"In The Pathfinder,Cooper resuscitated the figure of Natty Bumppo, returning the Leather-Stocking to the New York forest. The imagination that revived Natty from the grave was intent on the author's o
When a murder takes place in Dawson’s Landing, Missouri, the lives of twin Italian noblemen, the courageous slave Roxy, her 1/32nd “black” son who has been raised “white,” and a failing lawyer with an
The action of James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie (1827) unfolds against the backdrop of the grasslands beyond the Mississippi, just after the Louisiana Purchase, in the early days of western expansio
Though The Deerslayer (1841) was the last of Cooper’s five Leather-stocking tales to be written, it is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life. Set in the 1740s before the start of the Fren
Letters from an American Farmer was published in London in 1782, just as the idea of an “American” was becoming a reality. Those epistolary essays introduced the European public to America’s landscape
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun mingles fable with fact in a mysterious tale of American artists liberated from New England mores in Rome. In his introduction, Andrew Delbanco remarks that Hawth
When John Brown led twenty-one men in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1859, he envisioned a biblical uprising of millions of armed bondsmen, thus ridding the nation of
Dark, weird, psychologically complex, Hawthorne’s short fiction continues to fascinate readers. Brenda Wineapple has made a generous selection of Hawthorne’s stories, including some of his best-known
With The Pioneers (1823), Cooper initiated his series of elegiac romances of frontier life and introduced the world to Natty Bumppo (or Leather-stocking). Set in 1793 in New York State, the novel depi
Following their 1892 imprisonment in the Western Pennsylvania Penitentiary for the failed assassination attempt on steel magnate Henry Clay Frick in revenge for his role in the violence against striki
Set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, as Britain and France fought for control of North America, The Last of the Mohicans is a historical novel and a rousing adventure story. It is also, Wayn
“In Common Sense a writer found his moment to change the world,” Alan Taylor writes in his introduction. When Paine’s attack on the British mixed constitution of kings, lords, and c
Anne Bradstreet was one of our earliest feminists and the first true poet in the American colonies. This collection of her extant poetry and prose, scrupulously edited by Jeannine Hensley, has long be
This enlarged edition of the most significant and celebrated slave narrative completes the Jacobs family saga, surely one of the most memorable in all of American history. John S. Jacobs’s short slave
Published serially in several New York papers between October 1787 and August 1788, the eighty-five Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym “Pu
Easily the most controversial antislavery novel written in antebellum America, and one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is often credited with intensifying the se
Stephen Crane’s weirdly impressionistic The Red Badge of Courage is one of the first non-romantic novels of the Civil War—and the first non-romantic account to gain wide popularity. Paul Sorrentino in
No book more vividly explains the horror of American slavery and the emotional impetus behind the antislavery movement than Frederick Douglass’s Narrative. In an introductory essay, Robert S
Much more than an historical examination of liability, criminal law, torts, bail, possession and ownership, and contracts, The Common Law articulates the ideas and judicial theory of one of the greate
Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his refusal to conform to Puritan religious and social standards, Roger Williams established a haven in Rhode Island for those persecuted in the name of
Henry James called Fanny Kemble's autobiography "one of the most animated autobiographies in the language." Born into the first family of the British stage, Fanny Kemble was one of the most famous wom
This abridged edition of Winthrop's journal, which incorporates about 40 percent of the governor's text, with his spelling and punctuation modernized, includes a lively Introduction and complete annot
Check out a book and read your future. . . . It's another page-turning adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author D. J. MacHale!Marcus is an agent of the Library, a place filled with tales th
“I'm not sure anyone does suspense quite like D. J. MacHale.” —James Dashner, bestselling author of the Maze Runner seriesThe next fast-paced, thrilling adventure from bestselling au
The next fast-paced, thrilling adventure from bestselling author D. J. MacHale! Check out a book and fall under its spell . . . literally. Marcus is an agent of the Library—a place that e
Previously published as Curse of the Boggin. A fast-paced, thrilling series opener from bestselling author D. J. MacHale. Check out a book—and unlock an adventure! There’s a place b
“I’m not sure anyone does suspense quite like D. J. MacHale.” —James Dashner,New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner series Leave the lights on for this spooky thriller from D. J. Ma
