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American Literature — page 95
4,619 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 95 of 97.

Dickens in Camp
Bret Harte
Dickens in Camp acts as a bridge between the rugged, gold-rush reality of the American West and the Victorian sentimentality of England’s most celebrated novelist. It is a brief, evocative poetic tribute that captures how literature can momentarily tame even the wildest spirits.

Half a Dozen Girls
Anna Chapin Ray
A vibrant circle of friends navigates the small triumphs and relatable stumbles of youth in a quiet New England town. Their shared laughter and growing pains define a year of simple, enduring connections.

Lefty o' the Blue Stockings
Burt L. Standish
A young pitcher’s rise in the professional ranks is derailed by personal turmoil and a mysterious lapse in memory. He must find his way back to the mound to reclaim his identity and his game.

Mrs. Tree's Will
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
A sharp-tongued, centenarian matriarch uses her final testament to orchestrate the lives of her village, demanding one last act of defiance against changing times.

Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 14, July 24, 1858
Stephen H. Branch
This aggressive political broadsheet captures the frantic, scandal-ridden atmosphere of 1858 New York City, where public figures are routinely skewered for their perceived corruption and moral failings.

The Case and the Girl
Randall Parrish
A restless veteran answers a mysterious newspaper advertisement, only to find himself entangled in a dangerous web of mistaken identity, corporate conspiracy, and a life-altering search for a long-lost sister.

The Colossus: A Novel
Opie Percival Read
A young man from the margins of society suddenly finds himself the heir to a Chicago retail empire, caught between his hard-won independence and the crushing, soulless weight of his father’s wealth.

The Literary Shop, and Other Tales
James L. (James Lauren) Ford
In the late nineteenth century, the American literary landscape transformed into a vast, industrialized machine. This collection of satirical sketches unmasks the commercial pressures and hollow conventions governing the periodicals of the era.

The Supply at Saint Agatha's
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Saint Agatha’s is a story of a fashionable, insular church confronted by the sudden appearance of a mysterious, transcendent figure. It is a quiet, intense meditation on the cost of true devotion and the spiritual complacency of the wealthy.

The White Bees
Henry Van Dyke
A tapestry of lyrical verse celebrating the American landscape, the virtues of a life lived with purpose, and the enduring power of faith, friendship, and discovery.

Bobby of Cloverfield Farm
Helen Fuller Orton
A young boy navigates the changing seasons of a bustling family farm, learning small, vital lessons about responsibility, nature, and the warmth of home.

Cap'n Jonah's fortune
James A. Cooper
An elderly mariner returns home to find his long-lost relatives are miserly opportunists, but his fortunes take a turn when an overlooked investment suddenly yields a hidden, life-changing bounty.

Frank Merriwell's Prosperity
Burt L. Standish
The life of a touring actor is rarely as glamorous as the footlights suggest, especially when your company is plagued by internal rivalries and hostile locals. This brisk, episodic adventure captures a young star navigating the treacherous waters of professional theater and personal loyalty.

Sketches from Memory: (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A keen observer wanders through the bustling borderlands and infant cities of early nineteenth-century America, recording the quiet poetry and restless energy of a nation in motion.

The Complete Works of Artemus Ward
Artemus Ward
The American landscape is a patchwork of absurdity, and this wandering showman observes it all with a sharp wit that favors the Union, the common person, and the occasional well-timed "goak.

The Hermit Of ——— Street: 1898
Anna Katharine Green
This mystery of 1898 captures the unsettling intersection of domestic comfort and hidden, high-stakes malice. Through the eyes of an ingenue, a dark secret is slowly unspooled, revealing how a young woman’s romantic fascination with a brooding, mysterious neighbor leads her into a trap of her own making.

The Moccasin Ranch: A Story of Dakota
Hamlin Garland
A prairie claim in the Dakota Territory promises a fresh start, but isolation, brutal weather, and forbidden love soon threaten to tear three pioneers apart.

The prior claim
Eleanor Mercein Kelly
This story of a frontier marriage portrays the quiet, haunting conflict between a settler’s claim to the land and the lingering ties of a woman reclaimed from the wilderness. It is a stark, tense look at the costs of expansion.

The Thunders of Silence
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
A charismatic politician builds a career on national attention, only to learn how quickly a country can erased a man by simply looking away.

A journey in search of Christmas
Owen Wister
A cowboy arrives in town seeking the holiday spirit, only to stumble upon a runaway child who forces him to reconcile his lonely, rootless existence with the sudden, heavy burden of fatherhood.

Atchoo! Sneezes from a Hilarious Vaudevillian
George Niblo
A vaudevillian takes the stage to share a rapid-fire collection of jokes, anecdotes, and observations from his life on the road. This performance captures the restless, observational humor of turn-of-the-century American stage comedy.

Deep channel
Margaret Prescott Montague
The quiet, inward-looking lives of two timid souls collide in a small Virginia village, forcing them to choose between social conformity and the risky, liberating truth of their own hearts.

Idylls of the Skillet Fork
Payson Sibley Wild
A rustic, plain-spoken account of farm life in the American Midwest, capturing the humor, hardship, and resilience of those tied to the land during the Great War.

Ole Mars an' Ole Miss
Edmund K. Goldsborough
This collection of sketches and anecdotes captures the rhythms of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore during the antebellum era. It presents a series of vignettes centered on the plantation life of the Pinckney family and the community of enslaved people who resided there, focusing on their storytelling, religious…

Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Love in '76: An Incident of the Revolution
Oliver Bell Bunce
A quick-witted heroine turns the tables on her political enemies using nothing but her own cleverness and a perfectly timed masquerade. This spirited domestic comedy breathes life into the tension of the American Revolution without losing its light, romantic touch.

The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
Charles M. Sheldon
The story of a minister who attempts to live by the radical principles of his faith, this work explores the inevitable collision between spiritual conviction and established social power. It stands as a poignant record of late-nineteenth-century social gospel, examining the cost of integrity in a world governed by…

The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House: 1878, From "Coupon Bonds"
J. T. (John Townsend) Trowbridge
This story captures a peculiar American frontier humor, blending a tall-tale premise with a sharp, empathetic portrait of domestic struggle. It is a work of regional realism that finds profound weight beneath the absurdity of a man attempting to claim a community church as his own property.

The Margenes
Miriam Allen De Ford
The arrival of mysterious, life-sustaining organisms from the ocean promises a golden age of plenty, but their sudden disappearance reveals the fragile, volatile nature of human dependency and global stability.

The Old Stone House
Constance Fenimore Woolson
This narrative follows an aging aunt’s struggle to raise her five orphaned nieces and nephews within the quiet, hallowed walls of a family home, exploring the tension between worldly ambition and spiritual devotion.

A Hundred and Sixty Books by Washington Authors: Some Other Writers Who are Contributors to Periodical Literature
Unknown
This catalog serves as a snapshot of early twentieth-century Washington state literary life, documenting the voices of pioneers, historians, and storytellers who helped define the Pacific Northwest’s cultural identity.

Edward MacDowell, His Work and Ideals
Elizabeth Fry Page
An intimate exploration of a celebrated tone-poet’s creative spirit, this volume blends biography with sensitive poetic interpretations to honor a life defined by nature, mysticism, and the pursuit of artistic excellence.

Medoline Selwyn's Work
Colter, J. J., Mrs.
A young woman’s arrival in a new town sparks a quiet, transformative journey of faith, social discovery, and unexpected romance, proving that small acts of kindness can reshape the lives of both the giver and the recipient.

Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 06, May 7, 1870
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical offers a sharp-witted, satirical window into the political scandals, social pretensions, and daily irritations of post-Civil War New York. It functions as a comedic mirror held up to the excesses of the Gilded Age.

The Heart of the Rose
Mabel Anne McKee
A young man on the cusp of adulthood learns the heavy cost of casual flirtation through the gentle, urgent guidance of his protective older sister. This quiet moral narrative balances the innocence of youth against the sobering responsibilities of manhood.

The pennant
Everett T. (Everett Titsworth) Tomlinson
HOOK A talented country boy finds his grit tested when an act of kindness launches him into the high-stakes world of elite prep school baseball.

The Yale Literary Magazine (Vol. I, No. 3, April 1836)
Various
This collection of student essays, poetry, and narratives provides a window into the intellectual ambitions and social habits of undergraduates in the early nineteenth century. It captures a specific moment of academic life where classical rigor meets the emerging, earnest voice of a new generation.

A Prevaricated Parade
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
A Fourth of July celebration in the Old West descends into a chaos of rivalries, mistaken identities, and explosive misunderstandings. This comic tale captures the absurdity of small-town pride when frontier tempers collide with modern machinery.

A Spray of Kentucky Pine: Placed at the Feet of the Dead Poet James Whitcomb Riley
Douglass Sherley
A heartfelt, unconventional tribute to an American icon, this work serves as both a public memorial for a beloved poet and a private celebration of the author’s mother. It captures the intersection of fame, personal friendship, and the enduring power of vernacular verse.

An Old Woman's Tale: (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
This atmospheric sketch explores the thin, porous veil between the waking world and the dreamscape, where local history and the restless spirits of the past converge in a quiet New England village.

Bib Ballads
Ring Lardner
A weary father navigates the messy, delightful, and exhausting rhythms of domestic life with a young son. Through light verse, he captures the small, universal dramas of raising a toddler at the turn of the twentieth century.

Christmas: A Story
Zona Gale
This quiet, meditative narrative explores the intersection of individual isolation and the universal impulse toward community during the holiday season. It centers on the inhabitants of Old Trail Town as they struggle to reconcile their personal losses with the inherent demands of human connection.

Geoffrey Strong
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
This is a tender portrait of a young physician’s arrival in a quiet village, where he finds his professional composure tested by the intricate, unspoken lives of two sisters and their niece.

Highland annals
Olive Tilford Dargan
This collection of sketches captures the rugged, vanishing life of a North Carolina mountain community through the eyes of a sympathetic outsider. It is a portrait of a place where humanity, for better or worse, remains stubbornly rooted in the soil.

Richard Carvel
Winston Churchill
The story follows a young Maryland colonial, Richard Carvel, as he navigates the treacherous intersections of high-society London, political revolution, and personal honor. It is a sweeping historical narrative centered on his maturation from an impulsive youth into a man of conscience and integrity.

The quilt of happiness
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
The quiet, rural corners of New England come alive in these stories, where the smallest acts of kindness—a mended roof or a handmade quilt—carry the weight of a lifetime.

The Triumph Of Night: 1916
Edith Wharton
A young secretary’s chance encounter with a charismatic stranger on a bitter winter night leads him into a web of unspoken malice and a haunting, fatal destiny he is powerless to avert.

A Transient Guest, and Other Episodes
Edgar Saltus
The sky is a suffocating indigo, and in the heat of the tropics, the most innocent gesture—a kiss, a letter, a gift—can become a fatal misstep.

Aftermath: Part second of "A Kentucky Cardinal"
James Lane Allen
HOOK A solitary gardener finds his quiet, nature-bound existence transformed by the arrival of love and the inevitable, maturing weight of human responsibility.