200 Books That Shaped 200 Years of Literature — The Center for Fiction Annual Awards Benefit & First Novel Fête
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The Center for Fiction Annual Awards Benefit & First Novel Fête
When The Center for Fiction opened its doors in 1821 as the Mercantile Library of New York, Percy Bysshe Shelley mourned his friend John Keats in his poem, “Adonais,” William Hazlitt released his collection of essays, Table Talk, Lord Byron finished his play, Sardanapalus, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published his fourth novel, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years. As an organization whose mission is to both reflect and advance the art of fiction, we’re honoring our 200th anniversary by looking back on how storytelling has evolved since then. We set forth to create a list of the 200 works of fiction that had the most impact on American readers, writers, and culture over these past two centuries.

It was a daunting task. Thankfully, we had the help of a panel of writers associated with The Center: Mahogany L. Browne, Amina Cain, Alexander Chee, Kia Corthron, Michael Cunningham, Alvaro Enrigue, Neil Gaiman, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Stephen King, Maaza Mengiste, Claire Messud, Jason Reynolds, Salman Rushdie, Esmeralda Santiago, Jonathan Santlofer, V. E. Schwab, Gary Shteyngart, Jane Smiley, Monique Truong, and De'Shawn Charles Winslow. Each author contributed five titles they wanted to be included, which you can find here, and The Center’s staff set to work on completing the list.

There were many questions to consider. How do we balance the classics and books that, as Alvaro Enrigue put it, “make the world a great place for a reader” even though they are not the most read? How do we choose between the many impactful greats of prolific writers? How much do we consider the character of an author, and how do we contend with books whose impact is undeniable but perhaps not for the best? How do we draw the line between “influential” and “popular”?