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American Literature — page 61

4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 61 of 101.

Cover of Christmas Carols and Midsummer Songs

Christmas Carols and Midsummer Songs

Various

This classic collection captures the changing seasons through children’s eyes, pairing the magic of winter holidays with the warm freedom of summer days.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Edith Lyle

Edith Lyle

Mary Jane Holmes

A young widow hides her secret past to marry into a proud, wealthy family, only to find her abandoned past living right on her new estate. The truth threatens to unravel her second chance at a respectable life.

American Literature9 min read
Cover of Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days

Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days

Nell Speed

A young woman steps from the security of college into the wide expanse of adult life, discovering that growing up is less a single moment than a quiet shift in how she sees the world.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 1 of 2

The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 1 of 2

William Alexander Caruthers

A society built on royalist nostalgia divides against itself when old political hatreds, mysterious recluses, and hidden origins collide on the Virginia frontier.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Last Stetson

The Last Stetson

Fox, John, Jr.

A young boy bearing the secret burden of a feud's final killing seeks redemption through self-sacrifice as a wandering preacher brings a fragile peace to the Kentucky mountains.

American Literature8 min read
Cover of The Marryers: A History Gathered from a Brief of the Honorable Socrates Potter

The Marryers: A History Gathered from a Brief of the Honorable Socrates Potter

Irving Bacheller

A Connecticut lawyer takes his client’s family to Europe, where he must protect an heiress from titled fortune-hunters while steering her toward an honest American heart.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Moon Metal

The Moon Metal

Garrett Putman Serviss

A sudden flood of Antarctic gold renders the global economy worthless until a mysterious scientist offers a strange, opalescent metal extracted from the heights of the Wyoming mountains.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Ne'er-Do-Well

The Ne'er-Do-Well

Rex Beach

A spoiled American heir is marooned penniless in Panama, where hard work, political intrigue, and sudden love turn a wasted life into something real.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Secret Pact

The Secret Pact

Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt

A high-spirited teenage girl uncovers a web of arson, blackmail, and riverfront secrets after launching her own newspaper in a rival's abandoned plant.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Wide, Wide World

The Wide, Wide World

Susan Warner

Separated from her dying mother, a young girl must learn to navigate a cold, demanding world while clinging to her faith and forming her character through hardship, duty, and quiet resilience.

American Literature10 min read
Cover of Within these walls

Within these walls

Rupert Hughes

Driven by fear of the cholera, a young bride and groom flee to a quiet estate, only to discover that the darkest perils are those they build within their own home.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of All He Knew: A Story

All He Knew: A Story

John Habberton

A simple man returns from prison with a singular, unshakeable faith, and his refusal to complicate it quietly unmasks the hypocrisy of an entire town.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of An Adventure with a Genius: Recollections of Joseph Pulitzer

An Adventure with a Genius: Recollections of Joseph Pulitzer

Alleyne Ireland

A blind, brilliant media titan rules an floating empire of intellect from the deck of his luxury yacht, driving a crew of exhausted personal secretaries to the brink of madness.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of O. Henryana: Seven Odds and Ends, Poetry and Short Stories

O. Henryana: Seven Odds and Ends, Poetry and Short Stories

O. Henry

A gentle heart beats beneath every tough exterior.

American Literature8 min read
Cover of Oh, Money! Money! A Novel

Oh, Money! Money! A Novel

Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

A wealthy man, weary of his fortune’s isolation, goes undercover among his own distant relatives to see if money truly buys happiness. His experiment changes his life and the fortunes of those he studies.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Patty's Fortune

Patty's Fortune

Carolyn Wells

Patty Fairfield faces a tangled web of romantic affection and sudden inheritance while navigating the social expectations of early twentieth-century upper-class life.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The curse of Clifton

The curse of Clifton

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

A stoic girl bound by honor and a prideful Virginia heir test whether devotion can endure deceit, warfare, and the heavy chains of rank.

American Literature9 min read
Cover of The Golden Book of Springfield

The Golden Book of Springfield

Vachel Lindsay

A mystic in 1920 falls into a visionary trance, awakening nearly a century later in a transformed, utopian Illinois.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason

The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason

Melville Davisson Post

The human mind loves a problem with passion, peril, and the salt breath of the sea, demanding stories where ingenuity triumphs over drudgery without the aid of circumstance.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Worst Boy in Town

The Worst Boy in Town

John Habberton

Labelled the town's most incorrigible scoundrel, a lively doctor's son stumbles through endless pranks, accidental catastrophes, and earnest attempts at reform in a small 19th-century community.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Baseball Joe in the Central League

Baseball Joe in the Central League

Lester Chadwick

A young pitcher leaves college for professional baseball, navigating stolen property accusations, a father's failing eyesight, and a high-stakes minor league pennant race.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XX, No. 3, March 1842

Graham's Magazine, Vol. XX, No. 3, March 1842

Various

A mid-nineteenth-century literary snapshot captures the era's diverse tastes, blending tales of star-crossed romance, historical accounts of Jamestown, and sharp contemporary criticism.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Graham's Magazine, Vol XXXIII, No. 6, December 1848

Graham's Magazine, Vol XXXIII, No. 6, December 1848

Various

A single issue of a nineteenth-century American monthly opens a door into the varied literary tastes, political anxieties, and sentimental ideals of its day.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Heimweh

Heimweh

John Luther Long

Lost between the quiet longings of earth and the quiet promises of heaven, these tender, tragic figures discover that the true cost of devotion is always paid in the heart.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Hoofbeats on the Turnpike

Hoofbeats on the Turnpike

Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt

A spirited teenage reporter takes a train into the hills to investigate a local ghost, only to find herself trapped in a valley on the brink of a catastrophic dam failure.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Hoosier Lyrics

Hoosier Lyrics

Eugene Field

A raucous, affectionate journey through small-town parlors, frontier saloons, and classical parodies captures late-nineteenth-century American life at its most unabashedly playful.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Immortal Youth: A Study in the Will to Create

Immortal Youth: A Study in the Will to Create

Lucien Price

A young painter chooses creation over commercial gain, finding in art a silent language that outlasts early tragedy.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, September 1893

McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, September 1893

Various

A window into late-nineteenth-century ambition, this miscellany captures an era when steam-driven locomotives, wild frontiers, and scientific breakthroughs redefined human potential.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Gilded Age, Part 4

The Gilded Age, Part 4

Mark Twain

A sharp, sprawling study of post-Civil War American life, where financial speculation, political backroom deals, and social ambition erode every honest impulse.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Hand but Not the Heart

The Hand but Not the Heart

T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

Impelled by worldly ambition, a young woman enters into a loveless marriage, only to endure the bitter consequences of a union formed without affection.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Last of the Foresters

The Last of the Foresters

John Esten Cooke

In eighteenth-century Virginia, a youth raised in the woods faces the soft complexities of town life, hidden origins, and first love.

American Literature12 min read
Cover of The Long Lane's Turning

The Long Lane's Turning

Hallie Erminie Rives

A young Southern lawyer collapses into alcoholism and an accidental prison sentence, yet finds redemption—and political victory over state corruption—through the endurance of love.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The moving finger

The moving finger

Natalie Sumner Lincoln

A sudden murder in a secluded Virginia mansion turns a quiet household upside down, exposing long-hidden rivalries and tangling two sisters in a dangerous web of deceit.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains

The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains

Charles Egbert Craddock

The mountain peaks rise into the mist while remote clearings cradle lives shaped by isolation, fierce loyalties, and stubborn faith.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Trail of the Green Doll: A Judy Bolton Mystery

The Trail of the Green Doll: A Judy Bolton Mystery

Margaret Sutton

A hand-lettered wooden sign posted by a country road draws more than standard tourists: it invites a pair of mysterious visitors, a vanished green heirloom, and a forgotten acoustic trick.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of An American Girl in Munich: Impressions of a Music Student

An American Girl in Munich: Impressions of a Music Student

Mabel W. (Mabel Wheeler) Daniels

HOOK Seeking mastery in the musical capital of the world, a young Bostonian navigates the rigid traditions, romantic intrigues, and sensory splendors of Munich at the turn of the twentieth century.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Clever Betsy: A Novel

Clever Betsy: A Novel

Clara Louise Burnham

The story of a steadfast woman and a long-repressed heart, this novel traces the quiet revolution of a servant who finally chooses her own happiness over the demands of a selfish mistress.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Eight Harvard Poets

Eight Harvard Poets

Unknown

Eight young voices from a century ago capture the restless spirit of early twentieth-century youth, weaving a tapestry of romance, longing, and the impending shadow of the Great War.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers: A Story for Girls in Half-A-Dozen Chapters

Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers: A Story for Girls in Half-A-Dozen Chapters

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

A group of schoolgirls takes over a house for a two-week experiment in independence, transforming a quiet New England village into a theater of laughter, domestic blunders, and unexpected personal growth. This short, spirited story captures the fleeting charm of adolescence, where the serious business of…

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Ormond

Ormond

Charles Brockden Brown

A young woman in yellow-fever-ravaged Philadelphia must defend her blind father, her moral integrity, and her very life against a brilliant, deceitful predator.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Code of the Mountains

The Code of the Mountains

Charles Neville Buck

HOOK Born into a cycle of mountain violence, an embittered convict seeks vengeance against the man who sent him to prison, only to find his life transformed by the crucible of war in the Philippines.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Children of Men

Children of Men

Bruno Lessing

This collection of short stories captures the intimate, turbulent lives of Jewish immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York. It is a portrait of a community caught between ancient tradition and the unrelenting demands of a new, industrial world.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Color

Color

Countee Cullen

A poet born black asks how he can sing, turning the pain of his existence into a legacy that challenges the very nature of time and prejudice.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of For the Major: A Novelette

For the Major: A Novelette

Constance Fenimore Woolson

In the quiet, elevated isolation of a mountain village, a woman’s desperate act of devotion to her husband creates a web of secrets that eventually unravels the lives of those she loves most.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and Preferred

Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and Preferred

Irving Bacheller

A veteran lawyer uses the lens of common sense to critique the moral rot of wartime Germany and the idle vanities of the American home front.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Kitty's Conquest

Kitty's Conquest

Charles King

A traveler finds himself caught in the crossfire of post-Civil War tensions, where a young lieutenant’s struggle to maintain order becomes complicated by his volatile feelings for a charming but enigmatic Southern belle.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Mavis of Green Hill

Mavis of Green Hill

Faith Baldwin

A young invalid’s life of quiet reflection and secret correspondence is upended when a pragmatic doctor arrives in her small town, eventually leading her into a marriage that transforms from a hollow arrangement into a vibrant reality.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Pole Baker: A Novel

Pole Baker: A Novel

Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben

In small-town Georgia, a flawed but fiercely loyal mountaineer uses his sharp wit and unyielding devotion to navigate his neighbors through tangled romances, hidden family secrets, and local prejudice.

American Literature6 min read