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!

The Way to Rainy Mountain

by N. Scott Momaday

Publication year 1969

Genre Anthology/Varied Collection, Nonfiction

Themes Memory, Indigenous Identity, Language, Death, Colonialism, Religion & Spirituality

Tags Fairy Tale & Folklore, Narrative Poem, US History, American Literature, Mythology, Education, Education, Classic Fiction

The Way to Rainy Mountain by Navarre Scott Momaday was first published in 1969. Momaday is a member of the Kiowa nation, a PhD-holding literary scholar, and a prominent American writer largely credited with initiating the Native American Literary Renaissance. On his father’s side, Momaday traces his family to Guipahgo (Lone Wolf), the last Principal Chief of the Kiowas, and this lineage features prominently in the book’s storytelling. The book is a work of creative... Read The Way to Rainy Mountain Summary

The White Album

by Joan Didion

Publication year 1979

Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction

Themes The Past, Self Discovery, Literature, Truth & Lies, Trust & Doubt

Tags US History, Journalism, Politics & Government, Arts & Culture, Social Class, Women`s Studies, Trauma & Abuse, Grief & Death, American Literature, World History, Classic Fiction, Biography

... Read The White Album Summary

The Wife Of His Youth

by Charles W. Chesnutt

Publication year 1898

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Tags Historical Fiction, Education, Education, American Literature, World History, Classic Fiction

Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s short story, “The Wife of His Youth,” is available online at the National Humanities Center’s America in Class: The Making of African American Identity, Volume II: 1865-1917: Identity project. It was originally published in The Atlantic in July 1898 (Chesnutt was the first African American to publish in the highly-respected monthly). Narrated in three parts by a limited, omniscient narrator, the story recounts the reunion of a couple separated by slavery.Part 1... Read The Wife Of His Youth Summary

The Winter Of Our Discontent

by John Steinbeck

Publication year 1961

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Social Class, The Past, Race, Family

Tags Classic Fiction, Finance, American Literature, World History

The Winter of Our Discontent is the final novel of American author John Steinbeck (1902-1968). Published in 1961, the themes reflect Steinbeck’s concern with the degradation of American culture and morality. In some ways, the novel departs from Steinbeck’s more iconic novels, which include East of Eden (1952), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and Of Mice and Men (1937). Steinbeck takes the novel’s title from a line in William Shakespeare’s play Richard III (1597).The critical... Read The Winter Of Our Discontent Summary

The Wives of the Dead

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Publication year 1832

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Appearance & Reality, Marriage, Grief

Tags Colonial America, Education, Education, American Literature, Classic Fiction

“The Wives of the Dead,” a short story published in 1832 by American dark-romantic author Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells of sisters-in-law in colonial Massachusetts whose husbands die at the same time and details their attempts to help each other cope with the loss. The eerily surreal story touches on several of Hawthorne’s literary obsessions, including Gothic horror, Puritan guilt, love and devotion, Early American history, and feminism. The story later appeared in an 1851 collection, The... Read The Wives of the Dead Summary

The Wordy Shipmates

by Sarah Vowell

Publication year 2008

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes The Past, Colonialism

Tags US History, Religion & Spirituality, Politics & Government, American Literature, World History, Humor

Essayist and commentator Sarah Vowell published her historical and social commentary The Wordy Shipmates in 2008. A humorous but seriously critical examination of the Puritan emigrants that traveled with the flagship Arbella from England to Massachusetts in 1630, the book revisits leading Puritan figures and the colonial events and ideologies they created while trying to establish the “city upon a hill” that defined their Christian mission in, what was to them, a New World.Though colonial... Read The Wordy Shipmates Summary

The World According To Garp

by John Irving

Publication year 1978

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Gender Identity, Family, Marriage, Equality

Tags Relationships, Dramatic Literature, American Literature, Humor, Modern Classic Fiction, Classic Fiction

The World According to Garp, John Irving’s fourth novel, was first published in 1978 and continues to enjoy a wide circulation. The novel features elements drawn from Irving’s life and is a literary satire of gender dynamics in the wake of second-wave feminism. Irving himself claims that it’s a protest novel. The main subject areas include parenthood, death, feminism, manhood and masculinity, marriage and family structures, the influence of literature in a reader’s life, and... Read The World According To Garp Summary

The Worst Hard Time

by Timothy Egan

Publication year 2005

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Environment

Tags US History, Science & Nature, American Literature, World History, Action & Adventure

The Worst Hard Time, written by New York Times journalist Timothy Egan, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2006) and the Washington State Book Award (2006). Egan chronicles the history of the Dust Bowl from the late 1800s to 1939, unfolding the tragedy of errors that led to the environmental and economic disasters of the 1930s. Readers experience historical events through stories of survivors: farmers, cowboys, ranchers, merchants, investors and professionals. Egan chooses survivors... Read The Worst Hard Time Summary

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

by Wallace Stevens

Publication year 1917

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Appearance & Reality, Animals, Religion & Spirituality, Environment

Tags Animals, Science & Nature, Lyric Poem, American Literature, Education, Education, Classic Fiction

Wallace Stevens is the author of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” and he first published the poem in 1917 as a part of the literary anthology Others: An Anthology of New Verse. In 1923, he included the poem in his first collection of poetry, Harmonium, which features many of Stevens’s most well-known poems—poems that continue to appear in anthologies—like “The Snow Man“ and “The Emperor of Ice-Cream.” Stevens was born in Pennsylvania and... Read Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Summary

This Is My America

by Kim Johnson

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Race, Family, Aging, Safety & Danger, Daughters & Sons, Justice, Equality, Fathers, Perseverance, Conflict

Tags Realistic Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Social Justice, Race & Racism, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read This Is My America Summary

This Is the Fire

by Don Lemon

Publication year 2021

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Sexual Identity, Justice

Tags Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, African American Literature, American Literature, World History, Politics & Government, Biography

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This is Water

by David Foster Wallace

Publication year 2009

Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction

Themes Religion & Spirituality, Self Discovery, Education, Fate

Tags Philosophy, American Literature, Self-Improvement, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality

... Read This is Water Summary