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American Literature — page 53
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 53 of 101.
A Plea for Old Cap Collier
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
A boy’s love for sensational, forbidden fiction is often more sensible than the "improving" literature forced upon him by his elders. This witty defense of the dime novel argues that young readers have a natural instinct for honest storytelling.
A Republic Without a President, and Other Stories
Herbert D. (Herbert Dickinson) Ward
A daring act of domestic terrorism spirals into a national crisis, revealing the precarious nature of a modern world built on fragile technological and political foundations. This collection probes the anxieties of an era caught between radical scientific progress and the stubborn persistence of human frailty.
After a shadow, and other stories
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
A collection of moral fables, these stories explore the quiet struggles of everyday life, where character is tested by vanity, debt, and the temptation to live for the approval of others.
Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt
John Burroughs
A quiet, observant exploration of a president’s private relationship with the American wilderness. This memoir captures the rare intersection of political power and deep, unpretentious naturalism.
Man to Man
Jackson Gregory
The story of a man who returns from the South Seas to settle a family feud, this novel captures the raw spirit of the American West through the lens of a relentless, high-stakes battle for control over a sprawling cattle empire.
Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives
Harriet Beecher Stowe
A young girl’s wonder at the forbidden rituals of Christmas exposes the rigid social and religious divides of a small New England town. This intimate portrait captures the quiet friction between tradition and change.
Tattered Tom
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A spirited, resilient girl escapes the clutches of a cruel guardian to navigate the streets of New York, ultimately uncovering the truth of her own identity and finding her way home.
The Cross and the Shamrock
Hugh Quigley
This 1853 novel serves as a passionate, polemical defense of Irish Catholic immigrants in mid-19th-century America. It chronicles the struggles of the orphaned O’Clery children against religious prejudice and exploitation, ultimately tracing their paths to spiritual and social triumph.
The Mystery of the Locks
E. W. (Edgar Watson) Howe
This is a haunting portrait of a dying river town and the desperate, shadow-haunted lives of those who attempt to find meaning within its gloom.
Under the Law
Edwina Stanton Babcock
A young woman’s search for identity in a rigid society collides with the dangerous, romantic impulses of her peers. This story traces the quiet rebellion of a sheltered life as it confronts the harsh machinery of justice.
Her Husband's Purse
Helen Reimensnyder Martin
A penniless young woman from the South enters a stifling Pennsylvania marriage, only to find her survival depends on outmaneuvering a husband and two sisters-in-law who view her as a costly, rebellious possession.
Lefty Locke, pitcher-manager
Burt L. Standish
HOOK A star pitcher battles a duplicitous secretary for control of a baseball team, uncovering a web of high-stakes fraud and personal vendettas in the process.
Members of the Family
Owen Wister
The American West is not a destination in this collection of stories, but a landscape of shifting memories and vanishing frontiers. These tales capture the rugged, often lonely character of a life defined by vast distances and hard-won resilience.
The Chums of Scranton High
Donald Ferguson
A young baseball captain fights to build a winning team for Scranton High while navigating the social minefields of his town and clearing the name of a misunderstood friend.
The Mission of Janice Day
Helen Beecher Long
A spirited young woman defies the conventions of her small town to venture into the heart of revolutionary Mexico, determined to rescue her wounded father from the chaos of a distant border conflict.
The Safety First Club
William Theophilus Nichols
HOOK A group of restless schoolboys discovers that the truest form of courage is not found in recklessness, but in the disciplined practice of caution and personal accountability.
The Search
Grace Livingston Hill
A young soldier navigates the moral chaos of wartime while pursuing an ideal of character and faith. He discovers that finding his own purpose requires a profound, inward transformation that eventually unites him with his beloved.
The stories editors buy and why
Unknown
A collection of early twentieth-century magazine fiction and editorial philosophy, this anthology captures a fleeting, golden moment when the American short story became a national obsession and a professional craft.
The Unseen Bridegroom
May Agnes Fleming
The streets of New York turn cold and dark as a young woman’s life is swept into a vortex of abduction, secret marriages, and high-society intrigue. Innocence is tested, but agency is ultimately reclaimed.
The Veiled Lady, and Other Men and Women
Francis Hopkinson Smith
A collection of observant, world-weary sketches, these tales capture the quiet tragedies and unexpected joys of travelers, laborers, and dreamers found in the corners of the globe.
Witch Winnie: The Story of a "King's Daughter"
Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Williams) Champney
A lively group of boarding-school friends discovers that service to others is the most exciting adventure of all. They trade petty rivalries for a shared mission, turning their energy toward rescuing children from urban poverty.
Fanshawe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A scholar and a rogue compete for the heart of a young woman in this moody, atmospheric tale of collegiate life and unexpected danger.
Husks
Marion Harland
A restless young woman trapped in a marriage of convenience seeks the fulfillment she cannot find in the hollow artifice of high society. Her journey through pride, grief, and eventual spiritual transformation marks the passage from a life of mere appearance to one of substance.
Robert Coverdale's Struggle
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A young man fights to preserve his integrity and support his aunt while navigating the schemes of a greedy uncle and a mysterious, reclusive neighbor.
The Bow of Orange Ribbon: A Romance of New York
Amelia E. Barr
A young Dutch woman’s heart is captured by an English officer, sparking a collision between colonial customs and a budding romance. This tale explores the weight of tradition and the courage required to forge a new life.
The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories
Edith Wharton
The distance between our public performances and the secret, unspoken realities of our lives defines the human experience. These stories explore the quiet tragedies of those who choose to live behind masks of social or religious propriety.
The Mother's Dream, and Other Poems
Hannah Flagg Gould
This collection of nineteenth-century verse finds profound spiritual significance in the humblest corners of nature, transforming everyday observations into hymns of moral instruction and quiet, domestic faith.
The Quirt
B. M. Bower
A young woman leaves the stifling city to find adventure at her father’s remote Idaho ranch, only to stumble into a deadly range war where the line between hero and villain blurs.
A Little Girl in Old Pittsburg
Amanda M. Douglas
A young girl grows up amidst the rugged beauty and shifting fortunes of a frontier settlement, navigating the complexities of family, identity, and the unsettling transitions of the heart.
Dixie Martin, the Girl of Woodford's Cañon
Grace May North
A determined young girl acts as a surrogate mother to her three orphaned siblings in the rugged Sierra Nevada, finding hope and unexpected allies in the shadow of a mountain winter.
Eve to the Rescue
Ethel Hueston
HOOK A headstrong young woman attempts to reform the world by rejecting the heavy burden of "duty," only to discover that life—and love—are rarely so simple.
Life at High Tide
Unknown
These collected stories capture the quiet, critical turning points in ordinary lives, revealing the hidden intensity of human character when it is tested by the inevitable pressures of time and circumstance.
Looking forward
Arthur Bird
The United States, having expanded to encompass the entire Western Hemisphere by the year 1999, stands as the unchallenged, technologically advanced arbiter of global peace and civilization.
The Awakening of Helena Richie
Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
A woman hiding a secret life in a quiet, judgmental town finds her carefully constructed world collapsing when she attempts to claim a child as her own. This study of social morality and personal redemption remains a poignant window into the late Victorian struggle between rigid convention and the desperate human…
The Green Millennium
Fritz Leiber
A lonely, disillusioned man finds an unexpected companion in a mysterious green cat that alters the reality of everyone it encounters.
The little country theater
Alfred G. (Alfred Gilmeiden) Arvold
This guide champions the idea that rural communities can solve their own stagnation through the creative power of local theater. It serves as both a practical manual for community building and a passionate argument for the value of home-grown arts.
The Man: A Story of To-day
Elbert Hubbard
HOOK A determined woman flees a suffocating social life, only to encounter a mysterious, ageless mentor living in the woods who claims to hold the secrets of human longevity and creative power.
The Telegraph Boy
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A penniless orphan arrives in New York City with nothing but his wits, determined to carve out a respectable life through honest, hard work. He soon discovers that character is the ultimate currency in a bustling, unforgiving metropolis.
Vassall Morton: A Novel
Francis Parkman
A man of promise returns from a long, living death in an Austrian prison to reclaim a life that his enemies hoped was permanently erased.
Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Spring’s slow, deliberate arrival at a secluded New England home serves as a meditative lens, revealing the cyclical relationship between the natural world and the human spirit.
Cynthia Steps Out
Erick Berry
A young American artist travels alone through Europe, turning her talent for capturing life and her adventurous spirit into a series of serendipitous encounters.
Duffels
Edward Eggleston
This collection gathers diverse tales of American life, tracing the transformation of the roving frontiersman into the modern observer, all while exploring the weight of the past upon the present.
Dwellers in the Hills
Melville Davisson Post
A young man and his companions navigate the treacherous, shadowed world of West Virginia cattle driving, where the stakes are life, fortune, and the preservation of a brother’s honor.
Ethel Morton at Chautauqua
Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith
A multi-generational family spends a transformative summer at an educational lakeside retreat, finding purpose through hard work, civic engagement, and the bonds of a new friendship.
For the Soul of Rafael
Marah Ellis Ryan
This story of shadowed romance and cultural transition captures the twilight of the old Spanish California era. It follows the quiet, heavy burden of a woman bound by duty to a man who lives in the light of gold and vanity.
Helen of the Old House
Harold Bell Wright
The industrial heart of a small city beats with the rhythm of one massive mill, where class lines harden and a wealthy family finds their privilege challenged by the returning veterans of a war-torn world.
In Our Convent Days
Agnes Repplier
A childhood spent within the rhythmic, cloistered walls of a convent is captured with wit and affection, revealing the intensity of a world where small dramas assume the scale of epic history.
Saxe Holm's Stories: First Series
Helen Hunt Jackson
These quiet, observant tales explore the moral strength and emotional landscapes of nineteenth-century women, mapping the intersections of duty, love, and the hidden inner lives of those navigating a changing world.