The Books of the States: 50 States, 538 Books
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Books, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Author.
So reads Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, or at least it does in the version I have around here somewhere. The Electoral College is, of course, the most absurd and distorting contraption of our sometimes-elegant democracy, and doubtless the red and blue cones in your eyes are going to wear out from all the electoral maps you'll see over the next couple of months (we don't escape blame for that here). But over the next couple months (the next 51 weekdays, to be exact), inspired by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey's new anthology, State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (see our interview), we're going to use the clunky structure of the electoral college to build a map of our own, a reader's map of the United States that will, we hope, be either a complement or an antidote to the relentless election season, whichever you prefer.
I grew up in Maryland, and despite--or maybe because of--its lack of an identity, have always felt loyal to the Old Line State, even now that I live 3,000 miles away. (You can get an idea of how muddled an identity Maryland has from one of its other nicknames--we have plenty!--"America in Miniature." If you can't figure out the one thing you are, why not claim everything?) When the U.S. Mint introduced their state quarter series, I stupidly got my hopes up that instead of some abstract symbol they would put one of the great American writers on the Maryland quarter: Frederick Douglass. Honor one of the finest acts of self-creation in American history (and a book that in a few short pages brings the Maryland landscape, both country and city, alive, as well as its tragic history)? No such luck: they went with "the country's largest wooden dome built without nails" instead.
But think of the writers who can be collected within that strange, jagged border that carries the name, "Maryland." Some were born there and stayed (H.L. Mencken, John Barth, Nora Roberts, Tom Clancy, David Simon, Laura Lippman), some grew up there and left (Douglass, Michael Chabon, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Ann Beattie, Myla Goldberg), some arrived from elsewhere (Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Tyler, Rachel Carson, Madison Smartt Bell). And others may have written well about Maryland without ever having set foot there. (F. Scott Fitzgerald may not be known as a Maryland writer, but we got him too in the end: he's buried with Zelda in a little cemetery on Rockville Pike, not too far down the road from where I used to get dropped off on summer Mondays to play Putt-Putt all day.) Sounds like a pretty good lineup for a little nobody state, but I'm sure it could be matched by any number of others.
And that's what we aim to find out. Here's our plan: from now through November 25 (that's 51 weekdays), we'll put up a post a day, covering the states in the order they joined the union (just like the quarters), and finishing with the District of Columbia. Our goal is to choose as many books for each state as it has delegates in the Electoral College (e.g., 3 for Delaware, 17 for Michigan, and, uh, 55 for California), but that won't be where we start. We're going to need your help on this: we haven't read a country's worth of books ("Omnivoracious" means we're hungry to read everything, not that we have). So for each day we'll make our own nominations (and in many cases we'll bring in guest writers from those states--many of them contributors to State by State--to make their own recommendations), but then we'll open the floor to you and anyone else who wanders in through the Internet pipes. We'll leave each post up as a discussion area for the whole process, and then at some point soon after we've posted on all the states, we'll put together a final list of 538 books, our reader's map of the country.
What are our criteria? What makes a good "Maryland" book, for instance? Well, that's going to be self-defining--you can make a case any way you like. (We liked the way New York magazine defined their "New York canon" earlier this year: "The key was that the choices be unmistakably New Yorky." Potter Stewart would have been proud.) But an ideal book wouldn't just be written by someone from the state--it would tell you something about the state, so The Sot-Weed Factor or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or Homicide get big Maryland points, while Michael Chabon's books are more likely to end up on the Alaska, New York, or Pennsylvania lists. And how will we narrow down the choices at the end? Well, by fiat, if you must know, but we promise that we'll pay close attention to both the volume and the quality of the nominations, so please, speak up! Tell us of the big books we were idiots to forget, or the unknown books we'd love to read if only we knew of them. We're not just looking for fiction, either: history, kids' books, art books, anything you can make a case for. We're relying on your local expertise.
I've been told by a few people that this is a crazy escapade to be setting out on, and by many more (often the same people) that it sounds like a whole lot of fun. Hope you think so too. We'll start things off with Delaware later today (and it's a toughie, let me tell you), and go on from there, with our first guest contributor, Stewart O'Nan, giving us his Pennsylvania picks tomorrow. --Tom
P.S. This idea is too good for us to be the only ones to have thought of it. In my previous post, Kristen from Book Club Classics comments that she and Melanie Jones have tag-teamed on weekly state picks, and they are two-thirds of the way through. Here's their latest one (Dennis Lehane for Massachusetts), which includes a list of their previous ones at the bottom.
P.P.S. Just came across this, while state-obsessed: Want to match state stereotypes with what researchers have found? Gene Expression links to a paper by university researchers that rate the levels of "Neuroticism," "Extraversion," "Conscientiousness," "Agreeableness," and "Openness" in each state in handy maps. Pretty fascinating. (Washington state: agreeable, introverted, not neurotic? Sounds right...) (Via Sullivan)
Andrew Necci on September 16, 2008 at 11:42 PM
For my home state of Virginia, I have to suggest Rita Mae Brown's Venus Envy, because it takes place in Virginia and exposes a lot of the contradictions of this state in a hilarious manner. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who'd argue for Rubyfruit Jungle as her real masterpiece, and I won't argue the point, but Venus Envy is a personal preference.
From California, I would like to mention the punk rock memoir/novel/oral history Double Duce by Aaron Cometbus, who is probably the best wordsmith punk rock has produced (which might seem like faint praise in an uncrowded field... until you dig a little).
And from Massachusetts, I recommend Zodiac by Neal Stephenson, a current-events sci-fi thriller in which the city of Boston and its greater metropolitan area are major characters.
Scott on September 17, 2008 at 01:07 AM
As a California native, I have to recommend both Charles Bukowski and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (they represent Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, though neither were born in the state--but then again "California Native" is somewhat of a contradiction, isn't it? *grin*
I'm sure you will have no problem finding 55 books to represent the "Golden State".
Currently I live in Kansas, and though I know there are some obvious choices (L. Frank Baum, though he actually lived in S. Dakota when he wrote his most famous work), I'll suggest William S. Burroughs... (though Missouri or New York City could also claim him) and Langston Hughes (though Missouri or New York City--specifically Harlem--can claim him as well).
Scott on September 17, 2008 at 01:53 AM
I forgot in my previous comment to suggest specific books for the authors: I won't suggest them for Bukowski and Ferlinghetti, but I'll point out two books from the authors I suggested for Kansas, especially as most of their other work is associated with New York City or other locations:
"Not Without Laughter" (Langston Hughes)
"Tornado Alley" (William S. Burroughs)
And, I suppose "What's the Matter With Kansas" (Thomas Frank) would be a more topical choice... anyway, I'll stop there, as there are only six spots available.
Sara on September 24, 2008 at 12:46 PM
For either California or Illinois, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.