Three Blacks Among Those Selected as Authors of the Best Southern Books of All Time

Oxford American, a magazine devoted to the writing of southern authors, has made its selections of the best southern books of all time. The best novel, according to the editors of Oxford American, is William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner had two other books among the top 10 novels, The Sound and the Fury (third place) and As I Lay Dying (seventh place). All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren ranked second. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was in fourth place followed by Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was rated the eighth best southern novel of all time. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ranked tenth.

In the nonfiction category, James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was rated as the best southern book. But close behind in second place was Richard Wright’s autobiographical Black Boy.