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American Genre

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Books in the American genre:

Two Years Before the Mast (1840)

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His studies at Harvard interrupted by vision problems, the author embarked as a merchant seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834 on a voyage to Alta California, still under Mexican rule. After helping to cure and load a cargo of cow hides, he was tran... View More

Author(s): Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Illustrator(s): None

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The Story of a Bad Boy (1870)

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A story of the author’s youth in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The highlights are the snowball battle on Slater’s hill and the celebration of the 4th of July. Read online at archive.org.... View More

Author(s): Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Illustrator(s): Anonymous

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St. Nicholas (1873)

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Founded in 1873, this popular magazine was edited by Mary Mapes Dodge until her death in 1905. It published many well known and popular children’s authors, including Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, Joel Chandler Harris and Mark Twain. It ceas... View More

Author(s): Various
Illustrator(s): Various

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What Katy Did at School (1873)

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Katy goes East to boarding school. Read for free online at Internet Archive.

Author(s): Susan Coolidge
Illustrator(s): Addie Ledyard

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The Peterkin Papers (1880)

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A collection of nonsense stories about the family of Peterkins who rely on the Lady from Philadelphia to extricate them from their troubles. read online at archive.org.... View More

Author(s): Lucretia P. Hale
Illustrator(s): Anonymous

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The Last of the Peterkins with Others of Their Kin (1886)

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In these further adventures of a muddleheaded family, the Lady from Philadelphia again comes to their aid.

Author(s): Lucretia P. Hale
Illustrator(s): Anonymous

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The Admiral’s Caravan (1892)

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A young girl named Dorothy takes a journey with three wooden statues who come alive on Christmas Eve. Read online at archive.org.

Author(s): Charles E. Carryl
Illustrator(s): Reginald Birch

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The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1895)

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A two-volume collection of stories and essays, including Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Read for free online at Internet Archive: Volume 1, and Volume 2.... View More

Author(s): Washington Irving
Illustrator(s): Arthur Rackham
Et al

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“Captains Courageous” A Story of the Grand Banks (1897)

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Harvey Cheyne falls overboard from his liner on the Grand Banks and is picked up by a cod fisherman who proceeds to make a man of him. Read online at archive.org.... View More

Author(s): Rudyard Kipling
Illustrator(s): I. W. Taber

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

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Whirled away on a cyclone, Dorothy is set down in the Land of Oz and must find her way home with the help of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and a pair of ruby slippers. Read for free online at the Library of Congress. For a faster download go to: Hathit... View More

Author(s): L. Frank Baum
Illustrator(s): W. W. Denslow

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The Prodigious Hickey (1909)

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The first of the boarding school stories set at Lawrenceville in the era after the end of caning, when “between masters and students there was an armed and exceedingly wary neutrality.” Read online at archive.org.... View More

Author(s): Owen Johnson
Illustrator(s): May Wilson Preston
Henry Raleigh
Frederic Dorr Steele

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The Varmint (1910)

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Adventures at a boys’ boarding school - more football than baseball. Read online at archive.org.

Author(s): Owen Johnson
Illustrator(s): F. R. Gruger

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The Tennessee Shad (1911)

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The Prodigious Hickey has moved on but life continues at The Lawrenceville School. Read online at Hathitrust.

Author(s): Owen Johnson
Illustrator(s): F. R. Gruger

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The Amateur Gentleman (1913)

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Barnabas Barty comes into the possession of a vast fortune and determines to use it to become a gentleman. He must first knock his father down, although as respectfully as may be. Read online at archive.org.... View More

Author(s): Jeffery Farnol
Illustrator(s): Herman Pfeifer

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Tom Slade Boy Scout (1915)

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Tom is a sixteen-year-old street tough, left to fend for himself by his worthless father, Bill Slade, after wealthy landowner John Temple evicts them. Tom scorns the Boy Scout movement, as does Temple and his effeminate son Wilfred. Because of his in... View More

Author(s): Percy Keese Fitzhugh
Illustrator(s): Photographs

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Robinson Crusoe (1920)

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First published in 1719, this account of ‘eight and twenty years, all alone on an uninhabited island on the coast of America’ was based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Most rece... View More

Author(s): Daniel Defoe
Illustrator(s): N. C. Wyeth

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Rip Van Winkle (1921)

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Out hunting, Rip plays at bowls with the men of the mountains and drinks too deeply of their liquor. Read online at archive.org.

Author(s): Washington Irving
Illustrator(s): N. C. Wyeth

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The Poppy Seed Cakes (1924)

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A collection of short stories about two not-very-good children told by Aunt Katushka.

Read online at archive.org. 

Author(s): Margery Clark
Illustrator(s): Maud Petersham
Miska Petersham

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Knickerbocker’s History of New York (1928)

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A comic history of New York under the Dutch.

Author(s): Washington Irving
Illustrator(s): James Daugherty

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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1928)

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The fearful ride of Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the headless horseman has entered American folklore.

Author(s): Washington Irving
Illustrator(s): Arthur Rackham

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