History and Mission Statement
(from LOA web site, 3/99):
“The Library of America was founded in 1979 to undertake a historic endeavor: to help preserve the nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s best and most significant writing in durable and authoritative editions.”
“The idea for The Library of America was first discussed some thirty years ago by scholars and literary critics who were concerned that many works by America’s finest writers were either out of print or nearly impossible to find. Without a deliberate publishing effort to preserve American writing, many important works would virtually disappear and be lost to future generations. Deprived of an important part of their cultural inheritance, Americans would lose a collective sense of the country’s literary accomplishments. The Pleiade series published in France provided a model, and discussion of a similar American series continued until the late 1970s, when seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation was secured to create The Library of America. The first volumes were published in 1982. Like the historic preservation movement, which originated in the 1920s with concerns about architectural heritage, The Library of America seeks to restore and pass on to future generations our nation’s literary heritage. This entails something never attempted before: not only publishing these volumes but keeping them permanently in print and widely available to readers.
“In the years since The Library of America’s inception it has come to be recognized by both scholars and the general public as the national edition of our country’s literature.”
Debate on the Constitution, Part 1: September 1789 to February 1788
American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Volume One: Freneau to Whitman
Debate on the Constitution, Part 2: January to August 1788
American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Volume Two: Melville to Stickney,
Reporting World War II, Part 2: American Journalism 1944-1946
Reporting World War II, Part 1: American Journalism 1938-1944
Crime Novels: American Noir, American Noir of the 1930s and 40s
Crime Novels: American Noir, American Noir of the 1950s
Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959 – 1975, Part One: American Journalism
Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959 – 1975, Part Two: American Journalism
American Sermons : The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr
Adams, Henry. Novels, Mont Saint Michel, The Education
Adams, Henry. History of the United States: During the Administrations of Jefferson
Adams, Henry. History of the United States: During the Administrations of Madison
Baldwin, James. Early Novels & Stories
Baldwin, James. Collected Essays
Bartram, William. Travels and Other Writings
Brown, Charles Brockden. Three Gothic Novels
Cather, Willa. Early Novels and Stories
Cather, Willa. Later Novels
Cather, Willa. Stories, Poems, and Other Writings
Chandler, Raymond. Stories & Early Novels
Chandler, Raymond. Later Novels & Other Writings
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Leatherstocking Tales (Vol. 1)
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Leatherstocking Tales (Vol. 2)
Cooper, James Fenimore. Sea Tales: The Pilot, The Red Rover
Crane, Stephen. Prose and Poetry
Douglass, Frederick, Autobiographies
Dos Passos, John. U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men
Du Bois, W.E.B.. Writings
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Collected Poems and Translations
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays and Lectures
Faulkner, William, Novels 1942-1954
Faulkner, William. Novels 1930 – 1935
Faulkner, William. Novels 1936 – 1940
Franklin, Benjamin. Writings
Frost, Robert. Collected Poems, Prose and Plays
Grant, Ulysses S.. Memoirs and Selected Letters
Hamett, Dashielle. Complete Novels
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Tales and Sketches
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Collected Novels
Howells, William Dean. Novels 1875-1886
Howells, William Dean. Novels 1886-1888
Hurston, Zora Neale, Novels & Stories
Hurston, Zora Neale. Folklore, Memoirs, & Other Writings
Irving, Washington. History, Tales and Sketches
Irving, Washington. Bracebridge Hall,Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra
James, Henry. Novels 1871-1880
James, Henry. Literary Criticism (Vol. 1)
James, Henry. Literary Criticism (Vol. 2)
James, Henry. Novels 1881-1886
James, Henry. Novels 1886-1890
James, Henry. Collected Travel Writings (Vol. 1)
James, Henry. Collected Travel Writings (Vol. 2)
James, Henry. Complete Stories 1892-1898
James, Henry. Complete Stories 1898-1910
James, Henry. Complete Stories 1874-1884
James, Henry. Complete Stories 1884-1891
James, William. Writings 1902-1910
James, William. Writings 1878-1899
Jefferson, Thomas. Writings
Jewett, Sarah Orne, Novels and Stories
Lewis, Sinclair. Main Street & Babbitt
Lincoln, Abraham. Speeches and Writings 1832-1858
Lincoln, Abraham. Speeches and Writings 1859-1865
London, Jack. Novels and Stories
London, Jack. Novels and Social Writings
Melville, Herman. Typee, Omoo, Mardi
Melville, Herman. Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick
Melville, Herman. Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, Tales
Muir, John. Nature Writings
Nabokov, Vladimir. Novels and Memiors 1941 – 1951
Nabokov, Vladimir. Novels 1955 – 1962
Nabokov, Vladimir. Novels 1969 – 1974
Norris, Frank. Novels and Essays
O’Connor, Flannery. Collected Works
O’Neill, Eugene. Vol. 1: Complete Plays 1913-1920
O’Neill, Eugene. Vol. 2: Complete Plays 1920-1931
O’Neill, Eugene. Vol. 3: Complete Plays 1932-1943
Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America Vol. 1
Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America Vol. 2
Parkman, Francis. The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac
Poe, Edgar Allan. Essays and Reviews
Poe, Edgar Allan. Poetry and Tales
Sherman, William T.. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman
Stein, Gertrude. Writings 1903-1932
Stein, Gertrude. Writings 1932-1946
Steinbeck, John, Novels and Stories 1932-1937
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936-1941
Stevens, Wallace. Collected Poetry and Prose
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Three Novels
Thoreau, Henry David. A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod
Thurber, James. Writings and Drawings
Twain, Mark, Historical Romances
Twain, Mark. Mississippi Writings
Twain, Mark. The Innocents Abroad & Roughing It
Twain, Mark. Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays (1)
Twain, Mark. Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays (2)
Washington, George. Writings
Welty, Eudora. Complete Novels
Welty, Eudora. Stories, Essays, and Memoir
West, Nathanael. Novels and Other Writings
Wharton, Edith. Novels
Wharton, Edith. Novellas and Other Writings
Whitman, Walt. Poetry and Prose
Wright, Richard. Early Works
Wright, Richard. Later Works