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American Literature — page 91
4,619 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 91 of 97.
Easy come, easy go
Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin
Laramie Red, a seasoned cowboy with a lifetime of trail dust in his lungs, reaches his breaking point when a pompous ranch owner insults his character. He quits the range, determined to trade his saddle for a taste of sophisticated city life, only to learn that some habits—and some loyalties—are impossible to outrun.
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
Charles M. (Charles Montgomery) Skinner
This collection gathers the haunted, heroic, and tragic echoes of the American South, preserving the ghost stories and local legends that once animated its landscapes and settlements.
Prelude to Space
Robert W. Haseltine
A hunter encounters an unassuming stranger on a quiet Wisconsin hillside, only to discover that the man is a cosmic inspector evaluating Earth’s worthiness to join a wider galactic community.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 22, August 27, 1870
Various
A colorful slice of late nineteenth-century urban culture captures a nation lampooning its own social fractures, political scandals, and literary ambitions.
Sowing and Reaping: A Temperance Story
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
In a society that treats indulgence as a harmless social grace, every choice to compromise or take a stand ripples outward to touch unsuspecting lives.
Stories by American Authors, Volume 8
Various
War, wanderlust, and the shifting boundaries of the human heart define this collection of nineteenth-century American tales. These stories move from the brutal, muddy realism of the battlefield to the quiet, contemplative lives of dreamers seeking meaning beyond the common rut.
Strong Hearts
George Washington Cable
A quiet, observant insurance merchant chronicles the moral trials, steadfast devotions, and hidden tragedies of ordinary lives in late-nineteenth-century New Orleans.
The Lifted Bandage
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
A grieving judge faces the devastating verdict that his son died a murderer, only to find a sudden, inexplicable peace in the wake of despair. This brief narrative explores the collision between rigid rationalism and the profound, transformative power of subjective experience.
The Tangled Threads
Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
The ordinary struggles of daily life find redemption in these quiet tales of sacrifice, unexpected generosity, and the persistent hope of the human heart.
The White Mr. Longfellow (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)
William Dean Howells
This intimate memoir captures the twilight of a literary giant, offering a rare, humanizing portrait of a man whose grace and quiet dignity defined an era of American letters.
Wanted—A Match Maker
Paul Leicester Ford
This gentle, turn-of-the-century tale explores how a chance accident can bridge the immense social chasm between a wealthy young woman and a struggling hospital physician. It is a story of quiet transformation, where class barriers dissolve through the shared care of an injured newsboy.
A Midnight Fantasy
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
A restless midnight stroll through Boston sparks a whimsical, imaginative revision of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. This story explores how two iconic, star-crossed figures might have found happiness if only they had chosen differently.
A Romance of Tompkins Square: 1891
Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone) Janvier
A solitary baker’s pursuit of the perfect honey-cake reveals the fragility of human ambition and the necessity of grace in the face of deep, lingering sorrow.
A successful venture
Ellen Douglas Deland
The Starr family faces a sudden, life-altering financial crisis, forcing them to determine whether they can maintain their independence or must surrender their home to a wealthy, controlling relative.
Anti-Slavery Poems 3.: Part 3 From Volume III of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
This collection of verse captures the moral agitation of a nation fracturing under the weight of human bondage. It serves as a powerful testament to the mid-nineteenth-century struggle for the soul of the American republic.
Asteroid of Fear
Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke) Gallun
HOOK A reformed hothead, struggling to build a new life on a barren asteroid, finds his family’s survival threatened by a gang of sadistic miners and his own volatile temper.
Beasley's Christmas Party
Booth Tarkington
A young man moves to a small Midwestern capital, where a quiet, eccentric politician’s invisible world reveals that kindness and imagination possess power enough to heal lost love and shatter political spite.
Empty bottles
Raymond S. (Raymond Smiley) Spears
A man’s simple request for a clean, empty bottle to warm an ailing baby’s stomach triggers a chain of misunderstandings that culminates in a cold-blooded showdown.
First Fam'lies of the Sierras
Joaquin Miller
A rough-hewn portrait of a remote mining camp, this narrative captures the stark, elemental grace of early California pioneers as they grapple with isolation, morality, and the arrival of the first woman among them.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, January 1841
Various
This volume captures the diverse pulse of American mid-century literary culture, blending serialized fiction, poetry, and practical guidance into a single, eclectic monthly collection. It serves as a fascinating window into the intellectual appetites and social sensibilities of 1841.
How John Norton the Trapper Kept His Christmas
W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison) Murray
A wilderness trapper, guided by his reading of scripture, sets out on a snowy Christmas Eve to bring hope and sustenance to a family facing starvation.
Miss Theodora: A West End Story
Helen Leah Reed
A quiet Boston neighborhood yields to the modern world as a devoted woman chooses family duty over her own happiness, only to find a late-in-life renewal far from home.
My sweetheart's the Man in the Moon
Stephen Marlowe
The first human to set foot on the moon becomes a national sensation, yet the true cost of his fame is measured in the quiet, desperate life of his fiancée, left behind to navigate a world of predatory exploitation.
Seeing the Elephant
George M. (George Melville) Baker
A reformed city man uses a clever ruse involving a fake elephant to shock his future father-in-law into sobriety.
Snow Flakes (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A quiet winter storm transforms a small New England town, calling forth deep reflections on human mortality, artistic creation, and the enduring resilience of the human spirit.
The Great Diamond Syndicate
Nicholas (House name) Carter
A master detective confronts an elusive, organized criminal network in a high-stakes hunt for stolen jewels and a cold-blooded murderer.
The Millionaire Baby
Anna Katharine Green
A vanished heiress, a dark web of old secrets, and a web of deception spinning along the Hudson.
The Voice
Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
A young woman’s desperate attempt to win a minister’s heart through a superstitious love charm backfires, leading to a profound collision between rigid theology, human frailty, and the simple, quiet reality of love.
Unc' Edinburg: A Plantation Echo
Thomas Nelson Page
The story centers on a devoted servant’s recollection of his master’s courtship and the tragic, near-fatal Christmas that redefined their lives. It serves as a nostalgic, dialect-heavy portrait of antebellum Virginia plantation life, remembered through the lens of a loyal, aging narrator.
Among the Hills, and other poems: Part 5 From Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
The golden-rod droops in the heat of a New England summer, signaling a moment of quiet reflection where the labor of the centuries gives way to the gentle, enduring rhythms of the hills.
Elsie's Motherhood
Martha Finley
The story of a devoted mother navigating the perils of the Reconstruction-era South, this narrative explores the intersection of domestic piety and political violence.
Following heavenward
Pansy
HOOK A young clerk’s struggle to find purpose in the face of urban poverty sparks a quiet, persistent campaign of compassion that transforms the lives of neglected boys and cynical souls alike.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 20, August 13, 1870
Various
This illustrated weekly periodical serves as a vibrant, satirical snapshot of American life in 1870, blending sharp political commentary with lighthearted literary parody.
Rope
Holworthy Hall
HOOK A young man, disinherited and cast into the world with a "mean" job, must navigate a gauntlet of small-town moralists and his own immaturity to prove his worth.
Salomy Jane
Bret Harte
A chance meeting between a doomed prisoner and a defiant young woman sets off a chain of frontier violence and transformation. This brisk, atmospheric tale follows the collision of outlaw life, rigid honor codes, and an unlikely romance in the rugged California Sierra.
The Gentleman from Everywhere
James Henry Foss
This autobiography chronicles a life of relentless movement, tracing a journey from humble, rural beginnings through a career of teaching, preaching, and colonizing, ultimately seeking a vision of social harmony. It stands as a curious, earnest testament to the restless spirit of the nineteenth-century American…
The Opinions of a Philosopher
Robert Grant
At forty, a man may fancy himself a serene spectator of life, only to find that raising children, buying houses, and entering politics will upend every quiet pretense.
Three Unpublished Poems
Louisa May Alcott
This collection offers a rare, intimate window into the bond between a visionary father and his devoted daughter, preserved through long-hidden verses found in an old Massachusetts home.
Walda: A Novel
Mary Holland Kinkaid
A stranger’s arrival at a secluded religious commune ignites a forbidden, transformative passion that forces a young prophetess to choose between her community’s rigid devotion and the call of her own heart.
A Virginia Cousin, & Bar Harbor Tales
Harrison, Burton, Mrs.
A young man adrift in the social expectations of old New York finds his true direction only when he wanders into the unfamiliar warmth of the American South.
Daisy
Susan Warner
A young girl navigates the moral complexities of a divided nation and her own faith, seeking to bridge the vast distance between her aristocratic upbringing and the lived reality of those around her.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 12, June 18, 1870
Various
This weekly periodical captures the sharp, satirical pulse of Gilded Age New York through a kaleidoscopic blend of burlesque serials, political lampoons, and relentless advertisements.
Roundabout to Boston (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)
William Dean Howells
A young writer traverses the post-Civil War landscape, seeking a place among the literary giants of his day. This memoir chronicles his transition from a struggling consul in Venice to a fixture of the Boston establishment.
Solomon's Orbit
William Carroll
An elderly junk dealer accidentally touches off an international space race when he begins launching his unsold classic cars into orbit using only engine parts and sheer ingenuity.**
The Dream-God, or, A Singular Evolvement of Thought in Sleep
John Cuningham
A bedridden man’s morphine-induced sleep unlocks a celestial voyage, as a winged spirit guides him across the globe to debate the nature of power, faith, and the destiny of nations.
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The wisdom of age, the endurance of memory, and the quiet dignity of a life spent in service define these reflections from a master of the nineteenth-century American literary tradition.
The Sheriffs Bluff: 1908
Thomas Nelson Page
A lighthearted Southern politician meets his match in a stern, principled woman, proving that even a master of the bluff can be outplayed when his past antics finally come due.
The Sign at Six
Stewart Edward White
When a mysterious, invisible force begins to paralyze New York City with targeted terror, a cynical scientist must outmaneuver both a desperate political boss and a brilliant, cold-blooded rival to stop a catastrophe.