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American Literature — page 30
3,373 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 30 of 71.
The Postmaster
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
A retired sea captain trades the salt spray of the Atlantic for the quiet life of a rural postmaster, only to find that small-town commerce and local politics are far more treacherous than the open ocean.
The Rangers
Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce) Thompson
The American Revolution plays out in the rugged heart of Vermont, where loyalties are tested by fire and the fight for independence transforms neighbors into bitter enemies.
The White Old Maid (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A haunting pact made over a corpse binds two women to a lifetime of silence, culminating in a spectral reunion decades later.
West Lawn, and The rector of St. Mark's
Mary Jane Holmes
A woman’s diary becomes the map of her heart as she navigates the quiet, stifling expectations of 19th-century domestic life. Through tangled engagements and hidden histories, the truth finally comes to light.
A Tramp Abroad
Mark Twain
A wanderer’s grand expectations for a continental walking tour collide with the absurdities of travel, resulting in a journey less about the destination and more about the hilarious friction of being a stranger in a strange land.
A Traveler from Altruria: Romance
William Dean Howells
A visitor from a distant land arrives in America, his gentle innocence serving as a mirror to the contradictions and social inequities of the Gilded Age. Through polite, persistent questioning, he forces his hosts to confront the reality of their own ideals.
Polly of the Circus
Margaret Mayo
HOOK A young circus performer and a small-town pastor find their worlds colliding when a tragic accident forces them to confront the boundaries between their disparate lives.
The Black Lion Inn
Alfred Henry Lewis
A weary traveler finds sanctuary in a rustic tavern, where a circle of colorful characters spins sprawling, irreverent tales of the American frontier.
The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner
This volume brings together two distinct works: a nostalgic, reflective memoir of a New England farm childhood and a witty, observant travelogue detailing a horseback journey through the Appalachian South. Together, they capture the transition from the private, idealized memories of youth to the rugged, unfolding…
The Deserter, and Other Stories: A Book of Two Wars
Harold Frederic
The echoes of ancient armor and the stark, cold reality of the American frontier find a common heartbeat in this collection of tales. War is never an abstract concept here, but a visceral, life-altering presence for the young and the old alike.
The Group: A Farce
Mercy Otis Warren
This biting colonial satire strips away the pretensions of the powerful, exposing the moral rot behind the gilded doors of Boston’s Loyalist elite. It serves as a sharp, unapologetic indictment of those who chose political convenience over liberty.
The Portion of Labor
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
A young woman grapples with the crushing weight of industrial labor and the call of her own heart in a changing New England town. This is a story of resilience, defiance, and the quiet dignity found in the struggle to survive.
The Potiphar Papers
George William Curtis
This sharp-eyed satire exposes the hollow ambitions of the American nouveau riche, where the desperate pursuit of social status serves as a gaudy mask for a lack of true culture.
Walt Whitman, Yesterday & Today
Henry Eduard Legler
This study chronicles the turbulent life and enduring legacy of Walt Whitman, tracing his transformation from a scandal-ridden outcast into an essential architect of American poetry. It is a portrait of a man who wrote as he lived: in the open air, with total, unapologetic candor.
Captain January
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
The beacon of a lonely lighthouse serves as a sanctuary for a retired mariner and the young girl he rescued from the sea, until the inevitable tide of her past arrives to claim her.
Half Portions
Edna Ferber
A collection of observant, tender portraits captures the quiet intersections of ordinary lives in early twentieth-century Wisconsin. These stories reveal the hidden depths of people standing at the crossroads of change.
The Amateur
Richard Harding Davis
This story follows a self-styled detective who prides himself on his keen observation but finds his expertise challenged when he attempts to play matchmaker for a mysterious, beautiful stranger. It is a sharp, ironic look at the thin line between confidence and gullibility.
The Law-Breakers and Other Stories
Robert Grant
These stories navigate the friction between personal integrity and the rigid expectations of early 20th-century American society, where the weight of social standing often threatens to crush the individual spirit.
The Streets of Ascalon: Episodes in the Unfinished Career of Richard Quarren, Esqre
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
A man of the world, long resigned to a life of superficial amusement, discovers that his own capacity for genuine feeling remains intact when he meets a woman trapped by the same empty expectations.
Two Men of Sandy Bar: A Drama
Bret Harte
In a rough-and-tumble California landscape, two men—one a desperate gambler, the other a disowned son—find their identities tangled in a web of deceit, legal maneuvering, and long-delayed family reckoning.
A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After
Edward William Bok
This is a memoir of an immigrant’s rise from poverty to the pinnacle of American publishing. It chronicles how a young boy’s relentless curiosity and work ethic transformed him into an influential editor of the nation’s most popular women’s magazine.
A Maid of the Kentucky Hills
Edwin Carlile Litsey
A disillusioned man retreats from city life to a cabin in the Kentucky mountains, seeking solitude only to find a mysterious, untutored woman who challenges his understanding of love, class, and human potential.
Kitty's Class Day and Other Stories
Louisa May Alcott
True character is often found in the quiet, unheralded acts of service that take place behind the scenes of a grand life. These stories bridge the gap between romantic longing and the sturdy realities of duty.
Miss Lulu Bett
Zona Gale
The life of a household drudge shifts into sudden, unpredictable motion when a stranger arrives, forcing a woman who has long been invisible to confront the quiet cruelty of her own family.
Oldfield: A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century
Nancy Huston Banks
In the quiet corners of rural Kentucky, two aging sisters and their young ward navigate a world where tradition, honor, and sudden tragedy collide with the gentle, persistent demands of love.
Sight Unseen
Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Neighborhood Club, an informal group of acquaintances, stumbles into a dark mystery when their amateur seances begin to mirror the real-life murder of a local businessman. This chilling exploration probes the tension between skepticism and the unknown.
Southern Lights and Shadows
Unknown
This collection of tales captures the raw, shifting texture of post-Civil War life in the American South, where the old romanticism of the past collided with the stark, unvarnished realities of the present. It is a work of quiet observation and local color, documenting the struggle to find meaning and stability in…
The Case of Jennie Brice
Mary Roberts Rinehart
A boardinghouse keeper in a flood-stricken city becomes the reluctant witness to a possible murder, only to find the truth buried beneath layers of theatrical deception and river debris.
The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley
The human heart thrives on the small, unvarnished truths of daily life, where a simple rhyme or a neighbor’s eccentricity reveals more than the grandest epic.
The Short Line War
Samuel Merwin
The battle for a small railroad becomes a crucible for character, where the ruthless efficiency of modern business collides with the messy, human weight of love and regret. It is a sharp, atmospheric study of power and the men who wield it.
The Stories of the Three Burglars
Frank R. Stockton
A homeowner captures three burglars in his library, only to find them eager to justify their criminal careers through increasingly elaborate and improbable tales of woe.
Who goes there?
B. K. (Blackwood Ketcham) Benson
The fog of war is profound, but for a soldier plagued by recurring amnesia, the greatest battle is the one he fights to reclaim his own name and identity.
April Hopes
William Dean Howells
The polished surface of Boston society hides a nervous, shifting instability that young lovers must navigate with more sincerity than they possess. This study of courtship exposes the fragile illusions that govern the most important of human choices.
Ethelyn's Mistake
Mary Jane Holmes
A young woman’s pride and her husband’s rigid judgment collide, leading to years of estrangement and a painful search for redemption. This story explores the high cost of vanity and the difficult path back to love.
John Ward, Preacher
Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
A marriage built on absolute devotion falters when a fundamental disagreement over faith creates an unbridgeable chasm between a husband and his wife.
Only an Irish Boy
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
The story follows an earnest, hardworking Irish teenager who rises above his impoverished station through grit and unwavering integrity. He defies the prejudices of the local elite to secure a future for his family and himself.
Seven Keys to Baldpate
Earl Derr Biggers
A writer seeking solitude in a shuttered mountain inn finds his quiet retreat transformed into a chaotic stage for political intrigue, hidden identities, and an unexpected romance.
The Moving Picture Girls
Laura Lee Hope
A theater family’s struggle for survival takes an unexpected turn when they discover the emerging world of silent film. The girls must navigate professional jealousy, financial ruin, and the race to protect a friend’s invention.
The Prince of Parthia: A Tragedy
Thomas Godfrey
This pioneering work of American drama captures the high-stakes intrigue and tragic impulses of a royal court, centering on the destructive collision between duty, ambition, and forbidden love. It remains a significant milestone as the first tragedy written by an American to be produced on a colonial stage.
The Three Partners
Bret Harte
The mountain air of the Black Spur Range holds secrets that outlast the fever of gold, tracing the lives of three men whose fortunes remain inextricably linked to the shadows of their past.
Walt Whitman: An Address
Robert Green Ingersoll
A celebration of the life and work of the American poet who dared to champion the individual, the body, and the democratic spirit against a tide of conventional disapproval.
De turkey and de law
Zora Neale Hurston
A spirited Florida comedy, this play follows two rivals whose fight over a woman and a turkey leads to a farcical courtroom drama that exposes the tensions of small-town life.
Lincolniana
Andrew Adderup
A collection of frontier wit and wartime anecdotes, this volume captures the informal, storytelling spirit of the sixteenth president through the eyes of his contemporaries.
Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures
Edgar Franklin
A neighbor’s relentless, catastrophic drive to reinvent the world turns the quiet life of an ordinary man into a harrowing series of near-death experiences. This is the chronicle of one man’s struggle to survive his friendship with a genius of the impractical.
Strive and Succeed
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A resourceful youth navigates the Western frontier through grit and wit, proving that steady character and intellectual self-reliance can turn unexpected trials into personal triumph.
The Autobiography of a Thief
Hutchins Hapgood
A career criminal recounts his life inside the nineteenth-century underworld, mapping the evolution of a pickpocket from street-smart youth to institutionalized, weary survivor.
The story of a summer
Cecilia Pauline Cleveland
A quiet, domestic chronicle captures the rhythm of a rural retreat, offering a rare, intimate look at the private life of a renowned public figure and his family. This gentle account preserves the fleeting atmosphere of a nineteenth-century summer, where the pursuits of the mind and the simple pleasures of the…
The Wiving of Lance Cleaverage
Alice MacGowan
A volatile, fiercely independent mountain man attempts to carve out an isolated paradise for his young bride, only to find that his stubborn refusal to conform to social expectations nearly destroys the life he cherishes.