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Whadaya think?
Are these the right ones? How many have you read? I wish they had either said "most famous classic" or most famous fiction or most famous recent book or something. I find myself arguing with several. Is it most famous according to GR? Most famous according to number of copies sold? Zeitgeist?
Cause I think probably more people have read My Friend Flicka than The Laramie Project, just as an example (and with no implication of quality or lack thereof).

Maybe because it doesn't all take place in Wisconsin, but I would be tempted to say Neil Gaiman's American Gods might be the most famous.

I agree that better definition of what famous means regarding these selections is needed. Many if not all strike me as lazy choices or ones that came about as a result of a badly constructed Web Search.

The large populations states not already mentioned (i.e. Ohio) surely have more famous work than those listed. New York, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida all have to have other books brought in to consideration.

New York as an example with all the works set there to be represented by Great Gatsby is somewhat laughable. And I'm a Gatsby Fan! Be it best selling or popular, academically important or some other criteria, there have to be other works from, in, about, related to New York.

Another sloppy or otherwise prejudiced choice is easily Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This is Massachusetts folks. Home of Boston and the heart of Revolutionary America. Walden? No. I'd even advance something as simple as Johnny Tremain as a better contender.

Wyoming and the Laramie Project? This is obviously something caught in a search filter and the list compiler forgot Annie Proulx and Brokeback Mountain.

Hawaii and Michener is just sad and too easy.

California and East of Eden is an odd choice unless there is some very strange criteria at play. Steinbeck wrote other works that we know are more famous in many ways including The Grapes of Wrath which could double for Oklahoma.

Alaska and Krakauer's book is another exercise in shooting fish in a barrel both as a selection and a target. It's not a can't miss, it was a simple and probably really bad choice. By the way shooting fish in a barrel is bad idea.

There are many problematic and just weird choices with the range of American literature.

I'll end with my state of residence, Illinois. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is eclectic. Now of course there is no real attempt made in the Business Insider to separate fiction and non-fiction so such a selection would be workable, but if you want famous and widely read, there is Devil in the White City. If you want fine literature by one of the great Illinois writers and how much more 'Illinois' from the open lines can you get than The Adventures of Augie March. O.K. the later may not be super famous, but it is one of the literary touchstones of the mid 20th Century and the author won that little old literary prize, The Nobel.

I could easily comment on better selection for probably 30 of the 50 states. But for now I'll leave some fun for others!

This list is a pile of poo.
No methodology, just a list some writer or editor cobbled together.

Pat wrote: "This list is a pile of poo.
No methodology, just a list some writer or editor cobbled together."

Two thumbs up, a +, yes I'd agree.

I love that Maine is stuck with Carrie.

Iowa gets A Thousand Acres, which is fine by me.

"The 19th Wife" for Utah.

Yawn. Stereotype, much?