Utne Reader, The Loose Canon: 150 Great Works to Set Your Imagination on Fire [1998]
110 entries: 96 monographical, 14 otherwise
Unranked—arranged topically
Jay Walljasper and Jon Spayde, if not others, at the Utne Reader magazine devised The Loose Canon: 150 Great Works to Set Your Imagination on Fire [1998]. The current version available at the magazine's site is truncated; a link to an Internet Archive version is provided instead. Like Kanigel's Vintage Reading or Dirda's Classics for Pleasure, the project seems driven by a goal of offering an addendum to "great books" lists and other canons. Each two works in the list form a pair whose linkage is often, but not always, obvious.
This list is one of only two documented at Greater Books to include music, film, and opera/ musical theatre works. These items are included but not numbered; nor are they included in the master list. The other is Jane Mallison's ("Smart").
- The Book of Isaiah
part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
--
- Zohar
ca. Second-Thirteenth centuries—Aramaic
- Lǎozǐ (Lao-tzu) (Laocius)
Dàodéjǐng
Tao te Ching
ca. Sixth Century B C—Chinese
- Zhuāngzī (Zhuāng Zhōu) (Chuang-tzu)
Zhuāngzī
Nánhuá Zhēnjīng
ca. Third Century B C—Chinese
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Hesiod
Erga kai Hēmerai
Works and Days
ca. Eighth-Seventh centuries B C—Greek
- Vyasa
Mahabharata
includes Bhagavad Gita; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth Century—Sanskrit
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
1973; revised 1981—Marathi
- Marcus Aurelius
Ta Eis Heauton
Meditations
written 161-80—Greek
- Apuleius
Metamorphoseon
Asinus Aureus; The Golden Ass
Second Century—Latin
- Hildegarde of Bingen
Scivias
ca. 1151-52—Latin
- Elaine Pagels
The Gnostic Gospels
1979—English
- Rumi
Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
written ca. 1250—Persian
- Margaret Smith
Rabi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam. Being the Life and Teachings of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra, Sufi Saint, ca. A H 99-185, A D 717-801
1928—English
- François Rabelais
La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel
originally published in five volumes: Les Horribles et Épouvantables Faits et Prouesses du Très Renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, Fils du Grand Géant Gargantua, 1532; La Vie Très Horrifique du Grand Gargantua, Père de Pantagruel, 1534; Le Tiers Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1546; Le Quart Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1552; Le Cinquiesme et Dernier Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1564—French
- Wú Chéng-ēn (Ruzhong)
Xi Yóu Jì
Journey to the West; Monkey
late Sixteenth Century—Chinese
- William Shakespeare
Coriolanus
written ca. 1605-08—English
Kurosawa Akira
The Seven Samurai
film; 1954—Japanese
Johann Sebastian Bach
Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello
composed ca. 1717-23
Arvo Pärt
Te Deum
1985
Essays from the Rambler and the Idler
unspecified essays originally published in the Rambler, 1750-2; the Idler, 1758-60; the Utne Reader also specifies essays from the Adventurer, 1753-4—English
Journey's Echo: Selected From Freya Stark
1963
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte; originaly performed 1787
Alban Berg
Wozzeck
based in part on Georg Büchner's play, Woyzeck; libretto by Berg; composed 1914-1922; originally performed 1925
- William Blake
The Book of Urizen
originally entitled The First Book of Urizen, published 1794—English
Illuminated Poems
1996; poems previously published plus two new poems; illustrations by Eric Drooker—English
- Jane Austen
Persuasion
originally anonymously published 1817—English
- Murasaki Shikibu
Genji Monogatari
The Tale of Genji
ca. early Eleventh Century—Japanese
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor
composed 1822-4
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 4
composed 1899-1900
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854—English
- Mary Oliver
New and Selected Poems
1992; selections from No Voyage, and Other Poems, 1963, expanded 1965; The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems, 1972; The Night Traveler, 1978; Twelve Moons, 1979; American Primitive, 1983; Dream Work, 1986; House of Light, 1990; plus a section entitled New Poems (1991-1992)—English
'Song of Myself'
part of Leaves of Grass; complete work originally published 1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English
A Muriel Rukeyser Reader
1994; edited by Jan Heller Levi—English
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian
- Alexander Herzen
Byloe i Dumy
My Past and Thoughts
published in part serially 1855-9, 1861-2, and 1869 in Poliarnaia Zvezda (Pole Star); and 1857-67 in Kolokol—Russian
The Gandhi Reader: A Source Book of His Life and Writings
1956; edited by Homer A Jack
- Paulo Freire and Myles Horton
We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
1990—English
--
- The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information
eleventh edition; published in 29 volumes, 1910-1—English
- Bill Bryson
Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States
1994—English
- Marcel Proust
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27—French
- E M Forster
Howards End
1910—English
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Duineser Elegien
The Duino Elegies
1923—German
Poems
Eighth Century—Chinese
- Antonio Gramsci
Quaderni del Carcere
Prison Notebooks
written 1929-35—Italian
Shadows of Tender Fury: The Letters and Communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
1995—Spanish
Leo McCarey
Duck Soup
starring Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo Marx; film; 1933
Stanley Kubrick
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
film; 1964
Robert Johnson
The Complete Recordings
music album; 1990; recorded 1936-7
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
'The Message'
music composition; 1982
- Pablo Neruda
Canto General
1950; English translation of 'Alturas de Machu Picchu', the second canto, published 1948 in the Tiger's Eye and 1950 in Let the Rail Splitter Awake and Other Poems—Spanish
- Clarice Lispector
A Hora da Estrela
1977—Portuguese
Duke Ellington
'In a Mellotone'
'In a Mellow Tone'
music composition; lyric by Milt Gabler; based in part on 'Rose Room' by Art Hickman; 1939
John Coltrane
A Love Supreme
music album; 1965
Billie Holiday
Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years
music album; 1991
Amalia Rodrigues
Monitor Presents Portugal's Great Amalia Rodrigues
music album; recorded 1956
Hank Williams
40 Greatest Hits
music album; 1978
Johnny Cash
The Sun Years
music album; 1990
- James Agee
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
1941; photography by Walker Evans—English
- John Berger
Pig Earth
1979—English
Orson Welles
Citizen Kane
film; 1941
Robert Altman
Nashville
film; 1975
United States: Essays 1952-1992
essays previously published—English
- Howard Zinn
A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present
1980; expanded and revised through fifth edition, 2005—English
Howlin' Wolf
His Best
music album; 1997
Los Lobos
Just Another Band From East L A
music album; 1993
- Simone Beauvoir
Le Deuxième Sexe
The Second Sex
published in part serially in Les Temps Modernes; in its entirety in two volumes, 1949—French
- Mary Daly
Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
1978—English
- Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
1952—English
Nathaniel Mackey
- Bedouin Hornbook
1986—English
- Djbot Baghostus's Run
1993—English
Collected Essays
1998; includes Notes of a Native Son, 1955 [originally published 1949-53 in varied periodicals: Zero, Partisan Review, Commentary, the New Leader, Harper's, and the Reporter]; Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son, 1961 [originally published 1956-61 in varied periodicals: the New York Times, Encounter, Esquire, Harper's, Partisan Review, and the New Leader; plus two edited 1960 lectures; and part of an essay previously unpublished]; The Fire Next Time [1963]; No Name in the Street [1972]; The Devil Finds Work [1976]; plus a section entitled Other Essays: 36 essays previously published, 11 of which previously uncollected in book form (and including Baldwin's portion of the collaborative book with photographer Richard Avedon, entitled Nothing Personal, 1974)—English
- The Fire Next Time
originally published Dec. 1962 as 'Letter From a Region in My Mind', in the Progressive; and Nov. 1963 as 'Down at the Cross', in the New Yorker—English
- No Name in the Street
1972—English
- The Devil Finds Work
1976—English
- Cornel West
Race Matters
1994—English
Satyajit Ray
The Apu Trilogy
three films: Pather Panchali, 1955; Aparajito, 1956; Apur Sansar, 1959
Abbas Kiarostami
Where Is My Friend's Home?
film; 1995
Naguib Mahfouz
- Bein el-Qasrein
Palace Walk
1956—Arabic
- Qasr el-Shoaq
Palace of Desire
1957—Arabic
- El-Sukkareyya
Sugar Street
1957—Arabic
Pramoedya Ananta Toer
- Bumi Manusia
This Earth of Mankind
1980—Malay
- Anak Semua Bangsa
Child of All Nations
1980—Malay
- Jejak Langkah
Footsteps
1985—Malay
- Rumah Kaca
House of Glass
1988—Malay
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
The Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Verve
music album; 1997
Louis Armstrong
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 1923-1934
music album; 1994
- Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
1958—English
- Edward Said
Culture and Imperialism
1993—English
- Jane Jacobs
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
1961—English
- Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikama, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, and Shlomo Angel
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
1977—English
Francois Truffaut
Jules et Jim
film; 1961
Jean-Luc Godard
2 ou 3 Choses que Je Sais d'Elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her)
film; 1967
- Rachel Carson
Silent Spring
originally published Jun. 1962 in the New Yorker—English
- Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
What Is Life?
1995—English
Thelonious Monk
Monk's Dream
music album; 1962
Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
music album; 1959
- Thomas S Kuhn
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
1962; expanded 1970—English
- James Gleick
Chaos: Making a New Science
1987—English
- Kenneth Rexroth
An Autobiographical Novel
1965—English
New American Splendor Anthology
1991—English
Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited
music album; 1965
Iris Dement
The Way I Should
music album; 1996
- Gabriel García Márquez
Cien Anõs de Soledad
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967—Spanish
- Tony Kushner
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
originally presented in two parts: Millennium Approaches, 1990; and Perestroika, 1992—English
Aretha Franklin
Queen of Soul: The Very Best of Aretha Franklin
music album; 1994
Marion Williams
Surely God Is Able
music album; 1989
- Michael Murphy
Golf in the Kingdom
1972—English
Steve James, Fred Marx, and Peter Gilbert
Hoop Dreams
film; 1994
- E F Schumacher
Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered
1973—English
- Ivan Illich
Tools for Conviviality
1973—English
- Ursula K Le Guin
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
1974—English
- Starhawk
The Fifth Sacred Thing
1993—English
Federico Fellini
Amarcord
film; 1974
Edgar Reitz
Heimatz
film series; 1984
Bob Marley
Songs of Freedom
music album; 1992
I K Dairo and His Bluespots
Juju Master
1990; recorded 1960's; music album
- Leslie Marmon Silko
Ceremony
1977—English
- John G Neihardt
Black Elk Speaks
1932—English
- Anaïs Nin
Delta of Venus
1977—English
- Margot Anand
The Art of Sexual Ecstasy
1989—English
The Clash
London Calling
music album; 1979
The Pogues
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
music album; 1988
- Dario Fo
Morte Accidentale di un Anarchico
1970—Italian
- Caryl Churchill
Cloud Nine
1979—English
Poems
1982—Italian
- Miyazawa Kenji
Haru to Shura
Spring and Asura
1924—Japanese
- Riane Eisler
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future
1987—English
- Susan Griffin
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her
1978—English
- Toni Morrison
Beloved
1987—English
- Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on a Road
1942—English
- August Wilson
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
1984—English
- Anna Deavere Smith
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
1994—English
- Jamaica Kincaid
A Small Place
1988—English
- Gloria Anzaldua
Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza
1987—English; Spanish
- Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
1988—English
Rick Goldsmith
Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press
film; 1996
- Charlotte Joko Beck
Everyday Zen: Love and Work
1989—English
- Sogyal Rinpoche
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
1992—English
Matt Groening et al.
The Simpsons
Television program; 1989-present
Ernie Kovacs
Unspecified selections of several television programs
1951-1962
- Viana La Place
Verdura: Vegetables Italian Style
1991—English
- Erich Schiffmann
Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness
1996—English
- Julia Cameron
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
1992—English
- Brenda Ueland
If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit
1938—English
- Dorothy Allison
Bastard Out of Carolina
1992—English
- Sharon Olds
The Dead and the Living
1983—English
- James Hillman and Michael Ventura
We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy - And the World's Getting Worse
1992—English
- Alice Miller
Das Drama des Begabten Kindes
The Drama of the Gifted Child
1979—German
- Rupert Sheldrake
Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science
1995—English
Wim Wenders
Der Himmel Über Berlin
Wings of Desire
film; 1987
Cesária Évora
Cesária
music album; 1995
Umm Kulthum
'Al-Atlal'
song; 1966
- David Abram
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
1996—English
- Fritjof Capra
The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems
1996—English
- Paul Hawken
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
1993—English