Books That Shaped America
Exhibition Items
1750 to 1800
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America. London: E. Cave, 1751. Benjamin Franklin Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (001.00.00)
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Poor Richard Improved: An Almanack for the Year of Christ 1758. Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1757. American Almanac Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (002.00.00)
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). The Way to Wealth, and a Plan by Which Every Man May Pay His Taxes. Philadelphia: Daniel Humphreys, 1785. Printed Ephemera Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (103.00.00)
- Thomas Paine (1737–1809). Common Sense. Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776. American Imprint Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (003.00.00)
- The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution. vol. 1. New York: J. and A. McLean, 1788. Thomas Jefferson Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (006.00.00)
- A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible, or, Select Passages in the Old and New Testaments. . . . Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1788. American Imprint Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (007.00.00)
- Christopher Colles (1738–1816). “From Annapolis to Alexandria.” A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America. New York: Colles, 1789. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (008.00.00)
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to France, &c. London: J. Parsons, 1793. Benjamin Franklin Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (009.00.00)
- Amelia Simmons [n.d.]. American Cookery, or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables . . . and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake, Adapted to This Country, and All Grades of Life. Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1796. American Imprint Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (010.00.00)
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1800 to 1850
- The New England Primer, Improved: for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English: to which is added the Assembly of Divines’ Catechism. Hartford: Printed by Lincoln & Gleason, and Hudson & Goodwin, 1803. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (011.00.00)
- Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809). History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and C lark. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep; New York: Abm. H. Inskeep, 1814. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (012.01.00)
- Washington Irving (1783–1859). The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899. Margaret Armstrong Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (013.00.00)
- McGuffey’s Newly Revised Eclectic Primer. With Pictorial Illustrations. Cincinnati: W. B. Smith & Co., 1849. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (014.00.00)
- Noah Webster (1758–1843). A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1783. John Davis Batchelder Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (004.00.00)
- Samuel Goodrich (1793–1860). Peter Parley’s Universal History, on the Basis of Geography: for the Use of Families, Illustrated by Maps and Engravings. Boston: American Stationers’ Company, John B. Russell, 1837. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (015.00.00–016.00.00)
- Frederick Douglass (1818–1895). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (017.00.00)
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1850 to 1900
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864). The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850. Rosenwald Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (019.02.00)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864). The Scarlet Letter. Introduction by Dorothy Canfield. Illustrated by Henry Varnum Poor. Facsimile of cover. New York: The Limited Edition Club, 1941. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (019.01.00)
- Herman Melville (1819–1891). Moby-Dick; or, the Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (020.00.00)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896). Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. 2 vols. Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1852. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Collection and Susan B. Anthony Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (021.00.00, 021.01.00, 022.00.00)
- National Era, December 11, 1851. Newspaper. John Davis Batchelder Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (102.00.00)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896). The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1853. John Davis Batchelder Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division (023.01.00)
- Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (024.00.00)
- Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: [Walt Whitman] and Rome Brothers, 1855. Houghton Whitman Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (025.00.00)
- Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). The Mysterious Key and What It Opened. Boston: Elliot, Thomes & Talbot, 1867. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (026.00.00)
- Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Little Women, or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (027.01.00)
- Horatio Alger Jr. (1832–1899). Mark, the Match Boy. Boston: Loring, 1869. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (028.00.00)
- Catharine E. Beecher (1800–1878) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896). The American Woman’s Home; or, Principles of Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes. New York: J. B. Ford, 1869. Katherine Golden Bitting Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (029.00.00)
- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835–1910). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade). London: Chatto & Windus, 1884. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (030.00.00)
- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835–1910). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade). New York: Charles L. Webster and Co., 1885. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (030.01.00)
- Emily Dickinson (1830–1886). Poems. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (031.00.00)
- Emily Dickinson (1830–1886). Slant of Light=Sesgo de Luz. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigia, 1998. Press Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (32.00.00)
- Jacob Riis (1849–1914). How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. General Collections, Library of Congress (033.00.00)
- Steven Crane (1871–1900). The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1895. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (034.00.00)
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1900 to 1950
- L. Frank Baum (1856–1919). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago and New York: Geo. M. Hill, 1900. Juvenile Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (035.00.00)
- Sarah H. Bradford. Harriet, the Moses of Her People. New York: Little & Co., 1901. Susan B. Anthony Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (036.00.00)
- Jack London (1876–1916). The Call of the Wild. New York: Macmillan, 1903. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (038.00.00)
- W. E. Burghardt Du Bois. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1928. Private Collection (038.01.00)
- Ida Tarbell (1857–1944). “The History of the Standard Oil Company.” McClure’s Magazine. vol. 20, November 1902. General Collections, Library of Congress (037.00.00)
- Ida Tarbell (1857–1944). The History of the Standard Oil Company. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. General Collections, Library of Congress (039.00.00)
- Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). The Jungle. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1945. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (040.00.00)
- Henry Adams (1838–1918). The Education of Henry Adams: an Autobiography. Armed Services Edition Q-40. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (041.00.00)
- William James (1842–1910). Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking: Popular Lectures on Philosophy. New York: Longmans, Green, 1907. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (042.00.00)
- Zane Grey (1872–1939). Riders of the Purple Sage. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1940. Western Literature Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (043.00.00)
- Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950). Tarzan of the Apes. Armed Services Edition M-16. Tarzana, CA: Edgar Rice Burroughs Publishing Company, 1940. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (044.00.00)
- Margaret Sanger (1879–1966). Family Limitation. [New York: 1914]. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (045.00.00)
- William Carlos Williams (1883–1963). Spring and All. Paris: Contact Publishing, 1923. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (046.00.00)
- Robert Frost (1874–1963). New Hampshire, a Poem. New York: Henry Holt, 1923. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (047.00.00)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (048.00.00)
- Langston Hughes (1902–1967). The Weary Blues. New York: Knopf, 1926. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (049.00.00)
- William Faulkner (1897–1962). The Sound and the Fury. New York: J. Cape and H. Smith, 1929. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (050.00.00)
- Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). Red Harvest. New York: Knopf, 1929. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (052.00.00)
- Irma Rombauer (1877–1962). Joy of Cooking. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1941. General Collections, Library of Congress (054.00.00)
- Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949). Gone With the Wind. New York: Macmillan, 1936. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (053.00.00)
- William F. Warnecke. Margaret Mitchell holding her book, Gone With the Wind, ca. 1938. Photograph. New York World-Telegram and Sun Newspaper Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (053.01.00)
- Dale Carnegie (1888–1955). How to Win Friends and Influence People. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., and Pocket Books, Inc., 1940. Private Collection (055.00.00)
- Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960). Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1937. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (056.00.00)
- Federal Writers’ Project. Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1937. Private Collection (057.00.00)
- Thornton Wilder (1897–1975). Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. New York: Coward McCann, 1938. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (058.00.00)
- John Steinbeck (1902–1961). The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Press, 1939. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (059.00.00)
- Carol M. Highsmith (b.1946). Grapes of Wrath Billboard along a California Highway, between 1980 and 2006. Facsimile. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (059.01.00)
- Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Third Edition. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (060.01.00)
- Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961). For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Scribners, 1940. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (061.00.00)
- Richard Wright (1908–1960). Native Son. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (062.00.00)
- Betty Smith (1896–1972). A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (064.00.00)
- Benjamin A. Botkin (1901–1975) ed. A Treasury of American Folklore: The Stories, Legends, Tall Tales, Traditions, Ballads and Songs of the American People. New York: Crown Publishers, 1944. Private Collection (066.00.00)
- Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000). A Street in Bronzeville. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1945. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (067.00.00)
- Benjamin Spock (1903–1998). Baby and Child Care. New Revised and Enlarged Edition. New York: Pocket Books, 1968. Private Collection (068.00.00)
- Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953). The Iceman Cometh, A Play. New York: Random House, 1946. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (070.00.00)
- Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952). Goodnight Moon. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Private Collection (071.00.00)
- Tennessee Williams (1911–1983). A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New Directions, 1947. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (072.00.00)
- Alfred C. Kinsey (1894–1956). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1948. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (073.00.00)
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1950 to 2000
- J. D. Salinger (1919–2010). The Catcher in the Rye. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1951. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (074.00.00)
- Ralph Ellison (1914–1994). Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1952. Herman Finkelstein Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (075.00.00)
- E. B. White (1899–1985). Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper, 1952. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (076.00.00)
- Ray Bradbury (1920–2012). Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. General Collections, Library of Congress (078.00.00)
- Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (079.00.00)
- Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Atlas Shrugged. New York: Random House, 1957. General Collections, Library of Congress (080.00.00)
- Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss, 1904–1991). The Cat in the Hat. New York: Random House, 1957. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (081.00.00)
- Jack Kerouac (1922–1969). On the Road. New York: Viking Press, 1957. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (082.00.00)
- Harper Lee (b. 1926). To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1960. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (083.00.00)
- Joseph Heller (1888–1957). Catch-22. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (084.00.00)
- Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988). Stranger in a Strange Land. New York: Putman, 1961. General Collections, Library of Congress (085.00.00)
- Ezra Jack Keats (1916–1983). The Snowy Day. New York: Viking, 1962. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (086.00.00)
- Rachel Carson (1907–1964). Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (092.00.00)
- Maurice Sendak (1928–2012). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (087.00.00)
- James Baldwin (1924–1987). The Fire Next Time. New York: Dial, 1963. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (088.00.00)
- Betty Friedan (1921–2006). The Feminine Mystique. New York: Laurel, 1984. General Collections, Library of Congress (089.00.00)
- Malcolm X (1925–1965) and Alex Haley (1921–1992). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove Press, 1965. General Collections, Library of Congress (090.00.00)
- Ralph Nader (b. 1934). Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile. New York: Grossman, 1965. General Collections, Library of Congress (091.00.00)
- Truman Capote (1924–1984). In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. New York: Random House, 1966. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (093.00.00)
- James D. Watson (b. 1928). The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968. General Collections, Library of Congress (094.00.00)
- Dee Brown (1908–2002). Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1971. General Collections, Library of Congress (095.00.00)
- Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book By and For Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. General Collections, Library of Congress (096.00.00)
- Carl Sagan (1934–1996). Cosmos. New York: Random House, 1980. General Collections, Library of Congress (097.00.00)
- Toni Morrison (b. 1931). Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (098.00.00)
- Randy Shilts (1951–1994). And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (099.00.00)
- Richard Jensen and John C. Hammerback eds. The Words of César Chávez. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2002. General Collections, Library of Congress (101.00.00)
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