The books that have shaped American life

Which books have profoundly shaped American life?

A new exhibit at the Library of Congress compiles 65 of the most influential books by American authors — book that have both formed and informed the public consciousness over the country's history.

The list, which was put together with input from curators and the general public, ranges from children's books (Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree") to founding documents ("The Federalist" papers). It touches on topics from feminism (Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique") to battling alcoholism (Alcoholic Anonymous' foundational text).

It's an update of a similar list the Library of Congress complied in 2012: The "Books that Shaped America" list included 88 titles, all chosen by curators.

And it's by no means comprehensive: This recent list is a random sampling from the public, which voted on and suggested books via the internet. There's no other way to explain three books by Ayn Rand — or the fact that only two of the 65 books were written by authors who aren't white.

The new list, the library notes, is not intended to be a definitive ruling on the best in literature, nor does it fully reflect "the diversity of our nation and the books it produces."

Rather, the list was created to spark conversation: What books have contributed to American culture, and why?

Exhibition director Carroll Johnson said it's easy to find examples of these books and their enduring cultural influence: "The Crucible" and "The Color Purple," both of which are on the list, are also both still on Broadway, decades after being written. Many of the other titles appear on high school and college syllabi.

The entire list is below. A few things of note:

The oldest book on the list is Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," from 1776. The newest is Tim O'Brien's autobiographical novel on the Vietnam War, "The Things They Carried," which was published in 1990.

The 1700s only contribute two titles to the list; the 1800s have ten — and the 1900s have 43. Nothing from the current millennium made the cut.

Eighteen of the books on the list were written by women, the oldest of which is Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," from 1852.

Numerous authors have two entries on the list, but the three-timers club is small: Only Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck pulled off hat tricks.

Fiction wins the day: More than 40 of the 65 books are novels or plays.

There's very little love for poetry: Only Walt Whitman's collection "Leaves of Grass" — and Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" make an appearance.

Sci-fi and fantasy left their mark on America: More than 20 percent of the fiction titles toy with reality, from L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow."

"America Reads": The most influential books by American authors

• "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

• "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

• "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• "The Book of Mormon" by Joseph Smith

• "My Ántonia" by Willa Cather

• "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" by Alex Haley

• "Anthem" by Ayn Rand

• "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

• "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

• "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

• "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

• "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

• "All the President's Men" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

• "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller

• "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

• "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

• "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey

• "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson

• "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

• "Profiles in Courage" by John F. Kennedy

• "The Stand" by Stephen King

• "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry

• "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume

• "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn

• "The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757" by James Fenimore Cooper

• "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein

• "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls

• "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle

• "Dune" by Frank Herbert

• "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon

• "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child

• "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

• "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

• "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman

• "Free to Choose: A Personal Statement" by Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman

• "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill

• "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

• "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren

• "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" Robert M. Pirsig

• "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

• "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

• "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine

• "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly" by Harriet Beecher Stowe

• "A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution" from The Federalist

• "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair

• "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

• "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

• "The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism" from Alcoholics Anonymous

• "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

• "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

• "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

• "The Cat in the Hat" by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

• "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

• "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau

• "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac

• "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan

• "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum

• "Moby-Dick; or, the Whale" by Herman Melville

• "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

• "Catch-22"by Joseph Heller

• "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman

• "Baby and Child Care" by Benjamin Spock