Who do you think is the greatest American female author?
The Greatest Female Author from America?
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 21, 2025 7:34 AM |
Barbara Thorndyke
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 21, 2025 1:21 AM |
I wouldn’t say that she’s the greatest, but I’ve loved Willa Cather’s books.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 21, 2025 1:23 AM |
Pearl Buck
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 21, 2025 1:24 AM |
Vanna White.
It’s a helluva of a book!
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 21, 2025 1:29 AM |
I personally WOULD suggest Willa Cather , I think.
And it’s worth noting that Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchel only wrote one novel each, while authors like Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, and Joyce Carol Oates were really prolific.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 21, 2025 1:32 AM |
r1 is right. OP's poll is limited.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 21, 2025 1:40 AM |
DOROTHY PARKER
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 21, 2025 1:44 AM |
Flannery O'Connor
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 21, 2025 1:49 AM |
Carson McCullers
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 21, 2025 1:50 AM |
Eudora Welty
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 21, 2025 1:51 AM |
Flannery O’Connor
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | August 21, 2025 1:57 AM |
R1, Malamud is an author. Thorndyke is a writer.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 21, 2025 1:58 AM |
Edith Wharton. No contest.
The House of Mirth alone gives her Greatest status, but then there's Custom of the Country, Age of Innocence, and Summer. A peerless prose writer and storyteller; no one had a keener eye for what makes us flawed and human.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 21, 2025 2:03 AM |
R14 again. Among living, contemporary writers, Rachel Kushner is a contender.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 21, 2025 2:05 AM |
Is the Joan Didion Troll on timeout?
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 21, 2025 2:24 AM |
If we’re talking “DL greatest”, then it’s Jacqueline Susann.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 21, 2025 2:33 AM |
Flannery O'Connor, followed by Eudora Welty and Edna Ferber. Are you literate OP?
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 21, 2025 2:53 AM |
Add me to the Willa Cather fan club. Maybe there's a bit of nostalgia involved as I first fell in love with her junior year of high school when My Antonia was assigned reading in class, but my god, the woman could write.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 21, 2025 3:01 AM |
Donna Tart
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 21, 2025 3:03 AM |
Ursula K Le Guin
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 21, 2025 3:15 AM |
Mary Gaitskill
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | August 21, 2025 3:16 AM |
Yep, DL fav Jacqueline Susann is missing from your poll OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | August 21, 2025 3:29 AM |
Jackie Collins
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 21, 2025 3:33 AM |
Jessica Fletcher
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | August 21, 2025 4:44 AM |
Sylvia Plath
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 21, 2025 4:52 AM |
[quote]R26 Sylvia Plath
I think THE BELL JAR is masterfully written.
Here’s part of her outline. I want to blow it up as art!
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 21, 2025 6:08 AM |
Without a doubt: Toni Morrison.
And Joan Didion is missing from your poll, OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 21, 2025 6:30 AM |
I'm a huge Joan Didion fan, but even her biggest fans concede that she was an amazing essayist, not such a great novelist.
Play It As It Lays and Book of Common Prayer were no House of Mirth or Ethan Frome.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | August 21, 2025 7:10 AM |
Cather should be on this list if perhaps not the winner.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 21, 2025 7:12 AM |
Cather leaves me cold. I've tried to read her and I... just don't want to.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 21, 2025 7:32 AM |
Joyce Carol Oates
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 21, 2025 7:34 AM |