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American Literature — page 58
3,373 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 58 of 71.
Two Boys and a Fortune
Matthew White
A sudden inheritance and a hidden truth entangle two brothers in a web of anxiety and moral crisis. This story explores how a windfall can test the bonds of family and the weight of conscience.
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.
Evelina's Garden
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
In the quiet corners of a New England village, an aging recluse finds her solitary life—and a legacy of unfulfilled longing—intertwined with the fate of a young namesake and a forbidden romance.
Fancy's Show-Box (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
This story examines whether the human soul can be stained by wicked deeds that were plotted but never physically committed. It challenges the distinction between outward reputation and the hidden reality of our private thoughts.
"George Washington's" Last Duel: 1891
Thomas Nelson Page
A spirited, comedic tale of Southern manners, high-strung egos, and the elaborate theatrics of a simulated duel, all orchestrated by a mischievous old bachelor.
Gypsy Breynton
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
This lively portrait of a spirited girl navigating the expectations of 19th-century girlhood captures the friction between a vibrant, restless nature and the rigid social codes of her era.
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.
Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings
Annie Hamilton Donnell
Theodosia Baxter, a world-weary traveler returning to her quiet, empty home, finds her solitary life unexpectedly invaded by a spirited neighborhood of children, ultimately discovering a capacity for love she thought long buried.
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.
Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1765-1819
Unknown
This collection gathers the earliest efforts of American playwrights, tracing the shift from colonial imitation to a distinct, nascent national voice between 1765 and 1819.
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 Bride of Fort Edward: Founded on an Incident of the Revolution
Delia Salter Bacon
The sacrifice of a young woman caught between warring armies becomes a tragic catalyst that rallies a crumbling revolution. This haunting, unconventional narrative explores the intersection of private heartbreak and the inexorable march of history.
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 Gates Between
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
A prideful, irritable physician dies unexpectedly and finds himself a spiritual outcast, forced to navigate an afterlife that requires the humility and tenderness he failed to cultivate while on earth.
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.
A Foregone Conclusion
William Dean Howells
A lonely Venetian priest, yearning for a life beyond his stifling vows, pins his fragile hopes on a visiting American woman. This quiet, melancholic drama explores the intersection of longing, cultural misunderstanding, and the painful impossibility of self-reinvention.
A Touch of Sun, and Other Stories
Mary Hallock Foote
The stifling heat of the American West acts as a catalyst for hidden truths, forcing characters to confront the shadows of their pasts and the fragility of their current lives.
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.
Life on the Mississippi, Part 7
Mark Twain
The Mississippi River acts as both a majestic, ever-shifting highway and a keeper of dark, buried secrets in this travelogue of memory and reconstruction. It is a work of profound contrasts, where the beauty of the landscape collides with the lingering scars of war and the absurdity of human greed.
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 Foreign Hand Tie
Randall Garrett
A brilliant telepathic spy deep behind the Iron Curtain must use nonsense, song, and a brother’s wit to smuggle a revolutionary defensive weapon past both enemy agents and his own skeptical government.
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.
You Should Worry Says John Henry
George V. (George Vere) Hobart
A sharp-tongued New Yorker navigates the absurdities of high-society fads and domestic mishaps with a cynical wit that keeps his life—and his dignity—from unraveling entirely.
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.
Maggie Miller: The Story of Old Hagar's Secret
Mary Jane Holmes
An orphaned girl raised in a grand New England estate discovers her life is built on a deception, forcing her to confront her true identity and the shattering loss of her perceived social standing.