Publication year 2006
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Politics & Government, Nation, Community
Tags US History, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Military & War, Politics & Government, Education, Education, American Literature, World History
American Literature
This collection is designed for teachers and professors creating or revising a comprehensive American Literature syllabus. We’ve gathered study guides on classic novels, plays, and poems by some of the most frequently taught American writers, such as Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Toni Morrison, and Louise Glück. If you’re looking for more contemporary texts, like Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam or The Color of Water by James McBride, you’ll find those here, too!
10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America
12 Rules for Life
1491
28 Summers
A Brave And Startling Truth
Absalom, Absalom
Absolutely Normal Chaos
A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass
A Christmas Memory
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Conversation with My Father
A Corner of the Universe
Across the River and into the Trees
A Dark Brown Dog
A Dream Within a Dream
Advice to My Son
A Fable
A Farewell to Arms
A Following
Publication year 2006
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Politics & Government, Nation, Community
Tags US History, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Military & War, Politics & Government, Education, Education, American Literature, World History
Publication year 2018
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Love, Mental Health, Truth & Lies
Tags Self-Improvement, Inspirational, Psychology, Parenting, Sociology, American Literature, Science & Nature, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Politics & Government
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) is Jordan B. Peterson’s second book. Peterson’s self-help book seeks to provide practical and virtuous rules to live by for a wide audience and general readership. The book streamlines, simplifies, and reimagines some of the more traditionally academic topics of Peterson’s first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. Each non-fiction work aims to explain human history and human nature according to universal frameworks. 12... Read 12 Rules for Life Summary
Publication year 2005
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags US History, Anthropology, Anthropology, American Literature, Science & Nature, World History
Published in 2005, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus was written by Charles C. Mann. A companion work, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, was released in 2011. The first chapter introduces many of the problems and inadequacies surrounding popular accounts of native societies. The author describes the tendency to minimize the cultures that existed prior to the arrival of Europeans. Native cultures are seen as simpler and less sophisticated than contemporary... Read 1491 Summary
Publication year 2020
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Guilt, Death
Tags Historical Fiction, Romance, Food, Relationships, Politics & Government, Love & Sexuality, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 1995
Genre Poem, Nonfiction
Themes Equality, Order & Chaos, Beauty, War, Teamwork, Future, Space
Tags Free Verse, Lyric Poem, Spoken Word Poetry, Politics & Government, World History, Military & War, Grief & Death, American Literature
Publication year 1936
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Memory, Race, Nation, War, Justice
Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Southern Gothic, American Civil War, Southern Literature, American Literature, World History
William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936) is one of the many texts in Faulkner’s oeuvre that is set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Faulkner is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, a designation earned due to his innovative and stylistic modernist techniques, which he uses to investigate the history and identity of the American South. Faulkner, who grew up in Mississippi and spent the majority of his life there, was deeply... Read Absalom, Absalom Summary
Publication year 1990
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Coming of Age, Fathers, Family
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Social Class, Relationships, Parenting, Love & Sexuality, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance, Humor
Publication year 1914
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Objects & Materials
Tags Modernism, American Literature
Publication year 1956
Genre Short Story, Fiction
Themes Memory, Friendship, Coming of Age, Childhood & Youth
Tags Classic Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, Southern Literature, Special Occasions, Grief & Death, Children`s Literature, American Literature
Originally published in Mademoiselle magazine in December 1956, “A Christmas Memory” remains one of Truman Capote’s (1924-1984) most anthologized short stories. A midcentury author with a clear and evocative prose style, Capote is remembered for his novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and for his groundbreaking work of true-crime nonfiction, In Cold Blood (1966). Other works by this author include The Grass Harp (1951), Children on Their Birthdays (1948), and Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948).“A Christmas... Read A Christmas Memory Summary
Publication year 1926
Genre Short Story, Fiction
Themes Aging, Death, Loneliness
Tags Education, Education, American Literature, World History, Classic Fiction
Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” was first published in Scribner’s Magazine in March of 1933. It was then anthologized in Hemingway’s 1933 short story collection Winner Takes Nothing. It is regarded as one of his most important and influential short stories and as a clear example of his “Iceberg Theory” and his focus on typical Modernist existential themes. Utilizing the Iceberg Theory, Hemingway allows most of the story to sit below the... Read A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Summary
Publication year 1980
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fate
Tags Humor, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Classic Fiction
John Kennedy Toole’s novel A Confederacy of Dunces was written in the 1960s but only published years after the author’s death. It depicts the adventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, an academic but lazy man who, at age 30, lives with his mother in New Orleans in the early 1960s. Forced to find a job, he encounters a string of colorful characters endemic to the city of the time.The novel begins outside the D. H. Holmes... Read A Confederacy of Dunces Summary
Publication year 1972
Genre Short Story, Fiction
Themes Fathers
Tags Education, Education, American Literature, World History, Classic Fiction
A writer sits next to her elderly, ailing father, who asks her to “write a simple story just once more […] the kind de Maupassant wrote, or Chekhov” (Paragraph 2). Wanting to please her father, the writer agrees, although she privately feels uncomfortable telling stories with a definite beginning and end: “Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life” (Paragraph 3).The writer jots down a one-paragraph story about a woman who begins doing... Read A Conversation with My Father Summary
Publication year 2002
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Coming of Age, Disability
Tags Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age, Historical Fiction, Grief & Death, Depression & Suicide, Health, Mental Illness, American Literature, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Hattie Owen’s life changes the summer she turns 12 and meets the young uncle she never knew existed in Ann M. Martin’s middle-grade novel, A Corner of the Universe (2002). Uncle Adam has been kept a secret because of his mental problems. Adults have trouble handling his emotional extremes, but shy Hattie finds a true friend in her exuberant uncle. Adam teaches Hattie to explore life beyond the safety of her front porch. As Hattie... Read A Corner of the Universe Summary
Publication year 1950
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Masculinity, Death, War
Tags Military & War, American Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction, Literary Fiction
Across the River and into the Trees is a 1950 novel by Ernest Hemingway. The story follows Colonel Richard Cantwell, a decorated American military officer, as he confronts his mortality in the Italian city of Venice. Across the River and into the Trees was a bestseller but received a negative critical reception, particularly in comparison to Hemingway’s earlier works. It explores themes of The Impact of War on Identity, Masculinity and Authority Under the Pressure... Read Across the River and into the Trees Summary
Publication year 1901
Genre Short Story, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Race, Justice
Tags Education, Education, American Literature, Classic Fiction
Publication year 1849
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Death
Tags Romanticism, Grief & Death, Horror & Suspense, American Literature, Gothic Literature, World History, Classic Fiction
Publication year 1991
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Aging, Fathers
Tags Lyric Poem, Symbolic Narrative, Parenting, American Literature
Among Peter Meinke’s most anthologized poems, “Advice to My Son” is best known for its humorous, ironic tone and contemporary interpretation of traditional rhyme structure. First published in 1964 in The Antioch Review, the poem was anthologized in the volume Liquid Paper: New and Selected Poems (1991), published by the Pittsburgh Press. According to Meinke, he had little idea that the poem would so deeply resonate with readers when he first wrote it as a... Read Advice to My Son Summary
Publication year 1955
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Hate & Anger, Grief, Death, Fate, Social Class, Colonialism, Politics & Government, War, Nation, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality, Order & Chaos, Appearance & Reality, Conflict
Tags Symbolic Narrative, Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War I, Military & War, American Literature, World History
Publication year 1929
Genre Novel, Fiction
Tags The Lost Generation, Modernism, American Literature, Military & War, World History, Historical Fiction, Romance, Classic Fiction
A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1929, is the story of Frederic Henry, an officer with the Italian army in World War I, and his relationship with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Some have noted the similarities between the main character and Hemingway, who also served in the Italian army as an ambulance driver in 1918, and his nurse, Agnes Von Kurowsky, who cared for Hemingway after he was wounded.The... Read A Farewell to Arms Summary
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Fame, Art, Conflict
Tags Lyric Poem, Life-Inspired Fiction, American Literature