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American Literature — page 54
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 54 of 101.
The Acorn-Planter: A California Forest Play (1916)
Jack London
The Acorn-Planter is a visionary drama about the cyclical nature of human conflict and the ultimate necessity of choosing nurture over destruction. It portrays the rise and fall of civilizations through the lens of a recurring struggle between the life-giving wisdom of the "acorn-planter" and the short-sighted…
The Cleverdale Mystery
W. A. Wilkins
Ambition and corruption entwine in a small New York town, where a powerful political machine demands the sacrifice of innocence to fuel its own survival.
The Story of a New York House
H. C. (Henry Cuyler) Bunner
This narrative traces the rise and eventual dissolution of a prominent family’s legacy, mirrored in the life and decay of their grand Manhattan home. It serves as a poignant record of a city’s relentless, encroaching transformation.
Westover of Wanalah: A story of love and life in Old Virginia
George Cary Eggleston
The path to reconciliation for two lovers in Old Virginia is obstructed by scandal, social artifice, and a family secret that threatens to destroy everything.
Wheat and Huckleberries
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Marion) Vaile
The sisters Esther and Kate Northmore journey from the American Midwest to their family’s ancestral home in New England, where they encounter a world of deep-rooted traditions, complex family legacies, and the quiet, demanding work of self-discovery.
A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the New and Old West
Frank Norris
These stark tales capture the raw, unforgiving spirit of a transforming West, where nature and commerce collide with the lives of ordinary men.
Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie
Edward Streeter
A self-important rookie soldier writes home to his sweetheart, navigating the absurdity of military training with an unwavering, comedic belief in his own singular importance.
Elsie and Her Namesakes
Martha Finley
This final chapter in a monumental saga follows a sprawling, affluent family as they navigate life transitions, celebrate new marriages, and gather to share historical tales of faith and patriotism. It serves as a gentle, domestic coda to a long-running series, focused on the comfort of home and the strength of…
Four and Twenty Beds
Nancy Casteel Vogel
A witty, candid look at the chaos of mid-century hospitality, where running a motel requires the endurance of a saint, the skills of a tradesman, and the nosiness of a born novelist.
Leerie
Ruth Sawyer
Sheila O’Leary, a nurse nicknamed "Leerie" for her ability to bring light to those in the darkest of circumstances, navigates the rigors of hospital life and the personal tolls of the Great War. This chronicle follows her journey from a sequestered sanitarium to the front lines of France, where she seeks to heal…
Molly Brown's College Friends
Nell Speed
HOOK Amid the shadow of the Great War, a group of college friends reunites to navigate romance, espionage, and the struggle to remain useful in a changing world.
My American Diary
Clare Sheridan
A restless, observant artist traverses the American continent and Mexico with her young son, capturing the social pulse of a post-war world with striking candor and an unvarnished eye.
Re-creations
Grace Livingston Hill
A college student abandons her degree to save her struggling family, only to find that transforming a run-down house creates a sanctuary for everyone she loves.
The Sherrods
George Barr McCutcheon
A gifted country boy leaves his childhood sweetheart for the city, only to find himself trapped in a web of deceit, bigamy, and the crushing weight of two competing lives.
The Trials of the Soldier's Wife: A Tale of the Second American Revolution
Alex. St. Clair (Alexander St. Clair) Abrams
This somber narrative serves as a moral plea from the heart of the Confederacy, illustrating the tragic plight of those left behind when the machinery of war strips away all security and support.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 1
Mark Twain
A modern factory superintendent, knocked unconscious by a brutal blow, awakens to find himself transported back to the legendary, sword-swinging world of King Arthur’s sixth-century Camelot.
Cricket
Elizabeth Weston Timlow
A headstrong girl rushes through a season of reckless scrapes, slowly learning that her bounding spirit needs the anchor of a thoughtful heart.
Edna Browning
Mary Jane Holmes
A young widow, shunned by her wealthy in-laws and burdened by a secret past, must forge an independent life while navigating the complex expectations of the social class she was born into but denied.
How It Happened
Kate Langley Bosher
A lonely man and a spirited child cross paths, sparking a sequence of reunions that mend broken hearts just in time for the holidays.
Jupiter Lights
Constance Fenimore Woolson
A Northern woman travels South to protect her orphaned nephew, only to become entangled in a family's dark tragedy, a desperate flight across land and water, and a fierce, transformative love.
McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 6, November 1893
Various
A diverse collection of Gilded Age journalism, fiction, and scientific discovery reveals an era caught between old superstitions and modern frontiers.
Mildred and Elsie
Martha Finley
Guided by faith and duty, a young woman faces the heart's hardest choices while nurturing those around her.
Old Man Curry: Race Track Stories
Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
A shrewd old horseman uses biblical wisdom and sharp wits to outsmart the schemers of the racing circuit.
Rachel Dyer
John Neal
A quiet Quaker woman with a twisted spine steps into the hysteria of the Salem witch trials, confronting a corrupt court and choosing a devastating path of self-sacrifice to defend the man she loves.
Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler
Arthur Jerome Eddy
An artist’s brush catches the twilight on a canvas while his sharp wit turns public hostility into an art form all its own.
Rival Pitchers of Oakdale
Morgan Scott
Deep within the springtime fever of a preparatory school, two talented pitchers collide over a single opening in the starting lineup.
Shifting Sands
Sara Ware Bassett
A grounded stranger, a widow tied to the sea, and a mysterious box of jewels set off a tale of misperceptions on the Cape Cod shore.
Stories That End Well
Octave Thanet
A collection of quiet victories, where common sense, decency, and humor triumph over daily friction.
The Illiterate Digest
Will Rogers
A dryly razor-sharp observer of 1920s America turns his cowboy boots and theatrical staging toward the self-importance of Washington, Hollywood, and everyday high society.
The Little Grey House
Marion Ames Taggart
A tight-knit family faces economic hardship and the quiet burden of an unfulfilled father's dreams, finding resilience in humor and devotion. When tragedy strikes, sixteen-year-old Roberta must defend her father's legacy and save their beloved home.
The Spy: Condensed for use in schools
James Fenimore Cooper
In the neutral borderlands of Westchester County, a family's loyalties are torn apart as the American Revolution rages around their doorstep.
A Tramp Abroad
Mark Twain
An American traveler sets out to walk across Europe, but his grand itinerary constantly dissolves into lazy boat rides, absurd legends, and comic misunderstandings.
Bound to Succeed
Allen Chapman
A determined small-town boy builds a mail-order business from salvage and grit, defying corrupt enemies to secure his family’s future.
Brotherly House
Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond
A frail, bedridden bachelor uses his failing strength to gather his estranged relatives for Christmas, hoping the warmth of the holiday will heal their bitter grudges.
Cousin Maude
Mary Jane Holmes
A warm-hearted New England orphan endures a cold stepfather, selflessly cares for her family, and ultimately finds love and her true place in the world.
In Pawn
Ellis Parker Butler
A lazy father plays at being a saint, pawns his honest son to pay a debt, and unleashes a quiet, small-town comedy of romantic lies and river town trades.
Poems
William Dean Howells
A sharp longing for vanished youth cuts through quiet observations of nature, forgotten domestic dramas, and the lingering scars of war.
Prudence of the Parsonage
Ethel Hueston
In the dusty Methodism of small-town Iowa, nineteen-year-old Prudence Starr holds a lively motherless family together by sheer force of devotion and practical grace.
Randy's Summer: A Story for Girls
Amy Brooks
A gentle, sunlit atmosphere fills this quiet tale of country life, where small domestic choices carry the weight of real moral growth.
Stories by American Authors, Volume 5
Unknown
A young man adrift in foreign lands finds his cynicism unraveling when a companion’s hidden choices force him to confront his own empty posture.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
A sharp observer enters the Pennsylvania oil fields alone, while soldiers enforce war-time order down South, and an essayist dryly dissects the quiet power of human grit.
The Attaché
Thomas Chandler Haliburton
A sharp, funny look at British society through foreign eyes, where a fast-talking clockmaker strips away imperial pretension using trade craft, relentless banter, and standard American swagger.
The Calling of Dan Matthews
Harold Bell Wright
A young minister arrives in a Midwest town, only to discover that the rigid expectations of his congregation conflict sharply with his desire to render genuine service.
The National Preacher, Vol. 2 No. 7 Dec. 1827: Or Original Monthly Sermons from Living Ministers, Sermons XXVI. and
Elihu W. (Elihu Whittlesey) Baldwin
A rigorous assembly of early nineteenth-century Calvinist preaching that confronts the human heart with its own perversity, demanding absolute surrender before an impending cosmic reckoning.
The New-York Book of Poetry
Unknown
Echoing across Hudson mist, mountain chasms, and quiet bedchambers, these voices capture the raw, untamed youth of a rising American empire.
The Vertical City
Fannie Hurst
A woman looks up through the light-starved shafts of Manhattan to a single star, finding in the neon-lit concrete the same ache for transcendence that haunts a mother hiding her past in a grand hotel.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 2
Mark Twain
A nineteenth-century mechanic is stranded in sixth-century Britain, where he uses gunpowder, electricity, and raw American audacity to pass himself off as a wizard greater than Merlin.
Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
Belle Kanaris Maniates
A stubborn scrub-girl transforms her family’s fortunes and stumbles into a wider world of art, learning, and local romance.