13 must-haves for anyone’s anthology

• Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller’s classic play about the tragic consequences of the American dream (and especially the dream of financial success).
• “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket.” Robert Lowell’s allegorical poem in which Captain Ahab plays the role of a violent America that will stop at nothing to achieve its goals.
• “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Flannery O’Connor’s story set in the South that juxtaposes grace and violent crime.
• “Howl.” Allen Ginsberg’s poem about the American counterculture—its visionary quests and mad excesses—before it officially became the counterculture of the 1960s.
• “The Swimmer.” John Cheever’s short story that documents the epic journey of a suburban American that turns out to be a kind of alcoholic delusion.
• “Daddy.” Sylvia Plath’s playful, but ultimately vociferous assault on the patriarchal tradition represented by her father and her famous husband, Ted Hughes.
• “Diving into the Wreck.” Adrienne Rich’s examination of feminine myths, the destruction they have caused in the past, and the need to revise them.
• A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams’s ferocious drama set in New Orleans that centers on the dreamy, neurotic Blanche DuBois and the hard-hitting realist Stanley Kowalski. (I included and wrote about this play, and then was told, as I remember, that Norton had the rights to the play and therefore I couldn’t include it. So, instead, I included Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.)
•  “I Have a Dream.” Martin Luther King’s stirring speech that urges all Americans to abide by their country’s foundational principles of freedom and justice for all.
• Angels in America. Tony Kushner’s controversial play dealing with AIDS and many other aspects of 1980s America.
• “Sonny’s Blues.” James Baldwin story that recounts the different ways two African-American brothers cope with racism.
• “The Things They Carried.” Tim O’Brien’s candid story about the realities of the Vietnam War.
• “Saint Marie.” Louise Erdrich’s tale of a young woman’s conflict between her Native American community and Christian obsessions.