Morrison Tops Book List

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is the best novel of the past 25 years, according to the N.Y. Times. But where are the other African-American authors?

A few weeks ago, on May 21, Toni Morrison's Beloved arrived at the top of the New York Times list, "What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?"

Well, it happens that Beloved is one of my favorite novels and this place on the list, I felt, was fitting for this Nobel Prize winning author. The novel's many levels of personal and group history, the use of language that inspires awe, the emotional content...I could go on. But once I got past the top of this list I didn't notice another African American.

This sent me on a quick search for other "best book" lists-Time magazine, Boston Public Library, The Modern Library, New York Public Library, and several others. If you were to believe most of these lists-except the New York Public Library's-you might think that the only African-American authors of literary quality are Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison.

Don't misunderstand. These are great writers. I always recommend their work myself. They deserve to be on anyone's list of American or, indeed, world-class authors. But most of these lists covered the last century. Surely, there have been other African-American authors in those years who merit a place-or even an "honorary mention"-on a "best" list.

You might ask where is Zora Neale Hurston, Charles Johnson, Gloria Naylor, John Edgar Wideman, Clarence Major, James Alan McPherson, Alice Walker, John A. Williams, Ishmael Reed, or another writer-you fill in the name.

With this in mind, I'd like to hear from you to create our own list. I'll post a blog entry which will give instructions on how you can vote for your own favorite African-American literary fiction writer. Watch for it soon.