Category: American Literature

Little Woman | Louisa May Alcott
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: Louisa May Alcott’s beloved tale about Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy is presented in a beautiful Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics edition. The story of the four sisters’ dreams, quarrels, and romances are brought to vivid life

About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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The Mysterious Key and What it Opened | Louisa May Alcott
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: When Lillian Trevlyn is a baby, her father dies under mysterious circumstances, and she nearly loses her mother on the very same day. Lillian grows up to become a lovely young woman, but the mysteries of her childhood remain unsolved. Paul, an orphaned boy, enters the story as a groomsman. Though he is warmly received by the family he is furtive and evasive regarding his past and future plans. The romantic mystery of the Trevlyn family catches full fire when Paul disappears.

About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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The Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book:

About the Author: James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances draw a picture of frontier and American Indian life in the early American days which created a unique form of American literature.

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Little Men – Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys | Louis May Alcott
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This is a downloadable copy of the book. (215 pages)
About the book: Little Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys, is a children’s novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), which was first published in 1871 by Roberts Brothers. The book reprises characters from her 1868-69 two-volume novel Little Women, and acts as a sequel, or the second book in an unofficial Little Women trilogy.

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Life on the Mississippi | Mark Twain
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This is a downloadable copy of the book. (558 pages)
About the book: Life on the Mississippi, memoir of the steamboat era on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War by Mark Twain, published in 1883.

The book begins with a brief history of the river from its discovery by Hernando de Soto in 1541. Chapters 4–22 describe Twain’s career as a Mississippi steamboat pilot, the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The second half of Life on the Mississippi tells of Twain’s return, many years after, to travel the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. By then the competition from railroads had made steamboats passé, in spite of improvements in navigation and boat construction. Twain observes new, large cities on the river

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Eight Cousins | Louisa May Alcott
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About the book: Cousins, or The Aunt-Hill was published in 1875 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott. It is the story of Rose Campbell, a lonely and sickly girl who has been recently orphaned and must now reside with her maiden aunts, the matriarchs of her wealthy Boston family. When Rose’s guardian, Uncle Alec, returns from abroad, he takes over her care.

About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel published in 1852. Tthe novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have “helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War”. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.

About the Author: Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

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The MayFlower and Miscellaneous Writings (Stowe)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: It was her book, The Mayflower which first brought Stowe attention internationally. The Mayflower was so popular in England that it was immediately republished and it essentially made Stowe’s reputation abroad. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important.

About the Author: Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

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Moby Dick | Herman Melville
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This is a downloadable copy of the book. (386 pages)
About the book: A literary classic that wasn’t recognized for its merits until decades after its publication, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick tells the tale of a whaling ship and its crew, who are carried progressively further out to sea by the fiery Captain Ahab. Obsessed with killing the massive whale, which had previously bitten off Ahab’s leg, the seasoned seafarer steers his ship to confront the creature, while the rest of the shipmates, including the young narrator, Ishmael, and the harpoon expert, Queequeg, must contend with their increasingly dire journey. The book invariably lands on any short list of the greatest American novels.

Interest Level Reading Level

Grades 9 – 12 Grades 9 – 11

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The Pioneers (Cooper)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: The book was the first of five novels published which became known as the Leatherstocking Tales.

The story takes place on the rapidly advancing frontier of New York State and features an elderly Leatherstocking (Natty Bumppo), Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton (whose life parallels that of the author’s father Judge William Cooper), and Elizabeth Temple (based on the author’s sister, Hannah Cooper), daughter of the fictional Templeton. The story begins with an argument between the judge and Leatherstocking over who killed a buck. Through their discussion, Cooper reviews many of the changes to New York’s Lake Otsego and its area: questions of environmental stewardship, conservation, and use prevail. Leatherstocking and his closest friend, the Mohican Indian Chingachgook, begin to compete with the Temples for the loyalties of a mysterious young visitor, a “young hunter” known as Oliver Edwards. The latter eventually marries Elizabeth Temple. Chingachgook dies, representing European-American fears for the race of “dying Indians”, who appear to be displaced by settlers. Natty vanishes into the sunset.

About the Author: James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances draw a picture of frontier and American Indian life in the early American days which created a unique form of American literature.

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The Complete Poetical Works of Longfellow
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: This book is a large download (over 1,300 pages) and contains all of the works of Longfellow.

About the Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride”, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.

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Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
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This is a downloadable copy of the book. (548 pages)
About the book: Completed just days before his death and hailed by Mark Twain as “the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar,” this is the now-legendary autobiography of ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT (1822-1885), 18th president of the United States and the Union general who led the North to victory in the Civil War. Though Grant opens with tales of his boyhood, his education at West Point, and his early military career in the Mexican-American war of the 1840s, it is Grant’s intimate observations on the conduct of the Civil War, which make up the bulk of the work, that have made this required reading for history students, military strategists, and Civil War buffs alike. This unabridged edition features all the material that was originally published in two volumes in 1885 and 1886, including maps, illustrations, and the text of Grant’s July 1865 report to Washington on the state of the armies under his command.

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The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

About the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

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Flower Fables | Louisa May Alcott
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About the book: Flower fables was the first work published by Louisa May Alcott and appeared on December 4, 1849. The book was a compilation of fanciful stories first written seven years earlier for Ellen Emerson.

About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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The Deerslayer (Cooper)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: This book was the last of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales to be written. Its 1740-1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. The novel’s setting on Otsego Lake in central, upstate New York, is the same as that of The Pioneers, the first of the Leatherstocking Tales to be published (1823). The Deerslayer is considered to be the prequel to the rest of the series. Fenimore Cooper begins his work by relating the astonishing advance of civilization in New York State, which is the setting of four of his five Leatherstocking Tales.

About the Author: James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances draw a picture of frontier and American Indian life in the early American days which created a unique form of American literature.

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Daniel Boone – The Pioneer of Kentucky
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Daniel Boone is regarded as the first real American folk hero. Without his cunning bravery, settlement west of the Appalachians may not have been made possible for years. Boone’s Wilderness Road, which is still used today, helped bridge the Cumberland Gap, granting access to the state of Kentucky from Pennsylvania.

Thanks to the writing of John S. C. Abbot, the life and genius of Boone can truly be appreciated through Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky. Find out just how Boone crafted his Wilderness Trail, what he did to make it happen, and how he overcame the struggles of life in late eighteenth century America.

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The House of Seven Gables (Hawthorne)
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This is a downloadable copy of the book.
About the book: The novel follows a New England family and their ancestral home. In the book, Hawthorne explores themes of guilt, retribution, and atonement, and colors the tale with suggestions of the supernatural and witchcraft. The setting for the book was inspired by the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, a gabled house in Salem, Massachusetts, belonging to Hawthorne’s cousin Susanna Ingersoll, as well as ancestors of Hawthorne who had played a part in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

About the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

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