1. Mark Twain
   Joseph Heller
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   Paul Auster

F. Scott Fitzgerald released "The Great Gatsby" in 1925, and the future classic was a solid flop at the time. Thankfully, readers have learned to appreciate the tale of Jay Gatsby, his wild parties and his lust for Daisy in the years since Fitzgerald's death.

1. John Steinbeck
   Herman Melville
2. Richard Wright
   Robert Penn Warren

The 1851 novel "Moby-Dick" takes readers along on a 19th century whaling ship, with a captain obsessed with revenge -- on a whale. Herman Melville's classic book is set on the Pequod, and features a narrator named Ishmael who survives the tale by floating on a coffin.

1. Mark Twain
   Jack Kerouac
2. Henry Miller
   Cormac McCarthy

Mark Twain was inspired by his own childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, when writing "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." This classic coming-of-age novel from 1876 tells the story of a boy named Tom, who falls for a girl named Becky Thatcher, hangs out with his best friend Huck and even attends his own funeral.

1. Margaret Mitchell
   Ralph Ellison
2. William Faulkner
   J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger's tale of teenage rebellion began as a serial in the '40s before it was published as a novel in 1951. "The Catcher in the Rye" tells the tale of Holden Caulfield, a teen whose struggles modern generations have found themselves identifying with.

1. Ralph Ellison
   F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. John Steinbeck
   Harper Lee

In the 1930s, the United States experienced an economic downturn so devastating that it's now referred to as the Great Depression. At the same time, severe storms left many parts of the central U.S. unable to produce crops. This pair of twin disasters is captured in John Steinbeck's 1939 novel "The Grapes of Wrath."

1. Zora Neale Hurston
   Harriet Beecher Stowe
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   William Faulker

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" came out in 1852, just about a decade before the Civil War at a time when the abolitionist movement was gaining popularity. This powerful anti-slavery tome contains concepts that are offensive today, but were critical to changing minds -- and lives -- in the 19th century.

1. Robert Penn Warren
   Ernest Hemingway
2. Richard Wright
   Vladimir Nabokov

Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote one of the most controversial novels of all time with his 1955 classic "Lolita." The risque book tells the tale of Humbert Humbert, a Professor who falls for his pre-teen stepdaughter Delores, whom he nicknames Lolita.

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne
   Edgar Allen Poe
2. Harper Lee
   Herman Melville

Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 classic "The Scarlet Letter" tells the story of Hester Prynne, who is forced to wear a red letter "A" on her dress as punishment for having a child out of wedlock. Set just 50 years before the Salem Witch Trials, the novel captures the heavy-handed Puritan rule in 17th century New England.

1. Upton Sinclair
   Jack London
2. Theodore Dreiser
   William James

Theodore Dreiser drew from real-life inspiration when writing his 1925 novel "An American Tragedy." The book tells the story of social climber Clyde, who makes a series of terrible decisions that culminate in the murder of his lover.

1. Ralph Ellison
   Toni Morrison
2. Mark Twain
   John Steinbeck

The 1952 novel "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison is a powerful tale of race, rights and finding your place in the world. Told from the perspective of a nameless narrator living in the early 20th century, it takes readers from the south to Harlem during the Civil Rights era.

1. Thomas Pynchon
   William Faulkner
2. Ernest Hemingway
   Mark Twain

William Faulkner's southern gothic "Absalom, Absalom!" came out in 1936. Set in the 19th century, it tells the story of Thomas Sutpen, who moves to the south, founds a grand plantation, then loses everything after the Civil War.

1. Harper Lee
   Zora Neale Hurston
2. Toni Morrison
   Harriet Beecher Stowe

"To Kill a Mockingbird" gives readers a glimpse into the injustices of the Deep South in 1930s Alabama through the eyes of a child named Scout. It was Harper Lee's only novel until the 2015 release of "Go Set a Watchman."

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne
   Ray Bradbury
2. Ralph Ellison
   Jack Kerouac

"On the Road' is a 1957 roman a clef by Jack Kerouac. It tells the story of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity as they travel the country in the late '40s, and is still renowned today for its depiction of Beat culture.

1. Harper Lee
   Edith Wharton
2. Toni Morrison
   Louisa May Alcott

Sethe is a former slave haunted by her dead daughter in the 1987 novel "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and was chosen in 2006 as the best book of the past 25 years.

1. Ernest Hemingway
   Thomas Pynchon
2. Ralph Ellison
   Mark Twain

It was Thomas Pynchon who wrote "Gravity's Rainbow." Published in 1973, the novel focuses on the race by the German military to build V-2 rockets. The book gets its name from the fact that the rockets' path resembles the shape of a rainbow.

1. Robert Penn Warren
   F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Henry Miller
   James Baldwin

Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," a tale about his life as a struggling writer in Paris, so scandalized the public in the '30s that it was deemed obscene. It took a 1964 Supreme Court verdict to get the book unbanned, but its graphic sexual nature and language might still shock you today.

1. William Faulkner
   Henry James
2. Jack Kerouac
   Richard Wright

Set in the southside of Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's "Native Son" was released in 1940. The main character Bigger Thomas murders both an acquaintance and his girlfriend, leading the reader through themes related to race, poverty and identity.

1. Toni Morrison
   Oscar Wilde
2. Herman Melville
   Cormac Mccarthy

"Blood Meridian" was the fifth book published by celebrated novelist Cormac McCarthy. It tells the story of the Glanton gang, and focuses on a character known only as the kid. Shockingly violent, even for a western, the novel features graphic tales of scalping and fighting among natives and members of the gang.

1. Edgar Allen Poe
   Robert Penn Warren
2. John Kennedy Toole
   Jack London

"It is the beating of his hideous heart!," screamed the murderous and totally-not-insane narrator of Edgar Allen Poe's 1843 story "The Tell-tale Heart." Published two years before Poe earned a cool $9 for "The Raven," this tale of a murderer whose secret is slowly driving him insane is as scary today as it was in Poe's day.

1. Ralph Ellison
   Saul Bellow
2. Henry David Thoreau
   John Steinbeck

Saul Bellow's "The Adventures of Augie March" is a coming-of-age novel released in 1953. It follows the title character from youth through adulthood as Augie fails to commit to any job, woman or family.

1. Barbara Kingsolver
   Ernest Hemingway
2. Edgar Allen Poe
   Henry James

Released in 1998, Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" is one of the newer novels to be declared an American classic. The beloved book tells the story of the Price family, who travel with their four daughters from the American south to Congo in the 1950s to serve as missionaries.

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   William Faulkner
2. Paul Auster
   Edgar Allen Poe

Paul Auster became a literary legend with this "New York Trilogy" in the '80s. He followed up this postmodern detective series, which consists of "City of Glass," "Ghosts," and "The Locked Room" with his 1989 novel "Moon Palace" -- a story about an orphan who is forced to sell his books to survive.

1. Barbara Kingsolver
   Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. Louisa May Alcott
   Zora Neale Hurston

Louisa May Alcott drew inspiration from her own childhood when writing her classic novel "Little Women." Generations of readers have laughed and cried with the March sisters -- Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo -- who was molded after Alcott herself.

1. Walt Whitman
   James Baldwin
2. Washington Irving
   Philip Roth

Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" tells the story of Seymour "Swede" Levov, a man whose seemingly perfect life is destroyed by affairs and by his daughter's militant activism. The book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

1. Henry Miller
   Vladimir Nabokov
2. Stephen Crane
   Thomas Pynchon

Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage" didn't come out until 1895, but it continues to transport readers back to the days of the Civil War. The story is shown through the terrified eyes of Henry Fleming, a soldier torn between fear and loyalty to his unit out on the battlefield.

1. James Baldwin
   Richard Wright
2. John Steinbeck
   Ray Bradbury

James Baldwin grew up under the watchful eye of a stern -- and abusive -- Baptist Minister stepfather. He relied on this experience when telling the story of John Grimes, the narrator of his classic 1953 novel "Go Tell It On the Mountain."

1. David Foster Wallace
   Mark Twain
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne
   John Updike

John Updike's 1960 release "Rabbit, Run" tells the story of a former basketball star who is disenchanted with his life as a working father. The character of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom was such a hit that Updike wrote three more books in the series.

1. Ernest Hemingway
   Ralph Ellison
2. John Steinbeck
   Jack London

Ernest Hemingway wrote some of the most famous American novels ever published, from "A Farewell to Arms," to "The Old Man and the Sea" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." "Bell" tells the story of Robert Jordan, a soldier fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which Hemingway himself fought in.

1. John Updike
   Henry Miller
2. J.D. Salinger
   James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper wrote the 1926 classic "The Last of the Mohicans." Set during the French and Indian Wars of the 1750s, the novel follows a group of colonists and Native Americans as they travel through the New York wilderness.

1. T.S. Eliot
   John Dos Passos
2. Theodore Dreiser
   Langston Hughes

John Dos Passos' "U.S.A. Trilogy" focuses on 12 characters living around the time of WWI. It paints a picture of the events and happenings of the era, and is made up of three novels Dos Passos published between 1930 and 1936.

1. Isaac Asimov
   Don DeLillo
2. J.D. Salinger
   Saul Bellow

In Don DeLillo's "White Noise," the main character Jack Gladney is so scared of death that he will do anything to avoid it -- even commit murder. This 1985 novel is known for its satirical postmodern theme.

1. Robert Penn Warren
   Edgar Allen Poe
2. Edgar Allen Poe
   William Gibson

Despite the fact that it was William Gibson's debut novel, "Neuromancer" ended up being much-celebrated by fans and critics alike. The first in the "Sprawl" trilogy," which helped to inspire the 1999 film "The Matrix," the novel focuses on a Artificial Intelligence and technology run amok.

1. Joseph Heller
   Philip Roth
2. Kurt Vonnegut
   Theodore Dreiser

Set in WWII, "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller tells the story of Captain John Yossrian and his crew, who are stationed in the Mediterranean during WWII. The novel is famous for its stark and brutal depiction of battle and the horrors associated with warfare.

1. Saul Bellow
   Robert Penn Warren
2. Truman Capote
   Norman Mailer

Robert Penn Warren won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his 1946 novel "All the King's Men." With a name taken from the classic tale of Humpty Dumpty, the book outlines the rise of a corrupt southern politician -- who some believe was inspired by former Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

1. James Fenimore Cooper
   Nathaniel Hawthorne
2. Raymond Chandler
   David Foster Wallace

"Infinite Jest" is a wonder of a novel published in 1996 by David Foster Wallace. In the book, years are sponsored by corporations, and the story takes place at a halfway house and a tennis academy during the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.