The Literary Reputation Poll

Anglo-American edition

For the last year I’ve been threatening to create a survey that will measure the relative popularity of various British and American writers. Amongst people who are interested in classic literature, how many are actually reading Mark Twain, as compared to, say, George Eliot? And which of these classic authors did people actually enjoy reading?

This survey uses a methodology that I’ve developed on Substack Notes, and the aim is to be simple and clear. For each writer it offers four mutually-exclusive options, assessing various degrees of familiarity with their work. For a core list of twenty authors, I also ask whether you were assigned their work in middle / high school or in college.

Initial testing has provided a hundred responses, and they’re really fascinating. You’ll never believe which classic author is almost never assigned in school, but is highly beloved by the general reading public. You’ll never believe which other classic author is frequently assigned in school, but really disliked. Actually you’ll likely be able to guess both, since the data is so striking, but now we’ll actually have proof!

So go take the survey. That’s the most important thing here. And if you know any reddit forums or discord servers or other online spaces where people are interested in classic literature, please feel free to share this poll.

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About Woman of Letters

It occurs to me that this survey might get shared more widely, beyond my usual readership, and that I should introduce myself. My name is Naomi Kanakia. This is a literary blog devoted to the Great Books and classic literature, which I originally started to promote my upcoming book about why you should read the classics (What’s So Great About The Great Books? is out May 19 from Princeton University Press).

This blog is part of a burgeoning literary-critical scene here on Substack, which includes Ross Barkan, John Pistelli, Celine Nguyen, BDM, Henry Begler, Alexander Sorondo, and many more. I read all these guys with interest and often write responses to topics that bubble up.

I also publish my own stories on this blog, in a particular style (derived from 13th-century Icelandic family sagas) that I call the “tale”. One of my tales was reviewed positively over the summer by The New Yorker. This blog has also gotten favorable comment mentions lately in Vox and in New York magazine. I’m also the author of four novels that appeared in real bookstores and a number of short stories and essays that’ve were published in real journals, but really I’m mostly known for my Substack.

This newsletter is a unique mix that I’ve given up trying to justify or explain, but it’s most akin to a literary magazine. It’s like N+1 or The Paris Review—a lot of topics, but everything is linked by a similar approach or attitude, which in my case tends to be plainspoken and democratic. I don’t usually speak about politics in my own voice, but sometimes my fiction touches upon it. Anyway, this newsletter has an audience that generally has very strong opinions about questions like, “Who was the best 20th-century American writer?” And that’s exactly why I thought it would be so fun to poll everyone on their experieneces with various authors.

If you’re coming here for the first time, please consider sticking around. But in any case definitely take my poll.