books that shaped america

Library of Congress: Books that Shaped America

The Library of Congress, the world’s 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 displayed below.“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.”

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884
• Alcoholics Anonymous anonymous 1939
• American Cookery Amelia Simmons 1796
• The American Woman’s Home Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe 1869
• And the Band Played On Randy Shilts 1987
• Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X and Alex Haley 1965
• Beloved Toni Morrison 1987
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Brown 1970
• The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903
• The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss 1957
• Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961
• The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger 1951
• Charlotte’s Web E.B. White 1952
• Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776
• The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care Benjamin Spock 1946
• Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980
• A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible anonymous 1788
• The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968
• The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907
• Experiments and Observations on Electricity Benjamin Franklin 1751
• Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953
• Family Limitation Margaret Sanger 1914
• The Federalist anonymous 1787
• The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan 1963
• The Fire Next Time James Baldwin 1963
• For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940
• Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936
• Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown 1947
• A Grammatical Institute of the English Language Noah Webster 1783
• The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939
• The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925
• Harriet, the Moses of Her People Sarah H. Bradford 1901
• The History of Standard Oil Ida Tarbell 1904
• History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and Clark Meriwether Lewis 1814
• How the Other Half Lives Jacob Riis 1890
• How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 1936
• Howl Allen Ginsberg 1956
• The Iceman Cometh Eugene O’Neill 1946
• Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures Federal Writers’ Project 1937
• In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966
• Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952
• Joy of Cooking Irma Rombauer 1931
• The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906
• Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman 1855
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving 1820
• Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Louisa May Alcott 1868
• Mark, the Match Boy Horatio Alger Jr. 1869
• McGuffey’s Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836
• Moby-Dick; or The Whale Herman Melville 1851
• The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845
• Native Son Richard Wright 1940
• New England Primer anonymous 1803
• New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923
• On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957
• Our Bodies, Ourselves Boston Women’s Health Book Collective 1971
• Our Town: A Play Thornton Wilder 1938
• Peter Parley’s Universal History Samuel Goodrich 1837
• Poems Emily Dickinson 1890
• Poor Richard Improved and The Way to Wealth Benjamin Franklin 1758
• Pragmatism William James 1907
• The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. Benjamin Franklin 1793
• The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895
• Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929
• Riders of the Purple Sage Zane Grey 1912
• The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850
• Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948
• Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962
• The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats 1962
• The Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. Du Bois 1903
• The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929
• Spring and All William Carlos Williams 1923
• Stranger in a Strange Land Robert E. Heinlein 1961
• A Street in Bronzeville Gwendolyn Brooks 1945
• A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947
• A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America Christopher Colles 1789
• Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs 1914
• Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937
• To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960
• A Treasury of American Folklore Benjamin A. Botkin 1944
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852
• Unsafe at Any Speed Ralph Nader 1965
• Walden; or Life in the Woods Henry David Thoreau 1854
• The Weary Blues Langston Hughes 1925
• Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 1963
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum 1900
• The Words of Cesar Chavez Cesar Chavez 2002