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American Literature — page 99
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 99 of 101.
The Yale Literary Magazine (Vol. I, No. 2, March 1836)
Various
This collection of student essays, poetry, and reviews captures the intellectual pulse and social anxieties of nineteenth-century Yale. It serves as a time capsule of academic ambition, earnest philosophical inquiry, and the earnest, often turbulent transition into adulthood.
We Didn't Do Anything Wrong, Hardly
Roger Kuykendall
This story captures the quintessential suburban daydream of the mid-century, where two boys accidentally stumble into an international incident by building a functional spacecraft in their backyard. It is a whimsical, conversational piece of science fiction that leans heavily into the absurdity of cold-war tensions…
A Philanthropist
Josephine Daskam Bacon
A woman’s crusade to improve her neighbors meets a man’s commitment to his own leisurely comfort. Their unlikely, friction-filled partnership blossoms into a quiet, enduring domestic tension that defines their shared life.
Apron-Strings
Eleanor Gates
This story explores the stifling bonds between mothers and daughters, showing how one woman breaks free from emotional manipulation to find her own identity and capacity for love.
Benefits Forgot: A Story of Lincoln and Mother Love
Honoré Morrow
The story of a young man’s awakening to the love and sacrifice of his mother, centered on a life-changing encounter with Abraham Lincoln.
Jubilation, U.S.A
G. L. Vandenburg
Two curious alien visitors mistake a small town’s boisterous marketing for an invitation to genuine fellowship, leading to a disastrous misunderstanding in a local saloon. This brisk, satirical short story serves as a sharp critique of human greed and the thin veneer of hospitality.
The Angel of Lonesome Hill
Frederick Landis
A devoted mother’s faith in a dream leads her aging husband on a desperate journey to the White House to secure a presidential pardon for their long-imprisoned son.
The Inside of the Cup
Winston Churchill
The rector of a fashionable congregation finds his faith unraveled when he confronts the stark, unforgiving realities of the urban poor. His comfortable existence as a clergyman of the status quo dissolves, forcing a radical, soul-searching choice between his ecclesiastical career and his conscience.
The Philistine
Various
A restless, defiant spirit animates this small periodical, serving as a sharp-tongued manifesto for those who find the conventional literary and social standards of the late nineteenth century stiflingly dull. It presents itself not as a polished volume, but as an insurgent voice, eager to dismantle the pomposity…
The thin match
Henry S. (Henry St. Clair) Whitehead
The life of an imperfect object becomes a testament to courage when a discarded match finds its purpose in a frozen wilderness. This story explores how the most overlooked among us can ultimately hold the spark of salvation.
A hat in the radio ring
Garret Smith
The dawn of the radio age turns political campaigning into a high-stakes, invisible battlefield where the truth is easily hijacked by those who control the airwaves.
Dreamer's World
Bryce Walton
In a post-apocalyptic future, a man conditioned to live in a perpetual drug-induced dream state must confront the terrifying, bloody reality of the world outside to save the woman he loves.
Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums
Mark Overton
The gridiron serves as the crucible for character in this turn-of-the-century tale, where athletic discipline and quiet acts of courage bridge the divide between local rivals and estranged families.
Samantha among the Brethren
Marietta Holley
HOOK This spirited chronicle of a farm wife’s battle for equality reveals the absurdity of the "separate spheres" doctrine with sharp wit and unwavering common sense.
The Son of My Friend
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
An ordinary social obligation becomes a moral catastrophe when a couple decides that the expectations of their fashionable circle matter more than the safety of a friend’s struggling son.
The unbidden guest
Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
HOOK A jealous bride’s obsession turns deadly, setting off a desperate struggle for love, fortune, and redemption in this high-stakes Victorian drama.
A Napa Christchild
Charles A. Gunnison
The Napa Valley serves as the backdrop for a quiet, spectral transformation, where a lonely immigrant’s Christmas vigil brings forth an unexpected guest who reshapes his entire world. This narrative weaves together the rugged, rain-swept reality of early Californian homesteading with a haunting, folklore-infused…
Derelicts of the hills
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Two grizzled prospectors in the Montana hills confront the comedic, often painful realities of loneliness, romantic delusions, and the untrustworthy nature of "civilized" life.
His Unquiet Ghost: 1911
Charles Egbert Craddock
A reckless young man is mistakenly declared dead by a gang of moonshiners, forcing him to witness his own funeral and the true feelings of his neighbors as a ghost among the living.
Miss Heck's Thanksgiving Party
Ida Hamilton Munsell
This portrait of a quick-witted, unconventional household worker explores the boundary between personal ambition and systemic inequality. It is a sharp, provocative look at a woman who refuses to be confined by her station.
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
These collected verses capture the pulse of nineteenth-century American life, blending the gravity of national milestones with the sharp, rhythmic wit of a keen social observer.
Where the battle was fought
Charles Egbert Craddock
A haunted landscape of war-torn Tennessee serves as the backdrop for a tense, atmospheric drama where the ghosts of the past collide with the desperate schemes of the living.
Little Miss Weezy
Penn Shirley
A high-spirited toddler tests the patience of an entire neighborhood, turning everyday household routines into a series of charming, unpredictable adventures.
Pig iron
Dudrea Parker
A quiet, tragic exploration of duty, unrequited devotion, and the heavy consequences of human impulse in early twentieth-century Baltimore.
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Gathered around a steaming parlor teapot, an eccentric circle of New England friends shares stories, verse, and quiet reflections on life's hidden secrets.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne
Gelett Burgess
A biting, rhythmic satire of the early twentieth-century publishing industry, this work uses the familiar structure of a famous Persian poem to skewer the vanity, commercialism, and literary mediocrity of its day.
Dotty Dimple at Play
Sophie May
When six-year-old Alice Parlin, known as Dotty Dimple, returns from a western journey, her spirited, imaginative nature leads her from heartwarming family reunions straight into mischievous adventures and accidental mishaps.
Legend of Barkhamsted Light House: A Tale from the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut
Lewis Sprague Mills
A wealthy maiden defies her father's harsh decree to marry an Indian youth, carving out a resilient, hidden life on a rugged Connecticut mountain where generations shape a legendary frontier settlement.
Nothing to Say: A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery, Which Has 'Nothing to Do' with 'Nothing to Wear'
Q. K. Philander Doesticks
A clever satirical defense of the wealthy dismantles populist cant as Charity escorts a cringing demon through New York institutions and Arctic wastes to prove that true philanthropy belongs to the rich.
Andrew the Glad
Maria Thompson Daviess
Amidst southern warmth, political campaigns, and quiet hearths, old tragedies cast long shadows as two resilient couples navigate the tangled paths of love, pride, and redemption.
Coming Home: 1916
Edith Wharton
A haunting exploration of the moral gray zones born in the trenches, where the line between hero and executioner dissolves in the shadow of total war.
My Friend Bobby
Alan Edward Nourse
An isolated five-year-old boy with a terrifying telepathic secret relies on his loyal collie to protect him from frightened, abusive parents in a snow-bound rural farmhouse.
When the Yule Log Burns: A Christmas Story
Leona Dalrymple
A warmth that smells of cedar wood and spice carries through every line of this small, bright story of old-fashioned cheer.
If at First You Don't
John Brudy
A satellite's impending demise sparks a wildly contentious bureaucratic and public frenzy, culminating in the absurdity of launching an exact duplicate back into space.
The Day of the Dog
George Barr McCutcheon
Trapped on a barn beam by a ferocious bulldog, a Chicago lawyer and his wealthy client forge an unexpected romance while dodging corrupt relatives across rural Illinois.
The Mothers Of Honoré: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
A young man and a girl, both burdened by the erratic romantic lives of their elders, find their own long-standing friendship tested by the looming pressure of marriage and the sudden, distant call of the Spanish-American War.
Odyssey of a hero
Vardis Fisher
Returning home to Idaho after the First World War, decorated soldier John Benton discovers that his community demands heroic fables, not the bitter truth of combat.
The Great Drought
S. P. (Sterner St. Paul) Meek
When mysterious static electricity grounds the nation's air fleet and triggers a devastating two-year drought, an intrepid scientist and his secret service allies uncover a sinister plot in the dark Maryland marshes.
Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration
Leona Dalrymple
A destitute Southern colonel and his devoted servant scheme to hide their financial ruin from the mistress on Christmas Eve, sparking a chain of tender domestic deceptions.
Dreamtown, U.S.A
Leo P. Kelley
In a futuristic American city where books are banned and citizens live on constant sensory highs, a small band of rebels plots a daring uprising to reclaim history and human connection.
Lost: 1898
Edward Bellamy
A young man’s romantic, decades-long search for a lost love takes a jarring turn when he finally discovers that the girl he remembers has been erased by the passage of time.
The Cursed Patois: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
Two wilderness outfitters on Michigan’s Brevoort Lake take in a destitute French-Canadian widow and her child, only to find their rugged routine transformed by love.
Julia The Apostate
Josephine Daskam Bacon
The quiet, resolute reclamation of a life cast aside is the heart of this tale. A woman long treated as a background fixture finally chooses her own comfort over the expectations of others.
A loyal lass
Amy Ella Blanchard
Set against the backdrop of the War of 1812, a spirited young woman navigates the divided loyalties of the Niagara frontier, finding love and resilience amidst the wreckage of a torn borderland.
Mark Gildersleeve: A Novel
John S. Sauzade
In the industrial town of Belton, a sensitive young man overcomes his physical infirmities and the stinging pity of his peers to find his path through the crucible of the American Civil War.
Story-Tell Lib
Annie Trumbull Slosson
A physically fragile child with a gift for allegory offers comfort to her village through simple, profound fables that help the living endure their burdens.
The little Cuban rebel
Edna Winfield
A daring young journalist and a spirited aristocrat find their fates entwined amidst the chaos of the Cuban War of Independence, battling both ruthless colonial officers and a conspiracy to steal a family fortune.
The Little Review, June 1917 (Vol. 4, No. 2)
Various
This June 1917 edition of The Little Review captures a singular moment of cultural transition, where the urgency of global war meets the defiant, experimental spirit of emerging modernism. It serves as a defiant manifesto for artistic independence, blending radical politics with the lyrical austerity of a new…