Will Today's Literature Be Relevant in 2080?

Smithsonian Magazine recently unearthed a magazine from 1936 that asked readers to name the ten authors whose work would be considered classics in 2000.

Enlarge image

Credit Shutterhacks / Flikr

Boston Public Radio looks at today’s literature. Will it be relevant in 2080?

The results of the magazine's 1936 poll:

1. Sinclair Lewis
2. Willa Cather
3. Eugene O'Neill
4. Edna St. vincent Millay
5. Robert Frost
6. Theodore Dreiser
7. James Truslow Adams
8. George Santayana
9. Stephen Vincent Benet
10. James Branch Cabell

Suffolk University English professor Thomas Connolly and Harvard Extension School associate dean Sue Weaver Schopf  joined Boston Public Radio to talk about today's literature and popular fiction, which books might endure, and what will still be relevant in the future. On their list:

1. Toni Morrisson
2. JK Rowling
3. Phillip Roth
4. Seamus Heaney
5. Edward Albee

What would you add to the list? Which contemporary books will be relevant in 50, 60, 80 years? Leave a comment here, or weigh in on our Facebook page.