Good American Writers

[Bekah]

One American woman (but French really -)  who doesn't get a lot of mention is Marguerite Yourcenar.   Her most famous novel was "Memoirs of Hadrian" but "The Abyss" was also quite good.     

"Yourcenar was elected as the first female member of the Académie française, in 1980. An anecdote tells of how the bathroom labels were then changed in this male-dominated institution: (Messieurs (Men) and Yourcenar). "One of the respected writers in French language, she published many novels, essays, and poems, as well as three volumes of memoirs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Yourcenar

Bekah

On May 6, 2013, at 11:42 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> And I'd like to add Cynthia Ozick (Foreign Bodies) and Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake).  
> 
> Elaine Showalter's list of top women authors in the US: 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/09/female-novelists-usa
> 
> 
> 
> Life is much easier for serious women authors  in the UK where the likes of Atwood and Munro and Mantel and Hazard and Smith and Barker and Byatt and Rowling and Gordimer and Dineson and Bainbridge and Taylor and  Lessing and Murdoch and Woolf and many others back to the days of Austen get noticed - get reviewed - get encouraged by publishers and critics.   In the US it seems that most publishers want their authors to make mo' $$$ by whatever lowest common denominator will do it (chick-lit and crime books usually).    And the critics tend to recognize the new male authors.   
> https://www.smalldemons.com/users/lists/smdmns_731362_2794/British_Female_Authors_of_the_20th_Century
> 
> Tambien: 
> http://www.thebookescape.com/Feminista.html  (world-wide) 
> 
> This is the site of a personal friend - a bit irritated by the dearth of women authors on that Random House list - sheesh!  
> http://whisperinggums.com/2011/04/08/nine-just-9-books-by-female-authors-at-the-top-of-a-20th-century-list/
> 
> Bekah
> 
> 
> On May 6, 2013, at 2:19 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:
> 
>> My problem with The Great American Novel is its defining article. Do the French obsess like this? And don't get me started with the adjective.
>> 
>> All great books, those that have been mentioned. I know: Inclusio unius est exclusio alterius. sure. But let me throw out two names that haven't been mentioned.
>> 
>> Faulkner, Kerouac and our TP all read Thomas Wolfe, maybe his novels are not Great (but the prose?) but they deserve study.
>> 
>> And a couple for the gals. Again, perhaps not Great but certainly good: Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
>> 
>> ciao
>> mc
>