Thumper’s Top 100 African American Novels & Top 25 African American Authors of the 20th Century

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Top 100 Novels (In No Particular Order)

  1. Native Son – Richard Wright
  2. Roots – Alex Haley
  3. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
  4. Go Tell It On The Mountain – James Baldwin
  5. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
  6. Jonah’s Gourd Vine – Zora Neale Hurston
  7. Dust Tracks On The Road – Zora Neale Hurston
  8. The Ways Of White Folks – Langston Hughes
  9. The Best Of Simple – Langston Hughes
  10. The Big Sea – Langston Hughes
  11. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
  12. The Third Life Of Grange Copeland – Alice Walker
  13. Possessing The Secret Of Joy – Alice Walker
  14. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
  15. Of Love And Dust – Ernest Gaines
  16. A Gathering Of Old Men – Ernest Gaines
  17. A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest Gaines
  18. Ugly Ways – Tina McElroy Ansa
  19. Song Of Solomon – Toni Morrison
  20. Beloved – Toni Morrison
  21. Paradise – Toni Morrison
  22. Jazz – Toni Morrison
  23. Sula – Toni Morrison
  24. Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine – Bebe Moore Campbell
  25. The Chinaberry Tree – Jessie Redmon Fauset
  26. Passing – Nella Larsen
  27. Blacker The Berry – Wallace Thurman
  28. Infant Of The Spring – Wallace Thurman
  29. Cane – Jean Toomer
  30. Corrediga – Gayl Jones
  31. Black Boy – Richard Wright
  32. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
  33. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
  34. Middle Passage – Charles Johnson
  35. Oxherding Tale – Charles Johnson
  36. The Living Is Easy – Dorothy West
  37. The Street – Ann Petry
  38. The Spook Who Sat By The Door – Sam Greenlee
  39. The School on 103rd Street – Roland S. Jefferson
  40. Yesterday Will Make You Cry – Chester Himes
  41. Billy – Albert French
  42. Holly – Albert French
  43. The Chartersville Incident – David Bradley
  44. Black Thunder – Arna Bontemps
  45. Manchild In The Promise Land – Clarence Brown
  46. Plum Bun – Jessie Redmon Fauset
  47. Push – Sapphire
  48. The View From Here – Brian Keith Jackson
  49. Black Betty – Walter Mosley
  50. Gone Fishin’ – Walter Mosley
  51. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo – Ntozake Shange
  52. The Wedding – Dorothy West
  53. Touch – Charlotte Watson Sherman
  54. An Open Weave – Devorah Major
  55. Disappearing Act – Terry McMillan
  56. Train Whistle Guitar – Albert Murray
  57. When Death Comes A Stealing – Valerie Wilson Wesley
  58. Pride – Lorene Carey
  59. Sister, Sister – Eric Jerome Dickey
  60. Make Me Wanna Holler – Nathan McCall
  61. Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography – Donald Bogle
  62. Playing In The Dark – Toni Morrison
  63. I Been In Sorrow’s Kitchen And Licked Out All The Pots – Susan Straight
  64. The Color Of Love – Sandra Kitt
  65. Divided Soul: The Life And Times Of Marvin Gaye – David Ritz
  66. Bessie – Chris Albertson
  67. You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke – David Wolffe
  68. Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime – J. California Cooper
  69. Windy City Blues – Hugh Holton
  70. The Queen Of The Blues: The Life Of Dinah Washington – James Haskins
  71. Cold Medina – Gary Hardwick
  72. The Between – Tananarive Due
  73. And This Too Shall Pass – E. Lynn Harris
  74. Magic City – Jewell Rhodes Parker
  75. Waiting To Exhale – Terry McMillan
  76. Black Mama Widow – Iceberg Slim
  77. Pimp – Iceberg Slim
  78. The Heart Of A Woman – Maya Angelou
  79. What A Woman Gotta Do – Evelyn Coleman
  80. Flyy Girl – Omar Tyree
  81. The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni – Nikki Giovanni
  82. Wishing On The Moon: The Life And Times of Billie Holiday – Donald Clarke
  83. God’s Country – Percival Everett
  84. A Raisin In The Sun – Lorraine Hansberry
  85. The Piano Lesson – August Wilson
  86. For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf – Ntozake Shange
  87. Belly Song – Etheridge Knight
  88. The Essential Etheridge Knight – Etheridge Knight
  89. The Cattle Killing – John Edgar Wideman
  90. The Complete Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston – Zora Neale Hurston
  91. Moses, Man Of The Mountain – Zora Neale Hurston
  92. The Kindred – Octavia Butler

I’m afraid this is the best I can do with the books. Of course I’m stretching some of the choices, the plays are actually in paperback so I guess they count.

Top 25 African American Authors of the 20th Century

  1. Langston Hughes
  2. Zora Neale Hurston
  3. Etheridge Knight
  4. Toni Morrison
  5. Alice Walker
  6. Chester Himes
  7. Wallace Thurman
  8. Dorothy West
  9. Lorene Carey
  10. Nella Larsen
  11. Ann Petry
  12. Jean Toomer
  13. Richard Wright
  14. Alex Haley
  15. Walter Mosley
  16. J. California Cooper
  17. James Baldwin
  18. Chinua Achebe
  19. Bebe Moore Campbell
  20. Albert French
  21. Maya Angelou
  22. Gayl Jones
  23. Charles Johnson
  24. Ralph Ellison
  25. Albert Murray