10 Essential Michigan Books

In its August 30 edition, City Pulse, which is printed in Lansing, Michigan, published an article on the “Ten Essential Michigan Books.” Here they are:

1. The Hiawatha Legends by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
   

2. The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway
   

3. The Dollmaker by Hariette Arnow
   

4. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
   

5. Dopefiend by Donald Goines
   

6. Farmer by Jim Harrison
   

7. Braided Lives by Marge Piercy
   

8. Letters from the Leelanau by Kathleen Stocking
   

9. Rivethead by Ben Hamper
   

10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
    

A Michigan friend, who sent me the article, asked why Richard Ford and Joyce Carol Oates were missing. Good question. The list was compiled by Chicago writer and Lansing native Theodore McClellan. There was no criteria given for the selections. It appears all the books on McClellan’s list are set in Michigan.

A second list, by City Pulse contributor Bill Castanier, included Ford’s The Sportswriter and Oates’ Them. It also included The Sporting Club by Tom McGuane and Waiting for the Morning Train by Bruce Catton.