Bartley Alexander is slowly being buried alive, unable to bridge the gap between his successful life and the freedom he thought success would bring. An important career, a caring wife, a lovely home—these just aren’t enough for Bartley. Torn between duty and desire, he realizes too late that when you flirt with disaster, disaster might just flirt back. Originally published in 1912, Alexander’s Bridge is Willa Cather’s first novel.

Alexander's Bridge

Literature & Fiction

Cather., Willa

Literary

Hastings College Press

When poor orphan Pollyanna is sent to live with her wealthy Aunt Polly, she shocks the small town of Beldingsville, Vermont, with sunshine and optimism. With boundless enthusiasm, Pollyanna befriends the most unlikely people, teaching them to see the bright side of any situation through her infectious “glad game.” A classic of children’s literature, Pollyanna will make you glad.

Pollyanna

PORTER, ELEANOR H.

Genre Fiction

Katherine Cope is twenty-seven years old and is striking out on her own. The year is 1914 and she is a New Woman, a woman of modern ideas and modern times. Told through the eyes of her mother, Lucy Cope, The Ground-Swell reflects the age-old conflict of mothers and daughters balancing the generational divide, and tells of one mother’s struggles to accept the ground-swells of early 20th century America.

The Ground-Swell

Hallock, Foote Mary

John Herrmann’s What Happens was a little before its time. Originally published in France in 1926 and seized by U.S. Customs for violating the 1922 Tariff Act, which banned the importing of obscene materials from foreign countries, the novel has never been published in the United States. Until now. What Happens tells the coming-of-age story of Winfield Payne, a young man from a wealthy Michigan family. Winfield’s struggles to make his way in the world are complicated by his awakening sexuality and fickle affections. He wants to be a hero, but modern life isn’t made for heroes. Named a 2016 Michigan Notable Book.

What Happens

Herrmann, John

Santa Lucia: A Common Story

Set in a small college town in California, Mary Austin’s 1908 novel Santa Lucia explores the limited options available to women in early 20th century America. Focusing on the married lives of three young women—William Caldwell, Serena Lindley, and Julia Stairs—the novel is a feminist look at marriage. Like Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel The Awakening, Santa Lucia was almost resoundingly rejected by critics in its own day for the seemingly immoral suggestion that women could find happiness and fulfillment outside their own marriages.

AUSTIN, MARY

Mary Wilkins Freeman's 1903 short-story collection The Wind in the Rose-Bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural is a masterpiece of regional gothic. Set in New England, the stories included in this collection explore the hidden and suppressed anxieties of women's daily lives. From the vampire-like titular character in "Luella Miller" to the childless Mrs. Bird in "The Lost Ghost," the women in these stories face the realities and horrors of domestic life at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Wind in the Rose-Bush: And Other Stories of the Supernatural

Wilkins Freeman, Mary

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Gene Stratton-Porter’s 1912 novel The Harvester focuses on David Langston, a young bachelor who lives in and makes his living from the swamps and forests of rural Indiana. A best-seller of the early 20th century, The Harvester combines romance and nature writing to demonstrate through David what a harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world could look like.

The Harvester

Stratton, Porter Gene

Disillusioned by the urban labor strikes of early 20th-century Oakland, California, Billy and Saxon Roberts flee the city to begin anew as ranchers in the idyllic Sonoma Valley. Their journey back to the land provides the backdrop for the novel’s exploration of a classic American theme—the promise of wide-open spaces—and echoes Jack London’s own journey as a rancher in the Sonoma Valley. The Valley of the Moon is a love story. A road novel. A study of American independence.

The Valley of the Moon

LONDON, JACK.

Harold W. Foght's 1906 book The Trail of the Loup is a gem of Nebraska history. In addition to chapters on natural history, early politics, and the settlement of the Loup River area, Foght's book is a treasure trove of historical gossip and tales of pioneer hardship. With more than 140 restored images - historic maps, drawings, and photographs - this edition will be an invaluable resource for genealogists and explorers of the Loup River Valley.

The Trail of the Loup

History

Foght, H W

Americas

A Hoosier Holiday

Nostalgic scenes and quaint characters. That’s what Theodore Dreiser expects to find when he sets off from New York City on a road trip with friend Franklin Booth to explore the Indiana of his childhood. What he finds is a rural countryside on the cusp of dramatic social and technological changes. In A Hoosier Holiday (1916), a forerunner to the American road novel, reality competes with nostalgia as writer Dreiser and illustrator Booth offer insightful meditations on rural America at the beginning of the 20th century.

DREISER, THEODORE

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