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American Literature — page 72
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 72 of 101.
Stella Rosevelt
Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
A high-seas rescue, a hidden fortune, and a scheming family collide in this classic melodramatic romance, where a resilient orphan must navigate deceit and false identities to reclaim her true love.
The Frame Up
Richard Harding Davis
The truth is rarely as simple as a confession, and in the high-stakes game of New York politics, the most dangerous lies are the ones wrapped in a grain of fact. A principled public servant finds himself walking into an elaborate trap, where his own reputation becomes the primary currency for blackmail.
The Man Inside
Natalie Sumner Lincoln
The death of a powerful senator in a locked carriage serves as the opening move in a high-stakes game of international espionage and hidden domestic trauma.
The Mill Mystery
Anna Katharine Green
This is a tense, atmospheric mystery that unspools through the eyes of a desperate woman caught in the web of an aristocratic family’s dark secrets. It balances a classic "locked-room" feel with the psychological weight of a tragedy unfolding in a secluded mill.
The Passing Throng
Edgar A. (Edgar Albert) Guest
A quiet warmth radiates from this collection, offering an unpretentious celebration of domestic routine, small civic virtues, and the deep emotional bonds that hold a home together.
The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Other Stories
Frank R. Stockton
A collection of lighthearted tales weaves together domestic travel, romantic mishaps, and elaborate tall stories told by the hearth.
The Torch Bearer
Reina Melcher Marquis
HOOK A young woman struggles to reconcile her private, burning ambition to be a writer with the restrictive expectations of early 20th-century Southern marriage and motherhood.
The war of the Carolinas
Meredith Nicholson
A whimsical turn-of-the-century farce pits two neighboring Southern states against each other when their respective leaders mysteriously vanish, leaving an eccentric millionaire and a brilliant scholar to rule by proxy.
The worship of the golden calf: A story of wage-slavery in Massachusetts
Charles Sheldon French
A crusading farmhand battles the corrupt paper barons of a Berkshire mill town, using the power of the press to fight systemic wage-slavery.
Threads gathered up
Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
A mother’s hidden past, a stolen coat of arms, and a fateful railway crash collide in a sweeping tale of lost inheritances, aristocratic deceit, and enduring devotion.
Winning His "W": A Story of Freshman Year at College
Everett T. (Everett Titsworth) Tomlinson
The transition from the sheltered life of high school to the demanding, often absurd realities of collegiate independence is a jarring, transformative, and character-building climb for every young man.
A Fable for Critics
James Russell Lowell
A brilliant, biting gallery of American authors comes to life through rhythmic, rhyming satire that lays bare the virtues and flaws of a fledgling national literature.
Alhalla, or the Lord of Talladega: A Tale of the Creek War.: With Some Selected Miscellanies, Chiefly of Early Date
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
A vanquished Muscogee chief seeks solitude on an island in Lake Superior, carrying a tragic history that reshapes his encounters with curious white travelers.
Bob: The Story of Our Mocking-bird
Sidney Lanier
An abandoned, helpless nestling finds a home with a human family, growing into a vibrant, mirror-battling household artist whose everyday habits and soaring songs leave an indelible mark on those who care for him.
Heartsease and Rue
James Russell Lowell
Across the late afternoon of a long creative life, a poet gathers the bright blossoms of enduring companionship and the bitter leaves of grief into a quiet, luminous final offering.
It might have been worse
Beatrice Larned Massey
Traveling by motor in 1919, a couple journeys from New York to San Francisco, proving that even with mechanical mishaps, dusty detours, and aggressive wildlife, the American continent is best understood from behind the wheel.
Kitty Canary: A Novel
Kate Langley Bosher
Falling in love is a messy, exhilarating business, especially for a sixteen-year-old girl who would rather face the world with grit than with the polite, performative grace expected of her. She finds herself in a small town that watches every move, proving that the most dangerous thing one can do is to be oneself.
My heart and my flesh
Elizabeth Madox Roberts
A woman's soul is not destroyed by the rot of her lineage, but carved clean through the raw, quiet endurance of her own flesh.
Round Anvil Rock: A Romance
Nancy Huston Banks
The rugged beauty of the Kentucky frontier serves as the backdrop for a tense collision between a sheltered young woman, an honorable doctor, and a charismatic but mysterious guardian.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 27, January, 1860: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
A vivid mid-nineteenth-century tapestry of high philosophy, intimate domestic drama, harrowing military memoirs, and bold civic reporting captures a rapidly evolving antebellum landscape.
The Broadway Anthology
Edward L. Bernays
Behind the glitter of early twentieth-century New York performance lies an endless gear-work of desperation, calculated hype, and unglamorous labor.
The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, vol. 06, No. 01, January 1900: The Ten Most Beautiful Buildings in the United States
A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster) Hamlin
Architectural beauty in America is not bound by a single historic dress, but emerges wherever simple, clear concepts are given monumental form.
The congressman's wife, a story of American politics
John D. (John Daniel) Barry
A political career built on private compromises quietly unravels when a devoted wife discovers the corrupt bargain behind her husband’s public triumphs.
The Home Mission
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
A domestic sphere built on selfish whims quickly crumbles, but intentional patience, self-sacrifice, and quiet moral duty can transform any household into a sanctuary.
The Lady of the Decoration
Frances Little
HOOK A young widow flees the bitter memories of a failed marriage for the strange, blossoming world of Meiji-era Japan. Amidst the unfamiliarity of mission work, she discovers an unexpected path toward profound personal renewal.
The Little Room, and Other Stories
Madeline Yale Wynne
The boundaries between physical reality and the private, persistent hauntings of the mind remain porous. These stories explore the quiet, unsettling ways our memories and longings take shape in the world.
The Song of the Stone Wall
Helen Keller
The ancient stones of New England hold a silent history, and beneath the touch of a sensitive hand, they reveal the epic struggle of a people who carved a nation from the wilderness.
The Trawler
James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
A grieving father's quiet judgment gives way to a young fisherman's realization that the captain everyone calls ruthless carries a sacrifice deeper than the sea itself.
Wilt Thou Torchy
Sewell Ford
The fast-talking, irrepressible private secretary to a New York business tycoon finds himself unexpectedly caught up in a high-seas adventure. This breezy, lighthearted tale follows a young man navigating the complex social circles of his boss, his own burgeoning romance, and the improbable discovery of pirate gold.
Change Signals: A Story of the New Football
Ralph Henry Barbour
A newly arrived Maine country boy navigates the social dynamics and rigorous athletic rivalries of Yardley Hall while possessing an unheralded talent for football kicking.
Elsie at Viamede
Martha Finley
A peaceful plantation setting gives way to detailed historical lectures, family affection, and domestic moral lessons as a devout Southern family travels through coastal Mississippi and Louisiana.
Evered
Ben Ames Williams
A man’s jealous fury turns inward when the violent tragedy he invited reveals how little he understood his quiet, devoted wife.
Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 7
Mark Twain
A keen observer of human nature follows the global path of British imperialism, measuring the distance between high-minded ideals and the absurd, mercenary realities on the ground.
Forty-one Thieves: A Tale of California
Angelo Hall
A brutal stagecoach murder in the California Sierras sets off a multi-year chain of betrayal, flight, and quiet financial ruin across the American West.
In colonial days
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A grand Boston mansion becomes a haunted stage where four historical legends unveil the lingering, tragic downfall of British rule in New England.
Main Street: (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Centuries of New England history unspool inside a single room as a determined showman turns the crank of a painted paper panorama.
Marjorie Dean's Romance
Josephine Chase
A generous, spirited young woman finds her college sanctuary transformed by warm friendships, historical discoveries, and the quiet, persistent dawn of adult romantic feelings.
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 Crimson Patch
Augusta Huiell Seaman
Trapped in a stiff hotel suite with her father during the First World War, an observant girl uncovers a hidden nest of international intrigue behind the doors of her quiet temporary home.
The Golden Circle: A Mystery Story for Girls
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
When a young French dancer loses her theatre gig in depression-era Chicago, an antique auction brings her a bizarre brass idol, a circle of fiercely loyal friends, and a mystery that trails her from Maxwell Street to the grand stage.
The Spirit of Sweetwater
Hamlin Garland
In the high air of Colorado, a wealthy miner meets a dying woman whose frail life calls forth his own fierce, hidden capacity for healing and moral grace.
The Unforgiving Offender
John Reed Scott
A woman with a shadowed past returns to a high-society resort, daring her former peers to cast the first stone.
The Yale Literary Magazine (Vol. I, No 1, February 1836)
Various
Young scholars balance serious reflections on historical progress with personal romantic melodrama, playful regional dialect, and casual classical translations in this initial issue of a collegiate literary periodical.
Vicky Van
Carolyn Wells
A young woman leads a double life just steps from Fifth Avenue, until a murder in her drawing room forces her into hiding and brings a shrewd detective to unmask the truth.
Who Goes There?
Charles H. Davis
Squid-like telepaths search Earth’s ocean depths for intelligent life to save their distant world, only to meet a tragic end from human weapons.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 2, No. 21, June, 1921: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
Raucous, irreverent, and unapologetically tacky, this 1921 humor digest offers a unfiltered window into post-World War I American pop culture, Prohibition workarounds, and small-town bawdiness.
Elsie's Friends at Woodburn
Martha Finley
A young girl grapples with her own volatile temper and the complexities of growing up within a deeply affectionate, tradition-bound family. This narrative explores the delicate balance between personal autonomy and the duty of obedience.
Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 3
Mark Twain
A traveler records his observations of a changing world, blending sharp wit with the somber realities of colonial expansion and the quiet tragedy of lost civilizations.