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American Literature — page 59
3,593 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 59 of 75.
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 Old Folks' Party: 1898
Edward Bellamy
The future is not merely a destination, but a ghost that haunts the present. This narrative explores what happens when a group of friends attempts to inhabit their own distant old age.
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.
The Toll Gatherer's Day (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
This short piece invites us to observe the human condition from the quiet vantage point of a bridge toll-house, where the entire world seems to pass in a single, flickering day.
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.
An Arkansas Planter
Opie Percival Read
A stubborn patriarch struggles to preserve his traditional way of life against the encroaching forces of social change and the independent spirit of his headstrong daughter.
Blister Jones
John Taintor Foote
The track is a world unto itself, a place where the high stakes of the racing game are played out by men who live on the margins and horses that run on heart. These linked stories capture the grit, the humor, and the quiet dignity of a life lived in the stables and the betting rings.
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.
Coming Home: 1916
Edith Wharton
A haunting exploration of the moral gray zones born in the trenches, where the line between hero and executioner dissolves in the shadow of total war.
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.
Five Little Peppers Grown Up
Margaret Sidney
Childhood friends navigate the complexities of adulthood, balancing the demands of their wealthy benefactors against the enduring, humble values of their past.
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.
Luke Walton
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A virtuous Chicago newsboy rises above poverty and petty malice to reclaim his family’s stolen inheritance. This classic tale celebrates the triumph of character over circumstance in a bustling, unforgiving nineteenth-century city.
Madelon: A Novel
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
The quietude of a snow-bound village is shattered by a violent act of passion, setting in motion a dark drama where honor, self-sacrifice, and the tangled roots of love collide.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 01, April 2, 1870
Various
The jester arrives with a flourish of satire, declaring his intention to expose the follies of the day while carving out a permanent place in the landscape of American humor.
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.
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 Brown Study
Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond
A man chooses to exchange the comforts of an elite urban parish for a life of modest service, only to find that his true challenge lies in remaining faithful to his own sense of purpose.
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 Spread Eagle and Other Stories
Gouverneur Morris
The lives of the wealthy, the desperate, and the eccentric collide in a series of sharp, observant sketches that capture the restless spirit of early twentieth-century American high society.
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.
Anything Once
Isabel Ostrander
A bruised young man with a secret name and a girl fleeing her past hit the dusty American road together, learning to trust each other one step at a time.
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.
Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 1, Essay 5: Emerson
John Morley
This critical portrait strips away the mythic layers surrounding an American icon to reveal a thinker whose most enduring strength was his unwavering commitment to individual sincerity. It offers a balanced, rigorous assessment of a man who transformed his own life into a laboratory for the soul.
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.
Gunsight Pass: How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West
William MacLeod Raine
The harsh desert of the American West transforms as the discovery of oil turns cattle ranges into battlegrounds, pitting the old ways against the violent uncertainty of a new industrial age.
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.