But then we started taking a closer look at the books that made the list. We got rankled, and rightfully so. The author warned us that the list was biased, so we were expecting to see more books of a particular genre. Thrillers, maybe. Or mysteries. Or sci-fi. Or even erotica.
But the bias apparent in that list of 75 "of the greatest works of literature ever published" was of an entirely different and unexpected sort.
Of the 75 books on the list, only one was written by a woman (Flannery O'Connor).
(Although I have no proof, I'm convinced that Ms. O'Connor's appearance on the list was itself accidental. Flannery isn't a common name; perhaps Esquire's author thought Flannery O'Connor was a man. Because, with all respect to Ms. O'Connor, there are a few female authors who should have made the list in front of her, Harper Lee being the first. How can To Kill a Mockingbird not be in the top 75 greatest works of literature ever published?)
Though I don't have nearly the reach that Esquire does, I'm here to do what I can to balance the scales. Here is my anti-Esquire list, a collection of 75 other authors whose works are just as great and just as important as any named on Esquire's list. It, too, is "unranked [it's in alphabetical order], incomplete, [and] utterly biased."
75 More Great Authors Who Could Have Made Esquire's List
Isabel Allende
The House of the SpiritsCity of the Beasts
Laurie Halse Anderson
SpeakMaya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsMargaret Atwood
The Handmaid's TaleOryx & Crake
Jean Auel
The Clan of the Cave BearJane Austen
Nothanger AbbeyPride and Prejudice
Simone du Beauvoir
The Second SexJudy Blume
ForeverErma Bombeck
The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic TankCharlotte Brontë
Jane EyreEmily Brontë
Wuthering HeightsGwendolyn Brooks
Annie Allen (poetry)Pearl S. Buck
The Good EarthWilla Cather
Death Comes for the ArchbishopKate Chopin
The AwakeningAgatha Christie
Murder on the Orient ExpressAnd Then There Were None
Mary Higgins Clark
On the Street Where You LiveWhere Are the Children?
Beverly Cleary
Dear Mr. HenshawSuzanne Collins
The Hunger Games trilogyEmily Dickinson
Collected PoemsJoan Didion
DemocracyThe Year of Magical Thinking (nonfiction)
Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker CreekLiving by Fiction (nonfiction)
Lois Duncan
Killing Mr. GriffinJennifer Egan
A Visit from the Goon SquadHelen Fielding
Bridget Jones's DiaryCornelia Funke
The Inkworld trilogyNadine Gordimer
The ConservationistBurger's Daughter
Jane Hamilton
The Book of RuthLorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the SunS.E. Hinton
The OutsidersAlice Hoffman
Fortune's DaughterPractical Magic
Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching GodErica Jong
Fear of FlyingSue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of BeesBarbara Kingsolver
The Poisonwood BibleThe Bean Trees
Maxine Hong Kingston
The Woman WarriorE.L. Konigsburg
A View from SaturdayJennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
Jhumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of MaladiesAnne Lamott
Imperfect BirdsBird by Bird (nonfiction)
Harper Lee
To Kill a MockingbirdUrsula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of DarknessLois Lowry
The GiverNumber the Stars
Katherine Mansfield
Short story collectionsDaphne du Maurier
RebeccaToni Morrison
BelovedThe Bluest Eye
Song of Solomon
Alice Munro
The Love of a Good WomanIris Murdoch
The Sacred and Profane Love MachineAnaïs Nin
Henry and JuneJoyce Carol Oates
themDorothy Parker
Death and Taxes (poetry)Ann Patchett
Bel CantoKatherine Paterson
Bridge to TerabithiaThe Master Puppeteer
Sylvia Plath
The Bell JarKatherine Anne Porter
The Collected Stories of Katherine Ann PorterAnnie Proulx
The Shipping NewsAnna Quindlen
Object LessonsAyn Rand
We the LivingAnthem
Atlas Shrugged
Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso SeaAnne Rice
Interview with the VampireThe Vampire Lestat
J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter SeriesArundhati Roy
The God of Small ThingsAlice Sebold
The Lovely BonesAnne Sexton
Live or Die (poetry)Mary Shelley
FrankensteinCarol Shields
The Stone DiariesJane Smiley
A Thousand AcresBetty Smith
A Tree Grows in BrooklynMary Stewart
The Crystal CaveElizabeth Strout
Olive KitteridgeAmy Tan
The Joy Luck ClubThe Kitchen God's Wife
Anne Tyler
The Accidental TouristBreathing Lessons
Alice Walker
The Color PurpleEudora Welty
The Optimist's DaughterEdith Wharton
Ethan FromeThe House of Mirth
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. DallowayI hope that the women of the world understand that Esquire does not represent what real men are really like — especially men who read.
And I hope that Esquire's editors recognize that they are doing a disservice to their readers by providing such a limited definition of "great literature."