American Essentials

Discover the must-read American books with 'American Essentials'—a curated list of classic and contemporary literature that defines the U.S. literary canon.

The Sound and the Fury Cover
Book

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink …
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ID: 048642832X
(Type: book)
Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (LOA #76) Cover
Book

Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (LOA #76)

by Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was the impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, and this volume brings together his best-known works: Common Sense, The American Crisis, …
The Poetry of Robert Frost Cover
Book

The Poetry of Robert Frost

by Robert Frost

A complete collection of Robert Frost's poetry.
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ID: 0486284956
(Type: book)
Go tell it on the mountain : [a novel] Cover
Book

Go tell it on the mountain : [a novel]

by James Baldwin

This novel of Black life in America is written with an impartial attitude
A Farewell to Arms Cover
Book

A Farewell to Arms

by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel of love during wartime. Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge …
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ID: 0486277909
(Type: book)
The Scarlet Letter Cover
Book

The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country," Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter reaches to our …
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ID: 0140421998
(Type: book)
Moby-Dick Cover
Book

Moby-Dick

by Herman Melville

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read First published in 1851, Herman Melville’s masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwick’s words, …
Howl, and Other Poems Cover
Book

Howl, and Other Poems

by Allen Ginsberg

This collection of poems by Ginsberg created a sensation when it was first published in 1956, becoming the subject of an obscenity trial and changing …
complete poems of Emily Dickinson Cover
Book

complete poems of Emily Dickinson

 

No summary available.
Edgar Allan Poe Cover
Book

Edgar Allan Poe

 

No summary available.
The Grapes of Wrath Cover
Book

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s …
Death of a Salesman Cover
Book

Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream, presented here with enlightening commentary and criticism Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a …