Three Books By Black Authors Among 100 Best English-Language Novels Of The 20th Century

Jet, August 10, 1998

Three classic books written by lauded Black authors were chosen for the list of 100 best English-language novels published this century.

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Richard Wright's Native Son and James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain were the only novels by Black authors to make the list that was drawn up by the editorial board of the Modern Library, which is a division of Random House that has been publishing classic literature since 1917.

Ellison's Invisible Man ranked 19 on the list with Wright's Native Son following it at 20. Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain ranked 39 on the list.

The jury of scholars and writers who voted on the novels were Daniel J. Boorstin, A.S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal.

"We tried to pick books that were of great merit and proven over time," said, Cerf, chairman of the Modern Library editorial board. He is the son of Bennett Cerf, who bought the Modern Library and founded Random House.