Which books, plays, poems or other works by American writers do you think world leaders should read to better understand American life and culture?
1984 
Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni 
Power of the Word: Leaders, Readers and Writers is the first online exhibition of The American Writers Museum. As world leaders gather in the U.S. this spring, The American Writers Museum Foundation is inviting American writers and readers to explore the power of the word and join in a discussion of how American books can help readers in other parts of the world better understand our culture.
An exploration into what some of the world’s most powerful leaders like to read, and how reading has influenced them.
American writers comment on their early experiences with reading and name the books they think world leaders should read in order to better understand American culture.
An interactive, open forum where readers are invited to join the discussion by answering the question: Which American works of literature do you think leaders from other nations should read in order to gain a better understanding of America?
We would like to thank our exhibit sponsors for their generous support:
The mission of The American Writers Museum Foundation is to establish the first national museum in the United States dedicated to engaging the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture and our daily lives. Learn more at www.americanwritersmuseum.org
To Kill A Mockingbird 
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson 
The Perfect Mile 
The Interpreter of Maladies 
Talking About People by Rosalie Maggio 
Tom Wolfe The Bonfire of the Vanities 
The Fundamentals of Play by Caitlin Macy 
“Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates 
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote 
“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote 
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 
The Awakening by Kate Chopin 
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace 
White Noise by Don Delillo 
The Centaur by John Updike 
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes 
them by Joyce Carol Oates 
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut 
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey 
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S. Thompson 
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs 
Babbit by Sinclair Lewis 
The Call of the Wild by Jack London 
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 
The World According to Garp by John Irving 
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor 
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner 
Beloved by Toni Morrison 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 
The Lorax 
From Here to Eternity by James Jones 
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather 
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth 
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin 
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren 
The Story of Ferdinand 
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 
East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong 
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss 
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski 
Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein 
Fahrenheit 451 
Underworld by Don Delillo 
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders 
Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass”