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American Literature — page 30
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 30 of 101.
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.
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.
A laugh a day keeps the doctor away
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
The American spirit is best captured by a good story, a tradition that endures because, as the saying goes, a laugh a day keeps the doctor away.
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford: A Cheerful Account of the Rise and Fall of an American Business Buccaneer
George Randolph Chester
A fast-talking, charming swindler navigates the American landscape, turning small-town gullibility into quick fortunes before his house of cards inevitably collapses.
Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters (Selections)
Abraham Lincoln
The words of a self-taught prairie lawyer trace a singular ascent from humble beginnings to the presidency, mapping the conscience of a nation through its most agonizing rupture. This record reveals a mind that grew in clarity and sorrow as the stakes of history rose.
The Bride of the Mistletoe
James Lane Allen
A study of a marriage unraveling over forty-eight hours, this narrative examines how the weight of history and the pull of primitive instinct can turn a devoted partner into a stranger.
The Ghost
William Douglas O'Connor
A wealthy, hardened landlord undergoes a spiritual transformation on Christmas Eve, guided by the spectral presence of a deceased friend. This haunting tale explores the tension between cold-hearted social indifference and the moral imperative of human compassion.
The Jewels of Aptor
Samuel R. Delany
In a fractured, post-catastrophic future, an unlikely band of travelers journeys across a treacherous, forbidden sea to confront ancient gods and the remnants of a lost technological age.
The Tory Lover
Sarah Orne Jewett
A divided heart navigates the treacherous loyalties of the American Revolution, as a young man risks his honor and his life for love on the high seas.
Uncle Josh's Punkin Centre Stories
Cal Stewart
A rural innocent wanders through the bustling streets of New York, finding as much confusion in a post office box as he does in a department store.
You Know Me Al: A Busher's Letters
Unknown
A self-absorbed minor-league pitcher gets bought by the Chicago White Sox, enters big-league baseball, and details his personal and professional blunders through delusional letters to a long-suffering home-town friend.
Athalie
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
She is born with the rare gift of seeing what lies beyond normal sight, yet her heart remains hopelessly anchored to the world of men.
Kitty Carter, Canteen Girl
Ruby Lorraine Radford
A devoted sister steps up to manage the home front when her father serves as a Navy pharmacist, uncovering a treacherous sabotage ring while working with the Red Cross Canteen.
Sisters
Grace May North
Two long-separated California sisters, divided by class and social ambition, must confront the hidden truth of their shared parentage.
Terry: A Tale of the Hill People
Charles Goff Thomson
In the deep forests of Mindanao, an American lieutenant risks everything to tame a wild frontier, only to be transformed by the very land and people he was sent to govern.
The Bobbsey Twins
Laura Lee Hope
Four suburban siblings construct paper shoe-box homes, brave local winter drifts, outmaneuver a neighborhood bully, and unmask a domestic phantom before setting off for a countryside summer vacation.
The English Orphans
Mary Jane Holmes
A quiet, plain orphan girl survives workhouse neglect and public scorn to grow into a woman whose character, intellect, and grace quietly eclipse the shallow world around her.
The Little Review, May 1914 (Vol. 1., No. 3)
Various
A defiant battle cry for artistic independence, this early 20th-century literary journal challenges cultural complacency, rejecting government hand-outs and conventional moralism in favor of raw, unvarnished creative expression.
A Child-World
James Whitcomb Riley
A simple frame house in nineteenth-century Indiana becomes the luminous theater of childhood, where every ordinary hour brims with magical enchantment and boundless wonder.
Elsie's Vacation and After Events
Martha Finley
A devoted naval officer leads his extended family on a grand coastal voyage, weaving American history, deep religious devotion, and gentle domestic discipline into a tapestry of late-nineteenth-century domestic life.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 5, November 1852
Various
Youthful ideals fade into maturity, yet the quiet power of labor, science, and domestic life endures across changing centuries.
The Abandoned Farmers: His Humorous Account of a Retreat from the City to the Farm
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
Escaping the city seemed like a dream, until every step toward country living turned into a comedy of self-inflicted errors.
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Charles E. (Charles Edward) Bolton
A strike at an iron plant, a steamship in a mid-ocean storm, and the glittering cities of Europe form the backdrop for a grand industrial reform.
I'd Like to Do It Again
Owen Davis
Behind the red velvet curtains of the early American stage lies a craft built on grit, instinct, and thousands of tireless rewrites. A seasoned playwright looks back at decades of theatrical evolution with endless affection and sharp, practical clarity.
Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 1 (of 2)
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A fierce, larger-than-life actor carries the rough, democratic spirit of young America onto the world's standard theatrical stages, transforming personal vanity and tempestuous emotion into a monumental artistic legacy.
Mark Twain's Burlesque Autobiography
Mark Twain
A wildly irreverent double-parody of family genealogy and medieval melodrama, this short comedic work skewers romantic literature and aristocratic pretensions with deadpan absurdist flair.