Read Modern Library's Top 100 Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century

Richard Wright is famous for his novel, Native Son, which is a classic of American realism, made it to the Modern Library’s list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, and was the first Book of the Month Club title by an African-American author. His autobiography – at least part of it – is an acclaimed account of life in the Jim Crow South.

Only the first part of Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, was published contemporaneously with his finishing it in 1945. The second part, American Hunger, was not published until 1977.

Understandably. . . .

(Read the rest of the review on Rose City Reader.)

Beryl Markham’s compelling memoir of growing up in British East Africa. She is best known for flying solo from England to North America and she ends her book with this story. But the rest is about running wild on her father’s farm as a child, learning to hunt and having lion-centered adventures; becoming a professional horse trainer at 17; and her life as a bush pilot in Africa between the wars.

The audio version was particularly enjoyable.

This is my favorite book about astronauts. Of course, it is the only book about astronauts that I will ever read, so that isn’t the strongest praise.

Wolfe definitely keeps the tale interesting. He focuses on the personal, rather than the technical and administrative, aspects of the Mercury space program and the first seven astronauts involved. He follows the seven through their early careers, mostly as test pilots, through each of their turns in a Mercury capsule.

The most remarkable part of the story is the connection Wolfe makes between fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Having grown up in the NASA age, I did not know that the Air Force had a competing rocket program (a program that managed to send pilots several miles into space and then have them actually land the aircraft back on earth) before it was scuttled in favor of NASA’s moon missions.

The only drawback of the book is Wolfe’s Gonzo journalism style, which much have been refreshing and bold back in 1979. Now, the hipper-than-thou tone is a little tired and can get exasperating.

I want to like Annie Dillard, I really do. I think the world is a better place because Annie Dillard thinks and writes as she does. But, the bugs. Lots and lots of looking at, thinking about, and describing bugs. Some other creatures too, both larger and smaller than bugs, but mostly bugs.

As much as I appreciate the conclusions Dillard draws about the natural world and the nature of God, her minute observations about critters and plants could barely hold my attention. I took pious pleasure in finishing the book, like I had done something that, while a little boring, had it’s interesting moments and made me a better person – kind of like going to church.

I thought about undertaking this list the same time I found the Fiction list. But after The Education of Henry Adams, I lost steam. I’ve read so few on the list, and many of them don’t interest me. But it is still a goal of mine, just not an active one at this point.

Books in bold I’ve read. Books in italics I own:

1. “THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS,” Henry Adams
2. “THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE,” William James

3. “UP FROM SLAVERY,” Booker T. Washinton

4. “A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN,” Virginia Woolf
5. “SILENT SPRING,” Rachel Carson
6. “SELECTED ESSAYS, 1917-1932,” T.S. Eliot
7. “THE DOUBLE HELIX,” James D. Watson
8. “SPEAK, MEMORY,” Vladimir Nabokov
9. “THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE,” H.L. Mencken
10. “THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY,” John Maynard Keynes
11. “THE LIVES OF A CELL,” Lewis Thomas
12. “THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY,” Frederick Jackson Turner
13. “BLACK BOY,” Richard Wright
14. “ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL,” E.M. Forster
15. “THE CIVIL WAR,” Shelby Foote
16. “THE GUNS OF AUGUST,” Barbara W. Tuchman
17. “THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND,” Isaiah Berlin
18. “THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN,” Reinhold Niebuhr
19. “NOTES OF A NATIVE SON,” James Baldwin
20. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS,” Gertrude Stein

21. “THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE,” William Strunk and E.B. White
22. “AN AMERICAN DILEMMA,” Gunnar Myrdal
23. “PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA,” Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
24. “THE MISMEASURE OF MAN,” Stephen Jay Gould
25. “THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP,” Meyer Howard Abrams
26. “THE ART OF THE SOLUBLE,” Peter B. Medawar
27. “THE ANTS,” Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson
28. “A THEORY OF JUSTICE,” John Rawls
29. “ART AND ILLUSION,” Ernest H. Gombrich
30. “THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS,” E.P. Thompson

31. “THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK,” W.E.B. Du Bois
32. “PRINCIPIA ETHICA,” G.E. Moore
33. “PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION,” John Dewey
34. “ON GROWTH AND FORM,” D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson
35. “IDEAS AND OPINIONS,” Albert Einstein
36. “THE AGE OF JACKSON,” Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
37. “THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB,” Richard Rhodes
38. “BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON,” Rebecca West
39. “AUTOBIOGRAPHIES,” W.B. Yeats
40. “SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA,” Joseph Needham
41. “GOODBYE TO ALL THAT,” Robert Graves
42. “HOMAGE TO CATALONIA,” George Orwell
43. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN,” Mark Twain
44. “CHILDREN OF CRISIS,” Robert Coles
45. “A STUDY OF HISTORY,” Arnold J. Toynbee
46. “THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY,” John Kenneth Galbraith
47. “PRESENT AT THE CREATION,” Dean Acheson
48. “THE GREAT BRIDGE,” David McCullough
49. “PATRIOTIC GORE,” Edmund Wilson
50. “SAMUEL JOHNSON,” Walter Jackson Bate
51. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X,” Alex Haley and Malcolm X
52. “THE RIGHT STUFF,” Tom Wolfe
53. “EMINENT VICTORIANS,” Lytton Strachey
54. “WORKING,” Studs Terkel
55. “DARKNESS VISIBLE,” William Styron
56. “THE LIBERAL IMAGINATION,” Lionel Trilling
57. “THE SECOND WORLD WAR,” Winston Churchill58. “OUT OF AFRICA,” Isak Dinesen
59. “JEFFERSON AND HIS TIMES,” Dumas Malone
60. “IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN,” William Carlos Williams

61. “CADILLAC DESERT,” Marc Reisner
62. “THE HOUSE OF MORGAN,” Ron Chernow
63. “THE SWEET SCIENCE,” A. J. Liebling
64. “THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES,” Karl Popper
65. “THE ART OF MEMORY,” Frances A. Yates
66. “RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM,” R. H. Tawney
67. “A PREFACE TO MORALS,” Walter Lippmann
68. “THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE,” Jonathan D. Spence
69. “THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS,” Thomas S. Kuhn
70. “THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW,” C. Vann Woodward
71. “THE RISE OF THE WEST,” William H. McNeill
72. “THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS,” Elaine Pagels
73. “JAMES JOYCE,” Richard Ellmann
74. “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE,” Cecil Woodham-Smith
75. “THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY,” Paul Fussell
76. “THE CITY IN HISTORY,” Lewis Mumford
77. “BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM,” James M. McPherson
78. “WHY WE CAN’T WAIT,” Martin Luther King Jr.
79. “THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT,” Edmund Morris
80. “STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY,” Erwin Panofsky
81. “THE FACE OF BATTLE,” John Keegan
82. “THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND,” George Dangerfield
83. “VERMEER,” Lawrence Gowing
84. “A BRIGHT SHINING LIE,” Neil Sheehan
85. “WEST WITH THE NIGHT,” Beryl Markham

86. “THIS BOY’S LIFE,” Tobias Wolff
87. “A MATHEMATICIAN’S APOLOGY,” G.H. Hardy
88. “SIX EASY PIECES,” Richard P. Feynman
89. “PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK,” Annie Dillard
90. “THE GOLDEN BOUGH,” James George Frazer
91. “SHADOW AND ACT,” Ralph Ellison
92. “THE POWER BROKER,” Robert A. Caro
93. “THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION,” Richard Hofstadter
94. “THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY,” William Appleman Williams
95. “THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE,” Herbert Croly

96. “IN COLD BLOOD,” Truman Capote97. “THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER,” Janet Malcolm
98. “THE TAMING OF CHANCE,” Ian Hacking
99. “OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS,” Anne Lamott
100. “MELBOURNE,” Lord David Cecil

This is one for later. Ones in blue I have read. Ones in green I possess.

1. “THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS,” Henry Adams

2. “THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE,” William James

3. “UP FROM SLAVERY,” Booker T. Washington

4. “A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN,” Virginia Woolf

5. “SILENT SPRING,” Rachel Carson

6. “SELECTED ESSAYS, 1917-1932,” T.S. Eliot

7. “THE DOUBLE HELIX,” James D. Watson

8. “SPEAK, MEMORY,” Vladimir Nabokov

9. “THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE,” H.L. Mencken
10. “THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY,” John Maynard Keynes
11. “THE LIVES OF A CELL,” Lewis Thomas
12. “THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY,” Frederick Jackson Turner
13. “BLACK BOY,” Richard Wright
14. “ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL,” E.M. Forster
15. “THE CIVIL WAR,” Shelby Foote
16. “THE GUNS OF AUGUST,” Barbara W. Tuchman
17. “THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND,” Isaiah Berlin
18. “THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN,” Reinhold Niebuhr
19. “NOTES OF A NATIVE SON,” James Baldwin

20. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS,” Gertrude Stein

21. “THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE,” William Strunk and E.B. White
22. “AN AMERICAN DILEMMA,” Gunnar Myrdal
23. “PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA,” Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
24. “THE MISMEASURE OF MAN,” Stephen Jay Gould
25. “THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP,” Meyer Howard Abrams
26. “THE ART OF THE SOLUBLE,” Peter B. Medawar
27. “THE ANTS,” Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson
28. “A THEORY OF JUSTICE,” John Rawls
29. “ART AND ILLUSION,” Ernest H. Gombrich
30. “THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS,” E.P. Thompson
31. “THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK,” W.E.B. Du Bois
32. “PRINCIPIA ETHICA,” G.E. Moore
33. “PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION,” John Dewey
34. “ON GROWTH AND FORM,” D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson
35. “IDEAS AND OPINIONS,” Albert Einstein
36. “THE AGE OF JACKSON,” Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

37. “THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB,” Richard Rhodes

38. “BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON,” Rebecca West
39. “AUTOBIOGRAPHIES,” W.B. Yeats
40. “SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA,” Joseph Needham
41. “GOODBYE TO ALL THAT,” Robert Graves

42. “HOMAGE TO CATALONIA,” George Orwell
43. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN,” Mark Twain
44. “CHILDREN OF CRISIS,” Robert Coles
45. “A STUDY OF HISTORY,” Arnold J. Toynbee
46. “THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY,” John Kenneth Galbraith
47. “PRESENT AT THE CREATION,” Dean Acheson
48. “THE GREAT BRIDGE,” David McCullough
49. “PATRIOTIC GORE,” Edmund Wilson
50. “SAMUEL JOHNSON,” Walter Jackson Bate
51. “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X,” Alex Haley and Malcolm X

52. “THE RIGHT STUFF,” Tom Wolfe

53. “EMINENT VICTORIANS,” Lytton Strachey

54. “WORKING,” Studs Terkel
55. “DARKNESS VISIBLE,” William Styron
56. “THE LIBERAL IMAGINATION,” Lionel Trilling
57. “THE SECOND WORLD WAR,” Winston Churchill
58. “OUT OF AFRICA,” Isak Dinesen
59. “JEFFERSON AND HIS TIMES,” Dumas Malone
60. “IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN,” William Carlos Williams
61. “CADILLAC DESERT,” Marc Reisner
62. “THE HOUSE OF MORGAN,” Ron Chernow
63. “THE SWEET SCIENCE,” A. J. Liebling
64. “THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES,” Karl Popper
65. “THE ART OF MEMORY,” Frances A. Yates
66. “RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM,” R. H. Tawney
67. “A PREFACE TO MORALS,” Walter Lippmann
68. “THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE,” Jonathan D. Spence
69. “THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS,” Thomas S. Kuhn

70. “THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW,” C. Vann Woodward
71. “THE RISE OF THE WEST,” William H. McNeill
72. “THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS,” Elaine Pagels
73. “JAMES JOYCE,” Richard Ellmann
74. “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE,” Cecil Woodham-Smith
75. “THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY,” Paul Fussell
76. “THE CITY IN HISTORY,” Lewis Mumford
77. “BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM,” James M. McPherson
78. “WHY WE CAN’T WAIT,” Martin Luther King Jr.
79. “THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT,” Edmund Morris
80. “STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY,” Erwin Panofsky
81. “THE FACE OF BATTLE,” John Keegan
82. “THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND,” George Dangerfield
83. “VERMEER,” Lawrence Gowing
84. “A BRIGHT SHINING LIE,” Neil Sheehan

85. “WEST WITH THE NIGHT,” Beryl Markham

86. “THIS BOY’S LIFE,” Tobias Wolff

87. “A MATHEMATICIAN’S APOLOGY,” G.H. Hardy
88. “SIX EASY PIECES,” Richard P. Feynman
89. “PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK,” Annie Dillard

90. “THE GOLDEN BOUGH,” James George Frazer
91. “SHADOW AND ACT,” Ralph Ellison
92. “THE POWER BROKER,” Robert A. Caro
93. “THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION,” Richard Hofstadter
94. “THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY,” William Appleman Williams
95. “THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE,” Herbert Croly
96. “IN COLD BLOOD,” Truman Capote
97. “THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER,” Janet Malcolm
98. “THE TAMING OF CHANCE,” Ian Hacking
99. “OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS,” Anne Lamott

100. “MELBOURNE,” Lord David Cecil