1,001 Stories: America by the Novels
Hometown summers, lost outposts, and the soul food you can’t forget
I’ve discovered the ultimate summer book club.
It’s a “map” of 1,001 novels chosen by a reincarnated Scheherazade, Susan Straight. Straight has made a list of spellbinders— I’ve never seen anything like it.
A map of 1,001 novels that deliver the real America
Straight is a writer and creative writing teacher from Riverside, CA.
But that doesn’t explain her genius in this project. Straight has the best taste in a “good read” of anyone I’ve ever met.
Her taste for finding a book that speaks to exactly the vibe of the place you grew up, where you fell in love, and nearly died — it’s unerring.
“This may seem unbelievable, but in the course of creating this map, I filled my house with 1,001 books.
“Some are from the 19th century, with cloth bindings; some were published last month.
“I worked with the mapping company Esri to find specific geographic locations for each book, each idea of place contained in fiction, because American literature is a celebration of literary regions: city neighborhoods, rural parishes, small towns, ranches and boroughs, riverbanks and desert vistas, night bayous and frozen tundra, asphalt playgrounds and deep woods.”
As Susan wrote me, “Best way to love books is to love place, right? I love hearing that you knew all these places, Susie - and we both love to know them, via fiction.”
I’ve lived all over North America myself. I grew up with a mom who was always on the hunt for an escape route. We moved dozens of times. I envied people who had “hometowns,” friends they knew forever, landscapes they knew blindfolded.
When I was 17, I took my dad’s old Army trunk and hit the Greyhound cross-country bus to move from California to Detroit, and then again to Kentucky. People were always asking me, “But what are you doing HERE?” I drove cross-country again and again. I realized as an adult, it was a gift to have lived on so many streets. I had a feel for hundreds of characters, the way they talked, the candy in their pockets.
When I first tried Straight’s map to look up a couple towns where I once resided, I went, “Holy shit, I thought I was the only one who knew that title1.”
Straight picked classics that never lost their sting, yes. She also found dozens and dozens of stories that I think will take you by surprise. I sure was.
SEARCHABLE PDF
Search by a State, Town Name, or Year Written. Perfect, if you’re like me and want to look up every burg that ever got under your skin.
SEARCH BY REGION
Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, & Rhode Island
D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania
Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, & Nebraska
Read the L.A. Times Story where I first found the project — touch the interactive map to find a book anywhere!
More about Susan Straight and how she did this
(I’m looking at you, Myriam Gurba, Dahlia Season, Long Beach, CA).
It looks like someone needs to write the book on wild-womyn photography weekends and crazy hippies in the woods of southern Oregon.
I need 3 days in a cabin in the woods, no distractions, just to play with this map!