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National Book Festival

The Library of Congress > National Book Festival > 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.”

We hope you will view the list, discuss it with your friends and family, and most importantly, choose to read and discuss some of the books on this list, reflecting America’s unique and extraordinary literary heritage, which the Library of Congress makes available to the world.

Visit the online exhibition

TitleAuthorDate
Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark Twain1884
Alcoholics Anonymousanonymous1939
American CookeryAmelia Simmons1796
The American Woman's HomeCatharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe1869
And the Band Played OnRandy Shilts1987
Atlas ShruggedAyn Rand1957
The Autobiography of Malcolm XMalcolm X and Alex Haley1965
BelovedToni Morrison1987
Bury My Heart at Wounded KneeDee Brown1970
The Call of the WildJack London1903
The Cat in the HatDr. Seuss1957
Catch-22Joseph Heller1961
The Catcher in the RyeJ.D. Salinger1951
Charlotte's WebE.B. White1952
Common SenseThomas Paine1776
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child CareBenjamin Spock1946
CosmosCarl Sagan1980
A Curious Hieroglyphick Bibleanonymous1788
The Double HelixJames D. Watson1968
The Education of Henry AdamsHenry Adams1907
Experiments and Observations on ElectricityBenjamin Franklin1751
Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury1953
Family LimitationMargaret Sanger1914
The Federalistanonymous1787
The Feminine MystiqueBetty Friedan1963
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin1963
For Whom the Bell TollsErnest Hemingway1940
Gone With the WindMargaret Mitchell1936
Goodnight MoonMargaret Wise Brown1947
A Grammatical Institute of the English LanguageNoah Webster1783
The Grapes of WrathJohn Steinbeck1939
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald1925
Harriet, the Moses of Her PeopleSarah H. Bradford1901
The History of Standard OilIda Tarbell1904
History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and ClarkMeriwether Lewis1814
How the Other Half LivesJacob Riis1890
How to Win Friends and Influence PeopleDale Carnegie1936
HowlAllen Ginsberg1956
The Iceman ComethEugene O'Neill1946
Idaho: A Guide in Word and PicturesFederal Writers' Project1937
In Cold BloodTruman Capote1966
Invisible ManRalph Ellison1952
Joy of CookingIrma Rombauer1931
The JungleUpton Sinclair1906
Leaves of GrassWalt Whitman1855
The Legend of Sleepy HollowWashington Irving1820
Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and AmyLouisa May Alcott1868
Mark, the Match BoyHoratio Alger Jr.1869
McGuffey's Newly Revised Eclectic PrimerWilliam Holmes McGuffey1836
Moby-Dick; or The WhaleHerman Melville1851
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass1845
Native SonRichard Wright1940
New England Primeranonymous1803
New HampshireRobert Frost1923
On the RoadJack Kerouac1957
Our Bodies, OurselvesBoston Women's Health Book Collective1971
Our Town: A PlayThornton Wilder1938
Peter Parley's Universal HistorySamuel Goodrich1837
PoemsEmily Dickinson1890
Poor Richard Improved and The Way to WealthBenjamin Franklin1758
PragmatismWilliam James1907
The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.Benjamin Franklin1793
The Red Badge of CourageStephen Crane1895
Red HarvestDashiell Hammett1929
Riders of the Purple SageZane Grey1912
The Scarlet LetterNathaniel Hawthorne1850
Sexual Behavior in the Human MaleAlfred C. Kinsey1948
Silent SpringRachel Carson1962
The Snowy DayEzra Jack Keats1962
The Souls of Black FolkW.E.B. Du Bois1903
The Sound and the FuryWilliam Faulkner1929
Spring and AllWilliam Carlos Williams1923
Stranger in a Strange LandRobert A. Heinlein1961
A Street in BronzevilleGwendolyn Brooks1945
A Streetcar Named DesireTennessee Williams1947
A Survey of the Roads of the United States of AmericaChristopher Colles1789
Tarzan of the ApesEdgar Rice Burroughs1914
Their Eyes Were Watching GodZora Neale Hurston1937
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee1960
A Treasury of American FolkloreBenjamin A. Botkin1944
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith1943
Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher Stowe1852
Unsafe at Any SpeedRalph Nader1965
Walden; or Life in the WoodsHenry David Thoreau1854
The Weary BluesLangston Hughes1925
Where the Wild Things AreMaurice Sendak1963
The Wonderful Wizard of OzL. Frank Baum1900
The Words of Cesar ChavezCesar Chavez2002
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