In 1936 , a quarterly magazine for Word of God collectors calledThe Colophonpolled its readers to pick the ten authors whose whole kit would be considered classics in the year 2000 . Sinclair Lewis , generator of the 1935 hitIt Ca n’t come about Here , was a born pick for the top spot . Just five years earlier Sinclair had been the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature . But some of the authors are belike forgotten names to even the most fiery reader here in the year 2012 :
Sinclair Lewis
Willa Cather
Eugene O’Neill
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Robert Frost
Theodore Dreiser
James Truslow Adams
George Santayana
Stephen Vincent Benet
James Branch Cabell
The editors at the magazine supplemented the put out list with their own ideas of who might still be show in the yr 2000 . Their inclination included source like Thomas Wolfe , H.L. Mencken , Ernest Hemingway and Hervey Allen .
How do you think these reader of the 1930s did with their prediction ? Who would you put on a listing of authors read today who will still be learn into the year 2080 and beyond ? What do you think the futurity hold back for the record book , a sort of technology that ’s convey harder and harder to define as it becomes less popular as a physical object and more often a collection of Son that lodge in in our devices ?
This post originally appear atSmithsonian.com .
Photo of Eugene O’Neill in 1936 via Associated Press
1930s
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