…back in May I prepared a reading list for a young man who was interested in having a librarian put together a summer reading list. It occurred to me the other day that this would be a good list for Odyssey Online…this list of books about the American experience. Now, two big disclaimers, 1) this list is in no way representative of the diversity of American experience, 2) and this list does not reflect any systematic approach to American Literature. It is, however, a pretty interesting list of books and would tide one over nicely, in an American way, for the month of August.
- The Blithdale Romance by Nathanial Hawthorne
- Leaves of Grass : the Complete 1855 and 1891-92 Editions by Walt Whitman (introduction by John Hollander)
- Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
- A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
- A Country Doctor by Sarah Orne Jewett
- This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
- The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow
- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
- Miracle of Catfish by Larry Brown