1) Ernest Hemingway. Old Man and the Sea, In Our Time. Hemingway is arguably the most talented author in American History.2) Tobias Wolff. Bullet in the Brain. Bullet in the Brain is a truly novel piece. The story, about 10 pages long, takes place during a bank robbery. It makes numerous allusions to robberies in other stories, satirizing their use of melodrama.3) Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Jabberwock, the Hunting of the Snark. Carroll was a pioneer in the art of non-sense poetry. While the merit of such writing is very subjective, it is worth a look. 4) John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men was also made into a great film, starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. 5) George Orwell. 1984, Animal Farm. Orwell wrote relatively short works, that were not as much novels as critiques of the world around him. Animal Farm is perhaps one of the most famous instances of modern allegory, in which Orwell portrays the rise and collapse of the Soviet Union on an animal farm. 6) Jack London. White Fang, Sea Wolf. Someone already mentioned London, and they are very right. However, I would say Sea Wolf was London's best work.7) Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find.8) Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park, Sphere, Prey. Crichton is perhaps the great sci-fi writer of our time.9) Jared Diamond. Collapse, Guns Germs and Steel. Diamond is a professor at UCLA where he teaches Anthropology and Geography. 10) JD Salinger. Catcher in the Rye. I would put Catcher in the Rye higher, but it is the only work of Salinger's I am familiar with so Salinger suffers. However, it is a true masterpiece and captures the heart of adolescences.