'The Immortals'

The French and Swedish academies name their literary "immortals," so here is my list of 18 for a hypothetical American Academy. With some, I've read nothing they've written but recognize their reputations. Any writer -- novels, songs, poems, nonfiction, plays -- is eligible. According to the traditional rules, you're in till death, then a replacement is named.

• Edward Albee
• T.C. Boyle
• Don DeLillo
• Bob Dylan
• Joan Didion
• David Mamet
• Cormac McCarthy
• Larry McMurtry
• Toni Morrison
• Joyce Carol Oates
• Annie Proulx
• Thomas Pynchon
• Philip Roth
• Sam Shepard
• Stephen Sondheim
• Gore Vidal
• Garry Wills
• Tom Wolfe