Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wharton and Wolfe: 10 Classics You Should Never Live Without

November 20 2014
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This week, Simon and Schuster launched the new online Scribner Magazine, which features behind-the-scenes insights on reading, on writing, and on living from one of the most storied Publishing Houses in the business. The first incarnation of Scribner Magazine, then called Scribner’s Magazine, was launched in 1887 and flourished until 1939. The magazine introduced new writers and published in short form many of the authors who wrote books for Scribner: Henry James, Edith Wharton, Theodore Roosevelt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Alan Paton, and Thomas Wolfe. In celebration of the site’s launch we’ve gathered a selection of ten titles from Scribner’s century long history, some originally serialized in Scribner’s Magazine, which we still treasure as unforgettable classics.

The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's first bestselling novel, it is the story of a group of 'Lost Generation' Americans and Brits in the 1920's on a sojourn from Paris to Pamploma, Spain. The novel poignantly details their life as expatriates on Paris' Left Bank, and conveys the brutality of bullfighting in Spain. The novel established Hemingway as one of the great prose stylists of all time.

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The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's first bestselling novel, it is the story of a group of 'Lost Generation' Americans and Brits in the 1920's on a sojourn from Paris to Pamploma, Spain. The novel poignantly details their life as expatriates on Paris' Left Bank, and conveys the brutality of bullfighting in Spain. The novel established Hemingway as one of the great prose stylists of all time.

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Underworld
by Don DeLillo

One of DeLillo’s best, Underworld has many storylines, but it starts on a baseball diamond. The book only spends a short time focusing on baseball, but one ball in particular factors into all of the action that follows.

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Underworld
Don DeLillo

One of DeLillo’s best, Underworld has many storylines, but it starts on a baseball diamond. The book only spends a short time focusing on baseball, but one ball in particular factors into all of the action that follows.

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The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Age of Innocence, which explores the joys and scandals surrounding the marriage of an upper-class New York couple during the Gilded Age.

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The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Age of Innocence, which explores the joys and scandals surrounding the marriage of an upper-class New York couple during the Gilded Age.

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A Separate Peace
by John Knowles

Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. What happens between two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

Read the full review here.

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A Separate Peace
John Knowles

Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. What happens between two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

Read the full review here.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell

The Game of Thrones and Harry Potter series are both masterworks of imaginative literature that have been thrillingly translated to the screen, but for my taste, I’ll go with Gone with the Wind. Like the Stark family and the residents of Hogwarts, Scarlett and Rhett are such vivid characters on the page that you can’t imagine them being portrayed adequately on film—until suddenly, there they are, each work only enhancing your enjoyment of the other.

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Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

The Game of Thrones and Harry Potter series are both masterworks of imaginative literature that have been thrillingly translated to the screen, but for my taste, I’ll go with Gone with the Wind. Like the Stark family and the residents of Hogwarts, Scarlett and Rhett are such vivid characters on the page that you can’t imagine them being portrayed adequately on film—until suddenly, there they are, each work only enhancing your enjoyment of the other.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

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The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James

One of literature's most gripping ghost stories depicts the sinister transformation of 2 innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. Elegantly told tale of unspoken horror and psychological terror creates what few stories in literature have been able to do -- a complete feeling of dread and uncertainty.

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The Turn of the Screw
Henry James

One of literature's most gripping ghost stories depicts the sinister transformation of 2 innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. Elegantly told tale of unspoken horror and psychological terror creates what few stories in literature have been able to do -- a complete feeling of dread and uncertainty.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

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Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe

The acclaimed tale of a shipwrecked Englishman who finds himself stranded on an island off the coast of South America, a story of survival, self-reliance, adventure, and faith. TGIF.

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Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe

The acclaimed tale of a shipwrecked Englishman who finds himself stranded on an island off the coast of South America, a story of survival, self-reliance, adventure, and faith. TGIF.

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The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The novel of the Jazz Age. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his powerful love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale that has been essential reading since it was published.

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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Some consider it “the great American novel.” The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his powerful love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale that has been essential reading since it was published.

Read the full review here.

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Tarantula
by Bob Dylan

Originally issued in 1966 in a print run of 50, this collection of experimental prose poems was long available only as a bootleg until it was finally published in 1971, to wide disclaim. Mastery or mischief, you decide, but it's still a fun book to have on your shelf next to Chronicles and John Lennon's In His Own Write.

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Tarantula
Bob Dylan

Originally issued in 1966 in a print run of 50, this collection of experimental prose poems was long available only as a bootleg until it was finally published in 1971, to wide disclaim. Mastery or mischief, you decide, but it's still a fun book to have on your shelf next to Chronicles and John Lennon's In His Own Write.

Amazon logo Barnes & Noble logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

MENTIONED IN:

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wharton and Wolfe: 10 Classics You Should Never Live Without

By Off the Shelf Staff | November 20, 2014

Close
Look Homeward Angel
by Thomas Wolfe

Edited by the legendary Maxwell Perkins and published in 1929, Wolfe's first novel, about a young man's burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful story that has touched millions.

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Look Homeward Angel
Thomas Wolfe

Edited by the legendary Maxwell Perkins and published in 1929, Wolfe's first novel, about a young man's burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful story that has touched millions.

Amazon logo Barnes & Noble logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

MENTIONED IN:

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wharton and Wolfe: 10 Classics You Should Never Live Without

By Off the Shelf Staff | November 20, 2014

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