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 About Our Selections  Pick the best books of the century? No, wait, that's been done already.* Let's make it harder. Let's look at the century more slowly, year by year, and pick the significant book published in each year. Let's not limit ourselves to mainstream literature -- let's make sure children's books, mysteries, science fiction, and nonfiction are included. Let's pick the most significant music for each year, too, for full flavor. An exercise like this creates wonderfully hard choices. Take, for example, 1925, when the new books included Thomas Mann's DEATH IN VENICE, Theodore Dreiser's AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, Virginia Woolf's MRS. DALLOWAY, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. Or, for a choice between oranges and apples, take 1957, and choose between Dr. Seuss's THE CAT IN THE HAT or Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD. Singling out one significant musical work of a particular year is just as daunting as selecting a book. How can one choose between music by Aaron Copland, Miles Davis, or the Beatles? It's impossible, of course, so we've tried to select a broad range of genres and styles that conveys the seemingly infinite variety of 20th-century music. We hope you enjoy our celebration of the century, year by year. * Best-of-the-century lists have been compiled by the editorial board of the Modern Library, by 100 students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course, by a reader survey conducted by the British bookseller Waterstone's, and, doubtless, many more. |
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