Donald Barthelme was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus Highlights 81 Books Essential for a Literary Education
1. Hunger by Knut Hamsun
2. The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters by Gustave Flaubert
3. Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton
4. Nadja by André Breton
5. Journey to the End of The Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
6. Seven Gothic Tales by Karen Blixen
7. At Swim Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien
8. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
9. The Box Man by Kobo Abé
10. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
11. A Homemade World by Hugh Kenner
12. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
13. Other Inquisitions by Jorge Luis Borges
14. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutola
15. For a New Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet
16. The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
17. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
18. I’m Not Stiller by Max Frisch
19. Gimpel the Fool by Isaac B Singer
20. Mythologies by Roland Barthes
21. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
22. Advertisements for Myself by Norman Mailer
23. Henderson The Rain King by Saul Bellow
24. Little Disturbances by Grace Paley
25. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
26. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
27. The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C Booth
28. Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen
29. The Lime Twig by John Hawkes
30. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
31. The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
32. Thank You and Other Poems by Kenneth Koch
33. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
34. V by Thomas Pynchon
35. Gogol’s Wife by Tommaso Landolfi
36. Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag
37. Rivers and Mountains by John Ashbery
38. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
39. The Pure and the Impure by Colette
40. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
41. Kaspar and Other Plays by Peter Handke
42. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William H. Gass
43. Nog by Rudy Wurlitzer
44. Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet
45. Fiction and the Figures of Life by William H. Gass
46. Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara by Frank O’Hara
47. The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor
48. Collected Stories of Peter Taylor by Peter Taylor
49. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
50. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke
51. Chimera by John Barth
52. Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
53. Documents of Modern Art by Robert Motherwell
54. The New Fiction by Joe David Bellamy
55. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
56. The Pleasure of the Text by Roland Barthes
57. Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler
58. Superfiction by Joe David Bellamy
59. Pushcart Prize Anthology by Pushcart Prize
60. Will You Please be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
61. The Oranging of America by Max Apple
62. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
63. The Coup by John Updike
64. Tragic Magic by Wesley Brown
65. The World Within the Word by William H. Gass
66. The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
67. I, etcetera by Susan Sontag
68. The Changeling by Joy Williams
69. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
70. Correction by Thomas Bernhard
71. Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch
72. Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
73. Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips
74. The Writer on Her Work by Janet Sternburg
75. Falling in Place by Ann Beattie
76. Blood Oranges by John Hawkes
77. How We Live by Rust Hills
78. The Paris Review Interviews by Paris Review
1. Hunger by Knut Hamsun
2. The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters by Gustave Flaubert
3. Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton
4. Nadja by André Breton
5. Journey to the End of The Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
6. Seven Gothic Tales by Karen Blixen
7. At Swim Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien
8. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
9. The Box Man by Kobo Abé
10. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
11. A Homemade World by Hugh Kenner
12. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
13. Other Inquisitions by Jorge Luis Borges
14. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutola
15. For a New Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet
16. The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
17. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
18. I’m Not Stiller by Max Frisch
19. Gimpel the Fool by Isaac B Singer
20. Mythologies by Roland Barthes
21. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
22. Advertisements for Myself by Norman Mailer
23. Henderson The Rain King by Saul Bellow
24. Little Disturbances by Grace Paley
25. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
26. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
27. The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C Booth
28. Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen
29. The Lime Twig by John Hawkes
30. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
31. The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
32. Thank You and Other Poems by Kenneth Koch
33. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
34. V by Thomas Pynchon
35. Gogol’s Wife by Tommaso Landolfi
36. Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag
37. Rivers and Mountains by John Ashbery
38. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
39. The Pure and the Impure by Colette
40. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
41. Kaspar and Other Plays by Peter Handke
42. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William H. Gass
43. Nog by Rudy Wurlitzer
44. Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet
45. Fiction and the Figures of Life by William H. Gass
46. Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara by Frank O’Hara
47. The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor
48. Collected Stories of Peter Taylor by Peter Taylor
49. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
50. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke
51. Chimera by John Barth
52. Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
53. Documents of Modern Art by Robert Motherwell
54. The New Fiction by Joe David Bellamy
55. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
56. The Pleasure of the Text by Roland Barthes
57. Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler
58. Superfiction by Joe David Bellamy
59. Pushcart Prize Anthology by Pushcart Prize
60. Will You Please be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
61. The Oranging of America by Max Apple
62. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
63. The Coup by John Updike
64. Tragic Magic by Wesley Brown
65. The World Within the Word by William H. Gass
66. The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
67. I, etcetera by Susan Sontag
68. The Changeling by Joy Williams
69. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
70. Correction by Thomas Bernhard
71. Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch
72. Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
73. Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips
74. The Writer on Her Work by Janet Sternburg
75. Falling in Place by Ann Beattie
76. Blood Oranges by John Hawkes
77. How We Live by Rust Hills
78. The Paris Review Interviews by Paris Review