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Printable List

Books That Shaped America

(Library of Congress)



American Cookery
by Amelia Simmons

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
TX703 .S5 1996
Publication Date:
1796




New England Primer
by Anonymous

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PE1119.A1 N5 2006
Publication Date:
1803




Federalist
by Anonymous (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay)

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
JK154 1937 & eBook
Publication Date:
1787




Poor Richard Improved and The Way to Wealth
by Benjamin Franklin

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E302 .F82 1997
Publication Date:
1758




Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.
by Benjamin Franklin

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E302 .F82 1997
Publication Date:
1793




The American Woman's Home
by Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
TX145 .B415 1869
Publication Date:
1869




Poems
by Emily Dickinson

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS1541 .A1 1960
Publication Date:
1890




Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E449 .D74905 & eBook
Publication Date:
1845




Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS2954 .U5 2006 & eBook
Publication Date:
1852




Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E175.5 .A17424 & eBook
Publication Date:
1907




Walden; or Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS3048 .A1 1983 & eBook
Publication Date:
1854




Moby-Dick; or The Whale
by Herman Melville

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS2384 .M6 1992 & eBook
Publication Date:
1851




Mark, the Match Boy
by Horatio Alger Jr.

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS1029 .A3 2008
Publication Date:
1869




History of Standard Oil
by Ida Tarbell

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
HD9569.S8 T37 2009 V.1
Publication Date:
1904




Call of the Wild
by Jack London

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
JUV PZ10.3.L8533 CAM
Publication Date:
1903




How the Other Half Lives
by Jacob Riis

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
HV4046.N6 R58
Publication Date:
1890




Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS3503.A923 W59
Publication Date:
1900




Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy
by Louisa May Alcott

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
LEISURE READING FICTION ALC & eBook
Publication Date:
1868




Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS1305 .A1 2004C & eBook
Publication Date:
1884




History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and Clark
by Meriwether Lewis

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
F592.4 2008
Publication Date:
1814




Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS1868 .A1 & eBiij
Publication Date:
1850




Harriet, the Moses of Her People
by Sarah H. Bradford

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E444 .T894 1981
Publication Date:
1901




Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS1449.C85 R3 1994 & eBook
Publication Date:
1895




Common Sense
by Thomas Paine

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
JC177 .A3 1998 & eBook
Publication Date:
1776




Jungle, The
by Upton Sinclair

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS3537.I85 J85 2006
Publication Date:
1906




Souls of Black Folk
by W.E.B. Du Bois

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
E185.5 .D817 2003
Publication Date:
1903




Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS3200 .F50 & eBook
Publication Date:
1855




Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PS2068 .A1 2004 & eBook
Publication Date:
1820




McGuffey's Eclectic Primer
by William Holmes McGuffey

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
PE1119 .M246 2010
Publication Date:
1836




Pragmatism
by William James

Link to record for more information.

Call Number:
B832 .J2 & eBook
Publication Date:
1907






Information

Award Description
The Library of Congress, the worlds largest repository of knowledge and information, began a multiyear Celebration of the Book with an exhibition on Books That Shaped America. The initial books in the exhibition are included here. This list is a starting point, said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. It is not a register of the best American books  although many of them fit that description. Rather, the list is intended to spark a national conversation on books written by Americans that have influenced our lives, whether they appear on this initial list or not.

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