Greatest American writers of All Time

Who should join novelist Toni Morrison on the list of Great American Novelists? Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

A few weeks ago, Matthew Spencer, better known to us on the books site as tenuousfives, told us about his new project/literary tournament he'd devised, and invited us all to join in. :

I loved Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and after reading all the stuff about Gatsby and Tender is the Night (and Hemingway), I found myself pondering the fabled "Great American Novel". Then I thought I'd like to find The Greatest American Exponent of Great American Novels. So, in a Euro Champs style format, I wanted to pit authors against each other a book at a time in a knockout format to see what comes out best. For best, read "my favourite". A couple of days of frantic research later and I find myself with too many writers. I am asking for help to whittle down or point out glaring omissions (please, God, no) for my reading adventure. The definition of Great American Novel- GAN from now on- is going to be fairly loose but essentially I wanted it to be a novel- not short story- written by an American during the last 100 years- 1912-2012- that portrays American life, attitudes, history- allegorically or otherwise. They also have to have 4 novels to put up to the competition, one for each round.

After a great response on the Tips, Links and Suggestions thread, we offered Matthew his own space on the books site and I will now hand-over to him. Let the best GAN win!