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American Literature — page 90
4,619 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 90 of 97.
Golden Stars, and Other Verses Following "The Red Flower"
Henry Van Dyke
Seeking peace in a world fractured by violence demands a battle between conscience and duty, where sacrifice becomes the ultimate price of liberty.
Life on the Mississippi, Part 5
Mark Twain
The Mississippi River is a restless, shifting character that redraws the map while mocking those who try to tame it. This narrative captures the ache of returning to a landscape that has been irrevocably altered by time and technology.
Mrs. Dud's Sister
Josephine Daskam Bacon
A quiet, reflective man stumbles away from a glittering estate party and finds, tucked behind a high green hedge, a sanctuary of memory, fresh cookies, and the possibility of a late-in-life love.
My Summer with Dr. Singletary: Part 2 from Volume V of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
The quiet wisdom of an aging country physician reveals the deep, interconnected beauty of a small New England village. His life is a gentle testament to the idea that true peace is found in observing the natural world and serving one’s neighbors with compassion.
Occasional Poems: Part 3 from Volume IV of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
This collection of verse captures the quiet pulse of nineteenth-century New England, offering a series of meditative snapshots of a world in transition. These are poems of occasion—written for anniversaries, church openings, and reunions—that transform the local and the temporary into reflections on faith,…
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 40, February, 1861: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This volume captures the intellectual pulse of early 1861, blending rigorous cultural criticism with the urgent, unfolding anxieties of a nation on the brink of civil war.
The Desert Fiddler
William H. (William Henry) Hamby
A young laborer seeks his fortune in the Imperial Valley’s unforgiving cotton fields, armed with little more than a fiddle, a stubborn work ethic, and a fierce, righteous defiance against the men who would exploit the soil.
The Gilded Age, Part 3
Mark Twain
The dreams of wealth and the grit of political machinery collide in a nation obsessed with its own rapid, often reckless, expansion. This narrative dissects the fine line between ambition and delusion during a period defined by unchecked speculation.
The Way to Peace
Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
When an impulsive wife drags her devoted husband into a tranquil Shaker community to satisfy her craving for spiritual intensity, she unexpectedly loses his heart to the very faith she eventually discards.
Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack: Being an Extremely Humorous & Sarcastic Story of the Trials & Tribulations Endured by a Party of Stockmen Making a Shipment from the West to the East
Frank Benton
A weary, sardonic chronicle of the American West’s final frontier, this narrative captures the absurdity of a cattle shipment gone wrong as seen through the eyes of men stranded on the tracks.
Dolly's College Experiences
Mabel Cronise Jones
A spirited Freshman navigates the triumphs, trials, and shifting social hierarchies of life at Westover College, finding that the strongest academic bonds are often forged through shared secrets and unexpected acts of courage.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XVIII, No. 5, May 1841
Various
This collection offers a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of the early Victorian literary imagination, blending high-seas adventure, domestic drama, and critical commentary. It captures the intellectual and emotional preoccupations of 1841 in a single, curated volume.
Old Kaskaskia
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
The history of a vanished town lives through the eyes of those who loved it, caught between the old world’s quiet elegance and the rising tide of a new era.
Susan Clegg and Her Neighbors' Affairs
Anne Warner
The daily life of a provincial town becomes a theatrical stage for one woman’s relentless observations. Through her eyes, the mundane concerns of neighbors are magnified into epic tales of social maneuvering.
The Big Idea
Ray Cummings
A coal miner from Pennsylvania escapes the darkness of the pits by dreaming up a revolutionary industrial invention that forces him to navigate the treacherous waters of big-city corporate ambition.
The Golden Judge
Nathaniel Gordon
A flippant suggestion made during a sweltering UN armistice meeting unexpected transforms global diplomacy by proving that nations respect the outcome of a fair bet far more than formal treaties.
The riddle of the rangeland
Forbes Parkhill
The rugged Wyoming wilderness becomes a trap for a young rancher wrongly accused of murder, forcing him to outwit both the law and a hidden conspirator to prove his innocence.
Their Child
Robert Herrick
A young couple faces the shattering realization that their five-year-old son carries a violent, inherited darkness, forcing them to choose between their own desires and the lifelong burden of their child’s nature.
Trading
Susan Warner
Young people navigate the complexities of faith, social responsibility, and the moral use of wealth in this nineteenth-century domestic drama. It centers on the quiet conviction that true purpose is found in serving others.
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.
Boy meets dyevitza
Robert F. Young
HOOK Two rival astronauts from Earth land on Venus, only to be forced into a strange, binding marriage by a society of bronze-age puritans.
Bred in the bone: 1908
Thomas Nelson Page
The pedigree of a horse and the character of a man are tested against the relentless pace of a high-stakes steeplechase. It is a story of tradition, resilience, and the quiet dignity of a horseman from the Virginia countryside.
Bressant: A Novel
Julian Hawthorne
A cold, brilliant intellectual experiment collides with the messy, inconvenient realities of the human heart. This story tracks the dangerous results of a social and emotional upbringing conducted in a vacuum.
Every Soul Hath Its Song
Fannie Hurst
The struggle for human connection in the modern city is a relentless, high-stakes performance. Amidst the shifting landscapes of a rapidly industrializing America, fragile lives collide, trade secrets, and seek a moment of genuine grace.
Nibsy's Christmas
Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis
Child newsboys, destitute families, and homeless boys search for warmth, safety, and a sliver of holiday joy across the freezing, neglected tenement blocks of nineteenth-century New York.
Radio razz
Jack Woodford
A wily merchant’s attempt to play matchmaker in his cluttered radio shop backfires when he discovers he has been outmaneuvered by a pair of clever, coordinated customers.
The Autobiography of a Play: Papers on Play-Making, II
Bronson Howard
This account of a seasoned playwright’s craft reveals how one story can be reshaped across different cultures and decades. It serves as a candid masterclass in the technical demands of the stage.
The Cobbler In The Devil's Kitchen: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
Hook A solitary cobbler living in a cave on Mackinac Island navigates the chaotic social world of the nineteenth-century fur trade through a singular, mysterious act of intervention.
The field of amber gold
William Bigelow Neal
The relentless forces of nature test the mettle of a pioneer couple, as one man’s struggle against the Dakota winter becomes a defiant stand against ruin.
The Outer Quiet
Herbert D. Kastle
The world has ended, and a handful of survivors live as prisoners in a silent, housing-project cage. When there is nothing left to lose, the only remaining choice is to reclaim one's humanity through rebellion.
A Christmas Accident and Other Stories
Annie Eliot Trumbull
Sometimes the smallest shift in perspective—a chance encounter or a change of heart—is enough to dismantle the walls we build between ourselves and the world.
Catharine
Nehemiah Adams
A reflection on the final illness and passing of a nineteen-year-old woman, this work offers a father’s meditation on faith, the hope of resurrection, and the Christian perspective on enduring the loss of a child.
Clover and Blue Grass
Eliza Calvert Hall
A rural Kentucky community moves through small crises and quiet awakenings, where local gossip, traditional pride, and unvarnished Christian charity reshape the everyday lives of ordinary neighbors.
Idyllic Monologues: Old and New World Verses
Madison Julius Cawein
These verses capture the elegiac spirit of a fading nineteenth-century world, where nature and memory collide in tales of tragic love and historical longing.
Pegeen
Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd
A solitary painter’s retreat is interrupted by a small, irrepressible girl who decides he needs "seeing to." This gentle story explores the healing power of community and the quiet, profound connections that form in a New England valley.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 03, April 16, 1870
Various
This weekly periodical serves as a vibrant, satirical mirror to the American social and political landscape of 1870, blending sharp-witted commentary with the era’s distinct obsession with commerce, technology, and cultural pretension.
Richard Carvel
Winston Churchill
A young gentleman of colonial Maryland navigates the treacherous waters of family betrayal, the stirrings of revolution, and a heart tethered to a childhood sweetheart.
Some Anomalies of the Short Story (from Literature and Life)
William Dean Howells
The short story occupies a strange, unsettled territory in the literary landscape, beloved when encountered in isolation but mysteriously shunned when gathered together in a single volume. This inquiry explores that persistent puzzle.
The brother clerks
Mary Ashley Townsend
The arrival of two brothers in the bustling port of New Orleans sets them on diverging paths, testing the strength of their bond against the city’s temptations and their own internal struggles.
The Little People of the Snow
William Cullen Bryant
A child strays beyond her winter boundaries, coaxed by an icy creature into a world of subterranean frosted magic.
The Memory of Mars
Raymond F. Jones
A man’s desperate quest to uncover the truth behind his wife’s death leads him into a chilling encounter with the architects of human destiny. What begins as a personal mystery unfolds into a haunting revelation about the nature of identity and the survival of a species.
The orphan nieces
Lucy Ellen Guernsey
The burden of duty often conflicts with the whims of the heart, yet true character is forged in the fires of these quiet, daily sacrifices.
The Peddler's Boy
Francis C. (Francis Channing) Woodworth
The path from a humble, impoverished beginning to honorable success is paved by a resolute heart and the courage to refuse the first glass of temptation.
The Thunder Bird
B. M. Bower
Johnny Jewel, a young ranch hand with a singular passion for aviation, risks everything to prove himself as a pilot and secure a future with his sweetheart. His journey from the open ranges to the murky world of cross-border intrigue tests his integrity, his judgment, and his loyalty to those who believe in him.
The Web of Life
Robert Herrick
A dedicated surgeon struggles to reconcile his medical calling with the suffocating social expectations and moral decay of turn-of-the-century Chicago.
Three plays : Lawing and jawing
Zora Neale Hurston
This collection of plays captures the vibrant, rhythmic vernacular and social textures of African American life in the early 20th century. Through farce, music, and sharp-tongued banter, it offers a window into a world defined as much by its wit as by its hardships.
A Captain of Industry: Being the Story of a Civilized Man
Upton Sinclair
The life of a titan of industry is a gilded cage, where the cold mechanics of wealth eventually silence the human soul. This portrait captures the descent of a man who mistakes financial dominance for the ultimate measure of existence.
Christmas on Wheels
Willis Boyd Allen
This mid-winter romance follows a cynical young lawyer whose cross-country trip is interrupted by a blizzard, transforming a tedious train journey into a life-changing encounter with grace and community.