Novel of social criticism dealing with one man's obsessive drive for money, power, and property. Based on the life of railway tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, the epic narrative spans from the aftermath of the Civil War to the Great Chicago Fire and the Panic of 1873. Both a glimpse of a fascinating period in American history and a timeless portrait of the dark side of human nature, this is the compelling tale the Wall Street Journal hailed as "the...

Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. "Kwaidan"...

Selections by the celebrated author include poems, letters, journal entries, and the complete texts of "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience."

1906 best-seller shockingly reveals intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards as it tells the brutally grim story of a Slavic family that emigrates to America full of optimism but soon descends into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and despair. A fiercely realistic American classic that will haunt readers long after they've finished the last page. Published privately by Sinclair in 1906 after commercial...

The library of America is dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as the "finest-looking, longest-lasting editions ever made" (The New Republic), Library of America volumes make a fine gift for any occasion. Now, with exactly one hundred volumes to choose from, there is a perfect gift for everyone.

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." Ralph Waldo Emerson found it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced." Published at the author's expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many...

Most kids write stories. Only a few of them grow up to be successful authors. But before there was Carrie, there was "Jhonathan and the Witchs." And before there was Rabbit Angstrom, Toyota Dealer, there was Manuel Citarro, famous detective. Could we have seen the seeds of success in Stephen King's and John Updike's juvenilia? Editor Paul Mandelbaum asked scores of authors if they - or their mothers - had saved anything they had written as children...

Presents a selection of the most notable of Steinbeck's writings, including the complete texts of The red pony and Of mice and men. Includes biographical notes and a chronology.