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Books that shaped America Excerpts from the Library of Congress’s list of literature that has influenced the lives of Americans and sparked public dialogue in honor of its multi-year celebration of books.
“The Way to Wealth; or Poor Richard Improved” (1758), by Benjamin Franklin
As a writer, Benjamin Franklin was best known for the wit and wisdom he shared with the readers of his popular almanac, “Poor Richard,” under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders.” This piece has been translated into many languages and is the most extensively reprinted of all of Franklin’s writings.
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Library of Congress
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“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), by Washington Irving
One of the first works of fiction by an American author to become popular outside the United States, Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: was first published as part of “The Sketchbook” in 1820.
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Library of Congress
“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” (1845), by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass’s first autobiography is one of the best-written and most widely read slave narratives. It was boldly published less than seven years after Douglass had escaped and before his freedom was purchased.
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Library of Congress
“The Scarlet Letter” (1850), by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Scarlet Letter” was the first important novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the leading authors of 19th-century romanticism in American literature. Like many of his works, the novel is set in Puritan New England and examines guilt, sin and evil as inherent human traits.
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Library of Congress
“Moby Dick; or The Whale” (1851), by Herman Melville
Herman Melville’s allegory of the Great White Whale and the obsessed Captain Ahab, who declares he will chase him “round perdition’s flames before I give him up” has become an American standard. Even people who have never read “Moby Dick” know the basic plot, and references to it are common in other works of American literature and in popular culture, such as the Star Trek film “The Wrath of Khan” (1982).
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Library of Congress
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), by Harriet Beecher Stowe
With the intent of awakening sympathy for oppressed slaves and encouraging Northerners to disobey the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe began writing her vivid sketches of slave sufferings and family separations. This bestselling novel of the 19th century was extremely influential in fueling antislavery sentiment during the decade preceding the Civil War.
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Library of Congress
“Goodnight Moon” (1947), by Margaret Wise Brown
This bedtime story has been a favorite of young people for generations, beloved as much for its rhyming story as for its carefully detailed illustrations by Clement Hurd. Millions have read it (and had it read to them). “Goodnight Moon” has been referred to as the perfect bedtime book.
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Library of Congress
“A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947), by Tennessee Williams
A landmark work, which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “A Streetcar Named Desire” thrilled and shocked audiences with its melodramatic look at a clash of cultures. These cultures are embodied in the two main characters — Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle whose genteel pretensions thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur, and Stanley Kowalski, a representative of the industrial, urban working class.
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Library of Congress
“The Catcher in the Rye” (1951), by J. D. Salinger
Since his debut in 1951 as the narrator of “The Catcher in the Rye,” 16-year-old Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with adolescent alienation and angst.
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Library of Congress
“Where the Wild Things Are” (1963), by Maurice Sendak
“It is my involvement with this inescapable fact of childhood — the awful vulnerability of children and their struggle to make themselves King of All Wild Things — that gives my work whatever truth and passion it may have,” Maurice Sendak said in his Caldecott Medal acceptance speech on June 30, 1964. Sendak called Max, the hero of “Where the Wild Things Are,” his “bravest and therefore my dearest creation.” Max, who is sent to his room with nothing to eat, sails to where the wild things are and becomes their king.
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"Poems" (1890), by Emily Dickinson
Very few of the nearly 1,800 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote were published during her lifetime, and even then they were heavily edited to conform to the poetic conventions of their time. A complete edition of her unedited work was not published until 1955. Her idiosyncratic structure and rhyming schemes inspired later poets.
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Library of Congress
“The Sound and the Fury” (1929), by William Faulkner
“The Sound and the Fury,” William Faulkner’s fourth novel, was his own favorite, and many critics believe it is his masterpiece. Much of the novel is told in a stream-of-consciousness style, in which a character’s thoughts are conveyed in a manner roughly equivalent to the way human minds actually work. Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 and France’s Legion of Honor in 1951.
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Library of Congress
“Gone With the Wind” (1936), by Margaret Mitchell
The most popular romance novel of all time was the basis for the most popular movie of all time (in today’s dollars). Margaret Mitchell’s book set in the South during the Civil War won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and it remains popular, despite charges that its author had a blind eye regarding the horrors of slavery.
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Library of Congress
“The Grapes of Wrath” (1939), by John Steinbeck
Few novels can claim that their message led to actual legislation, but “The Grapes of Wrath” did just that. Its story of the travails of Oklahoma migrants during the Great Depression ignited a movement in Congress to pass laws benefiting farmworkers. When Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, the committee specifically cited this novel as one of the main reasons for the award.
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Library of Congress
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1940), by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway’s novel about the horrors of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) depicts war not as glorious but disillusioning. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the war as the background for his best-selling novel, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and became a literary triumph. Based on his achievement in this and other noted works, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
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Library of Congress
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston,
Although it was published in 1937, it was not until the 1970s that “Their Eyes Were Watching God” became regarded as a masterwork.
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Library of Congress
“Invisible Man” (1952), by Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” is told by an unnamed narrator who views himself as someone many in society do not see, much less pay attention to. Ellison addresses what it means to be an African American in a world hostile to the rights of a minority, on the cusp of the emerging civil rights movement that was to change society irrevocably.
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Library of Congress
“Howl” (1956), by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” (first published as the title poem of a collection) established him as an important poet and the voice of the Beat Generation of the 1950s.
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Library of Congress
“Alcoholics Anonymous” (1939)
The famous 12-step program for stopping an addiction has sold more than 30 million copies. Millions of men and women worldwide have turned to the program co-founded by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith to recover from alcoholism. The “Big Book,” as it is also known, spawned similar programs for other forms of addiction.
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Library of Congress
“On the Road” (1957), by Jack Kerouac
The defining novel of the 1950s Beat Generation (which Kerouac coined), “On the Road” is a semi-autobiographical tale of a bohemian cross-country adventure, narrated by character Sol Paradise. “On the Road” has achieved a mythic status in part because it portrays the restless energy and desire for freedom that makes people take off to see the world.
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Library of Congress
“Catch-22” (1961), by Joseph Heller
Joseph’s Heller’s “Catch-22,” an irreverent World War II novel and satiric treatment of military bureaucracy, has had such a penetrating effect that its title has become synonymous with “no-win situation.” Although the novel won no awards upon its release, it soon became a cult classic, especially among the Vietnam War generation, for its biting indictment of war.
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Library of Congress
“Silent Spring” (1962), by Rachel Carson
A marine biologist and writer, Rachel Carson is considered a founder of the contemporary environmental protection movement. She drew attention to the adverse effects of pesticides, especially the use of DDT, in her book, “Silent Spring,” a 1963 National Book Association nonfiction finalist.
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Library of Congress
“In Cold Blood” (1966), by Truman Capote
A 300-word article in the New York Times about a murder led Truman Capoteto to travel with his childhood friend Harper Lee to Holcomb, Kan., to research his nonfiction novel, which is considered one of the greatest true-crime books ever written.
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Library of Congress
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