Critical reputation is the reputation an author enjoys among critics, that cadre of literary professionals who decide which books will be treated as serious and important when they are published, and which will be taught in our high schools, colleges, and universities as examples of American literature. An author of great critical reputation is an author whose work is widely believed to be of permanent value in changing times, an author likely to be read by future generations yet unborn. We call the process of attaining such a critical reputation “canonization,” after the process the Roman Catholic Church uses to decide whether an individual deserves public veneration and may be included in the calendar of saints.