Lesson before Dying by Gaines (99, 11)
Letters from an American Farmer by de Crevecoeur (76, 11)
Linden Hills by Naylor (14)
The Little Foxes by Hellman (85, 90, 10)
Little Women by Alcott (08)
Long Day’s Journey into Night by O’Neill (90, 03, 07)
Look Homeward, Angel by Wolfe (10)
Lord Jim by Conrad (77, 78, 82, 86, 00, 03, 07)
Lord of the Flies by Golding (85, 08)
The Loved One by Waugh (89)
Love Medicine by Erdrich (95)
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by Eliot (85)
Lysistrata by Aristophanes (87)
M
Macbeth by Shakespeare (83, 99, 03, 05, 09)
Madame Bovary by Flaubert (80, 85, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10)
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Crane (12)
Main Street by Lewis (87, 09)
Major Barbara by Shaw (79, 96, 04, 07, 09, 11)
Man and Superman by Shaw (81)
Mansfield Park by Austen (03, 06)
Master Harold...and the Boys by Fugard (03, 08, 09)
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy (94, 99, 00, 02, 07, 10, 11)
M. Butterfly by Wang (95, 11, 12)
Medea by Euripides (82, 92, 95, 01, 03)
The Member of the Wedding by McCullers (97, 08)
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Edwards (09, 14)
The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare (85, 91, 95, 02, 03, 11)
*Metamorphosis by Kafka (78, 89)
Middlemarch by Eliot (95, 04, 05, 07)
Middle Passage by Naipaul (06)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare (06, 12)
The Mill on the Floss by Eliot (90, 92, 04)
The Misanthrope by Moliere (08)
Miss Lonelyhearts by West (89)
Moby Dick by Melville (76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 89, 94, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09)
Moll Flanders by Defoe (76, 77, 86, 87, 95, 09)
Monkey Bridge by Cao (00, 03)
The Moor’s Last Sigh by Rushdie (07)
Mother Courage and Her Children by Brecht (85, 87, 06)
Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf (94, 97, 04, 05, 07, 11)
Mrs. Warren’s Profession by Shaw (87, 90, 95, 02, 09)
Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare (97, 14)
Murder in the Cathedral by Eliot (76, 80, 85, 95, 07, 11)
“My Last Duchess” by Browning (85)
My Ántonia by Cather (03, 08, 10, 12)
My Name is Asher Lev by Potok (03)
N
The Namesake by Lahiri (09, 10, 13)
Native Son by Wright (79, 82, 85, 87, 95, 01, 04, 09, 11, 12)
Native Speaker by Lee (99, 03, 05, 07, 08)
Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro (09, 10)
1984 by Orwell (87, 94, 05, 09)
No Exit by Sartre (86, 12)
No-No Boy by Okada (95)
Noah’s Compass by Tyler (14)
Notes from the Underground by Dostoevski (89)
O
Obasan by Kogawa (94, 95, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10)
The Octopus by Norris (09)
The Odyssey by Homer (86, 06, 10)
*Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (77, 85, 88, 00, 03, 04, 11)
Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck (01)
Old School by Wolff (08)
Oliver Twist by Dickens (09)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn (05, 10)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Kesey (0, 121)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Marquez (89, 04, 12)
O Pioneers! by Cather (06)
The Optimist’s Daughter by Welty (94)
The Orestia by Aeschylus (90)
Orlando: A Biography by Woolf (04)
Oryx and Crake by Atwood (14)
Othello by Shakespeare (79, 85, 88, 92, 95, 03, 04, 07, 11, 14)
The Other by Tryon (10)
Our Mutual Friend by Dickens (90)
Our Town by Wilder (86, 97, 09)
Out of Africa by Dinesen (06)
P
Pale Fire by Nabokov (01)
Pamela by Richardson (86)
A Passage to India by Forster (71, 77, 78, 88, 91, 92, 07, 09, 12)
Paradise Lost by Milton (85, 86, 10)
Passing by Larsen (11)
Peer Gynt by Ibsen (06)
Père Goriot by Balzac (02)
Persuasion by Austen (90, 05, 07)
Phaedre by Racine (92, 03)
The Piano Lesson by Wilson (96, 99, 07, 08, 10, 12)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde (02)
The Plague by Camus (02, 09, 12)
Pnin by Nabokov (97)
Pocho by Villarreal (02, 08)
The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver (10, 11, 12, 14)
Portrait of a Lady by James ( 88, 92, 96, 03, 05, 07, 11, 14)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce (76, 77, 80, 86, 88, 96, 99, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13)
The Power and the Glory by Greene (95)
Praisesong for the Widow by Marshall (96)
A Prayer for Owen Meany by Irving (09, 14)
Pride and Prejudice by Austen (83, 88, 92, 97, 08, 11, 12)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Spark (90, 08)
Purple Hibiscus by Adichie (13)
Push by Sapphire (07)
Pygmalion by Shaw (03, 05, 08)
R
Ragtime by Doctorow (03, 07)
A Raisin in the Sun by Hansberry (87, 90, 94, 96, 99, 07, 09, 12, 14)
The Rape of the Lock by Pope (81)
The Red Badge of Courage by Crane (08)
Redburn by Melville (87)
The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro (00, 03, 11)
Reservation Blues by Alexie (08, 09)
The Return of the Native by Hardy (07)
Rhinoceros by Ionesco (09)
Richard III by Shakespeare (79)
A River Runs Through It by Maclean (08)
The Road by McCarthy (10)
Robinson Crusoe by Defoe (10)
A Room of One’s Own by Woolf (76)
A Room with a View by Forster (03)
*Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (90, 92, 97, 08)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Stoppard (81, 94, 00, 04, 05, 06, 10, 11)
S
Saint Joan by Shaw (95)
The Sandbox by Albee (71)
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne (71, 77, 78, 83, 88, 91, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06, 11, 14)
The Secret Life of Bees by Kidd (13)
Sent for You Yesterday by Wideman (03)
A Separate Peace by Knowles (82, 07, 13)
Set This House on Fire by Styron (11)
The Shipping News by Proulx (97)
Siddhartha by Hesse (13)
Silas Marner by Eliot (02)
Sister Carrie by Dreiser (87, 02, 04, 09, 10)
Sister of My Heart by Divakaruni (10)
Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut (91, 04)
Snow by Pamuk (09)
Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson (00, 10, 12)
A Soldier’s Play by Fuller (11)
Song of Solomon by Morrison (81, 88, 96, 00, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10, 13)
Sons and Lovers by Lawrence (77, 90)
Sophie’s Choice by Styron (09)
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe (13)
The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner (77, 86, 97, 01, 07, 08, 13)
The Stone Angel by Laurence (96, 04)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski (11, 13)
The Stranger by Camus (79, 82, 86, 04)
A Streetcar Named Desire by Williams (91, 92, 01, 04, 07, 08, 09, 1, 11, 14)
The Street by Petry (07)
Sula by Morrison (92, 97, 02, 04, 07, 08, 10, 12)
Surfacing by Atwood (05)
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway (85, 91, 95, 96, 04, 05, 12)
T
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens (82, 91, 04, 08, 14)
Tarftuffe by Moliere (87)
The Tempest by Shakespeare (71, 78, 96, 03, 05, 07, 10)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Hardy (82, 91, 03, 06, 07, 12, 14)
*Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston (88, 90, 91, 96, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 13, 14)
*Things Fall Apart by Achebe (91, 97, 03, 09, 10, 11, 14)
The Things They Carried by O’Brien (04, 09)
A Thousand Acres by Smiley (06, 14)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini (11, 13)
*To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee (08, 09, 11, 13)
To the Lighthouse by Woolf (77, 86, 88, 08)
Tom Jones by Fielding (90, 00, 06, 08)
Tracks by Erdrich (05)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Smith (13)
The Trial by Kafka (88, 89, 00, 11)
*Trifles by Glaspell (00)
Tristram Shandy by Sterne (86)
The Turn of the Screw by James (92, 94, 00, 02, 04, 08)
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (85, 94, 96, 11)
Typical American by Jen (02, 03, 05)
U
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Stowe (87, 09)
U.S.A. (trilogy) by Dos Passos (09)
V
The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith (06)
Victory by Conrad (83)
Volpone by Jonson (83)
W
Waiting for Godot by Beckett (77, 85, 86, 89, 94, 01, 09, 12)
The Warden by Trollope (96)
Washington Square by James (90)
The Wasteland by Eliot (81)
Watch on the Rhine by Hellman (87)
The Way of the World by Congreve (71)
The Way We Live Now by Trollope (06)
We Were the Mulvaneys by Oates (07)
When the Emperor Was Divine by Otsuka (12)
Who Has Seen the Wind by Mitchell (11)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Albee (88, 94, 00, 04, 07, 11)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys (89, 92, 05, 07, 08)
The Wild Duck by Ibsen (78)
Winter in the Blood by Welch (95)
Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare (82, 89, 95, 06)
Wise Blood by O’Connor (82, 89, 95, 09, 10)
Woman Warrior by Kingston (91, 08, 13)
The Women of Brewster Place by Naylor (09, 10, 12, 14)
Wuthering Heights by Bronte (71,77, 78, 79, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 01, 06, 07, 08, 10, 12)
Z
The Zoo Story by Albee (82, 01)
Zoot Suit by Valdez (95)
The College Board recommends the following authors for students in AP English Language. You can find both nonfiction books and essays by most of these authors. For specific titles, check amazon.com or Google the author’s name.
Pre-20th Century
Joseph Addison, Matthew Arnold, Francis Bacon, James Boswell, Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jean de Crèvecoeur, Charles Darwin, Thomas De Quincey, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Fuller, Edward Gibbon, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Hazlitt, Thomas Hobbes, Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, John Locke, Thomas Macaulay, Niccolò Machiavelli, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas More, Thomas Paine, Francis Parkman, Walter Pater, Samuel Pepys, John Ruskin, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Oscar Wilde, Mary Wollstonecraft
20th Century to the Present
Edward Abbey, Diane Ackerman, James Agee, Paula Gunn Allen, Roger Angell, Natalie Angier, Gloria Anzaldúa, Hannah Arendt, Michael Arlen, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Dave Barry, Melba Patillo Beals, Simone de Beauvoir, Lerone Bennett Jr., Wendell Berry, Sven Birkerts, Susan Bordo, Jacob Bronowski, David Brooks, William F. Buckley, Judith Butler, Rachel Carson, G.K. Chesterton, Winston Churchill, Kenneth Clark, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Jill Ker Conway, Arlene Croce, Richard Dawkins, Vine Deloria Jr., Daniel Dennett, Jared Diamond, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Maureen Dowd, Elizabeth Drew, W.E.B. Du Bois, Leon Edel, Gretel Ehrlich, Loren Eiseley, Richard Ellmann, Nora Ephron, Niall Ferguson, Timothy Ferris, M.F.K. Fisher, Frances Fitzgerald, Janet Flanner (Genêt), Tim Flannery, Shelby Foote, Richard Fortey, John Hope Franklin, Antonia Fraser, Thomas L. Friedman, Paul Fussell, John Kenneth Galbraith, Mavis Gallant, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Atul Gawande, Ellen Goodman, Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, David Halberstam, Elizabeth Hardwick, Elva Trevino Hart, Chris Hedges, John Hersey, Christopher Hitchens, Edward Hoagland, Richard Holmes, bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Pauline Kael, Evelyn Fox Keller, Helen Keller, George Kennan, Jamaica Kincaid, Martin Luther King Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Maxine Hong Kingston, Naomi Klein, Paul Krugman, Alex Kuczynski, Lewis H. Lapham, T.E. Lawrence, Aldo Leopold, Gerda Lerner, Andy Logan, Philip Lopate, Barry Lopez, Norman Mailer, Nancy Mairs, Peter Matthiessen, Mary McCarthy, Frank McCourt, Bill McKibben, John McPhee, Margaret Mead, H.L. Mencken, Jessica Mitford, N. Scott Momaday, Jan Morris, John Muir, Donald M. Murray, V.S. Naipaul, Geoffrey Nunberg, Joyce Carol Oates, Barack Obama, Tillie Olsen, Susan Orlean, George Orwell, Cynthia Ozick, Steven Pinker, Francine Prose, David Quammen, Arnold Rampersad, Ishmael Reed, Rick Reilly, David Remnick, Adrienne Rich, Mordecai Richler, Richard Rodriguez, Sharman Apt Russell, Carl Sagan, Edward Said, Scott Russell Sanders, George Santayana, Simon Schama, Arthur M. Schlesinger, David Sedaris, Richard Selzer, Leslie Marmon Silko, Barbara Smith, Red Smith, Susan Sontag, Shelby Steele, Lincoln Steffens, Ronald Takaki, Paul Theroux, Lewis Thomas, George Trevelyan, Calvin Trillin, Barbara Tuchman, Cynthia Tucker, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, John Updike, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, Jonathan Weiner, Eudora Welty, Cornel West, E.B. White, George Will, Terry Tempest Williams, Garry Wills, E.O. Wilson, Edmund Wilson, Tom Wolfe, Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Anzia Yezierska