Just my two cents- I am going to go against the grain and suggest that Hawthorne should be recognized for his short story collections "Twice-Told Tales" and "Mosses from an Old Manse" as opposed to "Scarlet Letter."  In my humble opinion, he was a stronger short story writer than novelist, and his tales are more representative of "olde New England" tales, indigenous folklore, and the macabre. Perhaps Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" is worthy of inclusion. I would have chosen "The Last Fish Tale: the fate of the Atlantic and survival in Gloucester, America's oldest fishing port and most original town" for Kurlansky instead of "Cod"; because the former is entirely about New England , while the latter only tangentially concerns it. Samuel Eliot Morison should have been recognized for " Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783 - 1860."  Along those lines, I am shocked that Edward Rowe Snow - the first serious maritime historian - was not recognized somewhere on this list for his many contributions to the subject. 19th century Massachusetts resident William H. Prescott's "History of the Conquest of Mexico" is one of the most well-written, thorough and exciting histories I have ever come across, even if it is not 100% accurate. I am assuming that poetry was a disqualifier for this list; if it was not, Longfellow, Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Frost, and Robert Lowell need to be listed.  Longfellow in particular is of prime importance, as he was somehow the most popular poet of the 19th century in BRITAIN - more so than Tennyson, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Browning, Rossetti, or whom you will.  That's no small achievement. Emerson's "American Scholar" and "Nature" should have been mentioned, at least. Not to be too arcane, but some distant figures in New England history were tremendous authors: Cotton Mather , William Bradford, among others.   Where's Linda Greenlaw? How about Hartford-based lexicographer Noah Webster - he of dictionary fame?  That's a fairly important work, if not overly exciting to read from beginning to end. John and Abigail's letters to each other?  They don't have the merit of Dan Brown?  Come on now.   A collection of Daniel Webster's oratory/court arguments has greater value that much on the list.  Here's a sampling from his "Second Reply to Hayne" regarding the possibility of seccession: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic... not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union afterwards"; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,— Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!" It would be nice to see more local historians: perhaps William Fowler, Joseph Ellis, Gordon S. Wood, Robert Albion, Ben Labaree, or Joseph Garland (esp. his account of Gloucester legend Howard Blackburn). Owen Chase's 1821 account "The Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex," while not a literary masterpiece, tells a horrifying tale regarding one of the worst shipwrecks of the 19th century, and was, in large part, the inspiration for Moby-Dick. "Mastering Boston Harbor: courts, dolphins, and imperiled waters" by Charles Haar is a superb account of how "activist" courts forced the clean-up of Boston Harbor, as told from the perspective of the Special Master in the case (Haar). I agree with an earlier commenter regarding including African-American authors who actually lived here, as opposed to those who just have a college stint.  Certainly Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the criminally underappreciated autobiography (and subsequent biographies) of Paul Cuffe are worthy of mention. As for Henry Adams, I think his novel "Democracy" is superior to "The Education of Henry Adams." I grew increasingly afraid as I read the list that Pulitzer-winner John Marquand would be forgotten by the Globe, much as he has by the rest of the world.  I am very pleased to see that George Apley made the list - one of the most pointed social commentaries on Boston occur when the narrator's father decamps the family from the South End to the (newly built) Back Bay after, to his "thunderation," sees a man on the street in his shirt-sleeves.  Priceless.
Posted by sosler

Just my two cents- I am going to go against the grain and suggest that Hawthorne should be recognized for his short story collections "Twice-Told Tales" and "Mosses from an Old Manse" as opposed to "Scarlet Letter."  In my humble opinion, he was a stronger short story writer than novelist, and his tales are more representative of "olde New England" tales, indigenous folklore, and the macabre. Perhaps Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" is worthy of inclusion. I would have chosen "The Last Fish Tale: the fate of the Atlantic and survival in Gloucester, America's oldest fishing port and most original town" for Kurlansky instead of "Cod"; because the former is entirely about New England , while the latter only tangentially concerns it. Samuel Eliot Morison should have been recognized for " Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783 - 1860."  Along those lines, I am shocked that Edward Rowe Snow - the first serious maritime historian - was not recognized somewhere on this list for his many contributions to the subject. 19th century Massachusetts resident William H. Prescott's "History of the Conquest of Mexico" is one of the most well-written, thorough and exciting histories I have ever come across, even if it is not 100% accurate. I am assuming that poetry was a disqualifier for this list; if it was not, Longfellow, Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Frost, and Robert Lowell need to be listed.  Longfellow in particular is of prime importance, as he was somehow the most popular poet of the 19th century in BRITAIN - more so than Tennyson, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Browning, Rossetti, or whom you will.  That's no small achievement. Emerson's "American Scholar" and "Nature" should have been mentioned, at least. Not to be too arcane, but some distant figures in New England history were tremendous authors: Cotton Mather , William Bradford, among others.   Where's Linda Greenlaw? How about Hartford-based lexicographer Noah Webster - he of dictionary fame?  That's a fairly important work, if not overly exciting to read from beginning to end. John and Abigail's letters to each other?  They don't have the merit of Dan Brown?  Come on now.   A collection of Daniel Webster's oratory/court arguments has greater value that much on the list.  Here's a sampling from his "Second Reply to Hayne" regarding the possibility of seccession: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic... not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union afterwards"; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,— Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!" It would be nice to see more local historians: perhaps William Fowler, Joseph Ellis, Gordon S. Wood, Robert Albion, Ben Labaree, or Joseph Garland (esp. his account of Gloucester legend Howard Blackburn). Owen Chase's 1821 account "The Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex," while not a literary masterpiece, tells a horrifying tale regarding one of the worst shipwrecks of the 19th century, and was, in large part, the inspiration for Moby-Dick. "Mastering Boston Harbor: courts, dolphins, and imperiled waters" by Charles Haar is a superb account of how "activist" courts forced the clean-up of Boston Harbor, as told from the perspective of the Special Master in the case (Haar). I agree with an earlier commenter regarding including African-American authors who actually lived here, as opposed to those who just have a college stint.  Certainly Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the criminally underappreciated autobiography (and subsequent biographies) of Paul Cuffe are worthy of mention. As for Henry Adams, I think his novel "Democracy" is superior to "The Education of Henry Adams." I grew increasingly afraid as I read the list that Pulitzer-winner John Marquand would be forgotten by the Globe, much as he has by the rest of the world.  I am very pleased to see that George Apley made the list - one of the most pointed social commentaries on Boston occur when the narrator's father decamps the family from the South End to the (newly built) Back Bay after, to his "thunderation," sees a man on the street in his shirt-sleeves.  Priceless.
Posted by sosler

Definitely William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.  And the Letters of Abigail and John Adams....can't remember the title of the collection.  And anything by Cotton Mather.  And Jonathan Edwards' sermons . . . Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.  And Robert Frost's poems, and Emily Dickinson's; and Robert Lowell and e.e. cummings. The House of Seven Gables is a much better novel than the Scarlet Letter, for my money.  No need to get into things written by New Englanders who just happen to have settled in here, about other places.  If you must do that, don't forget that Twain ended up in Hartford, and add in Huck Finn. 
Posted by 2deanna

Sigh. These top-whatever lists are designed to irritate, aren't they? Basically a round-up of whoever the Globe writers happen to be familiar with: always a limited group. Many issues, but here's just one: how about some books by writers of color who actually live (or lived) in New England, instead of Famous Black Writers I've Heard Of Who Went To School Here For A Year? So, for instance, the great Frederick Douglass, David Walker, Harriet Jacobs or, coming to the present, Henry Louis Gates, Stephen Carter (Emperor of Ocean Park), Kim McLarin (Jump At The Sun) ......
Posted by readergirl23