photo credit: SibleyHunter

Thank you again to Omnivoracious for choosing a state I was struggling with…  Here are their picks for Rhode Island:

• H.P. Lovecraft: Tales by H.P. Lovecraft: The authoritative Library of America edition. I challenge you to name a book with better Statistically Improbably Phrases than this one: “curvilinear hieroglyphs, greenish soapstones, tarry stickiness, twilight abysses, nameless scent, spiky image, shunned house, twilit grotto, elder things, membraneous wings, attic laboratory, hill noises, fishy odour, domed hills, buzzing voice, scientific zeal, frantic note, lurking fear, blasted heath, captive mind, slanting wall, frantic letter, grocery boy”. My god–what’s your favorite? They tell a skin-prickling story all by themselves (and I do fear for that “grocery boy”…).

photo credit: B Rosen

• A Key into the Language of America by Roger Williams: The founder of Rhode Island also wrote one of its great and strange books, this little 1643 guide to the language and culture of the Narragansett, remarkable in its time and ours for its openhanded approach to native culture. Am I wrong to say that this can hold its own with Moby-Dick and The Postman Always Rings Twice as one of the most brilliant opening paragraphs in American literature: “Observation. The Natives are of two sorts, (as the English are). Some more Rude and Clownish, who are not so apt to Salute, but upon Salutation resalute lovingly. Others, and the generall, are sober and grave, and yet chearfull in a meane, and as ready to begin a Salutation as to Resalute, which yet the English generally begin, out of desire to Civilize them.”

photo credit: computerjoe

• The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: This early feminist story of a young wife and mother losing her mind is every bit as chilling as the creepiest Lovecraft tale.
• Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter (it’s out of print?!? geez…): Not her best-known book, but my favorite, and one of my favorites by anybody anywhere (speaking of opening paragraphs, I lived under the spell of the opening of “The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe” for about three years.) The best stories in the collection are her bloody British fabulist’s response to American history (especially the masterful “Fall River Axe Murders”), although the connections to Rhode Island in particular are admittedly slim (she taught at Brown in the early ’80s).

photo credit: B Rosen

What a strange and fantastic group of four, but there are certainly other contenders. Staying at Brown, there are the great postmodernists who ruled there for decades, Robert Coover and John Hawkes, although neither of them wrote in particular about RI, as far as I know. And across town at RISD, there has been David Macaulay, the meticulous opener of worlds for kids. Updike set The Witches of Eastwick (and, presumably, the new Widows) in RI, Galway Kinnell and Spalding Gray were raised there, and a master of modern weird, Paul di Filippo, was born in Providence and lives there today. –Tom

Curious about what states we’ve done so far and which ones are on deck?

Photo by marxchivist

First, from Melanie Jones:

Alabama: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (check out my To Kill A Mockingbird Sample Kit!)

Michigan: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides

Alaska: The Man Who Swam With Beavers by Nancy Lord

Arizona: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

North Dakota: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Vermont: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Hawaii: Heads by Harry by Lois-ann Yamanaka

Georgia: Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

Massachusettes: Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Oregon: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

And I happily borrowed the collective wisdom of Omnivoracious for

• Delaware: Marisa de los Santos (and W.D. Snodgrass, Robert Montgomery Bird, Jonathan Kellerman… they are choosing an author for every electoral vote…)
• New York: Check out the list of literary greats — wow…

And I went out on my own for…

Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeale Hurston

Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien

Wisconsin: When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton

Louisiana: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (Jones’ pick) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (my pick)

Colorado: Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Maryland: Anything by Anne Tyler

Georgia: Awakening by Kate Chopin

Ohio: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Virginia: John Grisham

Idaho: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

North Carolina: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Tennesee: Run by Ann Patchett

New Jersey: Anything by Janet Ivanovich

Texas: Anything by Elmer Kelton

Connecticut: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Montana: The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie

Utah: Edward Abbey

South Carolina: Pat Conroy

Iowa: Wallace Stegner

Pennsylvania: John Updike and James Michener

Missouri: Mark Twain

New Hampshire: Robert Frost

Kentucky: Robert Penn Warren

California: John Steinbeck

Wondering where your state is? Coming soon… In the meantime, weigh in on future picks!

Welcome back!