American Literature

'Smiles': A Rose of the Cumberlands

Eliot H. Robinson

This work is an epistolary novel set in the Cumberland Mountains, introduced through a series of letters that…

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street

Herman Melville

The work is a mid‑nineteenth‑century novella that frames itself as a memoir of a modest New York…

Master of the Vineyard

Myrtle Reed

The novel opens with a lyrical panorama of a secluded valley, where Rosemary, a twenty‑five‑year‑old woman,…

The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western Prairies

Ridgwell Cullum

Ridley Steyne’s “The Watchers of the Plains” opens with a stark portrait of a weather‑worn hut on the White…

Mr. Opp

Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice

The novel opens on a languid Kentucky riverbank where Jimmy Fallows, a stout‑bodied ferryman, waits for the…

A Voice in the Wilderness

Grace Livingston Hill

A. Grace Livingston Hill’s opening places the reader in a stark, night‑time desert scene where a young…

The Dominant Dollar

Will Lillibridge

The Dominant Dollar is a work of fiction that opens with a dense, almost theatrical exchange between two men,…

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil

W. E. B. Du Bois

Darkwater is a collection of essays, poems, and reflections that W. E. B.

The Fire People

Ray Cummings

Ray Cummings’s The Fire People is a science‑fiction tale that launches with a startling, almost journalistic…

Shoe-Bar Stratton

Joseph Bushnell Ames

The novel opens with a vivid, almost cinematic description of a lone rider, Buck Stratton, watching a…

The Belle of Bowling Green

Amelia E. Barr

The Belle of Bowling Green is a historical romance set against the backdrop of early‑nineteenth‑century New…

Deerfoot in The Mountains

Edward Sylvester Ellis

Deerfoot in The Mountains is a juvenile adventure set against the backdrop of the Lewis and Clark era,…

Spring Street A Story of Los Angeles

James Hugh Richardson

Spring Street is a newspaper‑serial turned novel that plunges the reader into the gritty, sun‑baked streets…

The Lost Continent

Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Lost Continent is a science‑fiction adventure that begins by sketching a world in which the Atlantic and…

Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton

The novel is a domestic fiction set in a bleak New England village, where the narrator first encounters Ethan…

A Romantic Young Lady

Robert Grant

The novel opens with a detailed portrait of a young woman’s upbringing, framed by the contrasting influences…

The Wind Before the Dawn

Dell H. Munger

The Wind Before the Dawn is a psychological fiction set on the Kansas prairie, focusing on married women,…

A dictionary of American authors

Oscar Fay Adams

Oscar Fay Adams’s Dictionary of American Authors is a scholarly reference work that seeks to catalogue the…

Children of the Tenements

Jacob A. Riis

Jacob A. Riis’s Children of the Tenements is a collection of short, reportage‑style stories drawn from his…

The Flag

Homer Greene

The work is a juvenile adventure set against a home‑front version of the First World War, where the conflict…

The Varmint

Owen Johnson

The Varmint is a school‑boy adventure set against the backdrop of an early‑twentieth‑century boarding school,…

The Phantom of the River

Edward Sylvester Ellis

The Phantom of the River is a juvenile adventure set on the American frontier, weaving together the legendary…

The San Rosario Ranch

Maud Howe Elliott

The San Rosario Ranch opens with a vivid tableau of a sprawling, flower‑clad house in California, where a…

Sundry Accounts

Irvin S. Cobb

Sundry Accounts is a collection of short stories that paints a portrait of a small American town through the…