Books

Timeless Classics

An old Chinese proverb says, "A book is like a garden in the pocket." Many of us who have valued reading in our early years derive the enjoyment from reading to our children, and now, as I do, to our grandchildren. Books are voyages of discovery and transforming instruments to all of us.

A few years ago, the National Endowment for the Humanities asked schools around the country to send reading lists of their favorite books. Noticing how often books that other generations have enjoyed appear on these lists, we decided to make this compilation of tried-and-true titles. The works herein, published in 1960 or earlier, have delighted generations of readers.

Some have asked, "Is the book dead?" as we move into new computer technologies. Not at all. Print text will co-exist with these new mediums.

As concerned parents, educators, and counselors, we must continue to emphasize the importance of access to good reading in order to shape our students' learning process, enhance their understanding of American heritage, and open up a new world of self-fulfillment. As Aldous Huxley said, "The proper study of mankind is books."

There are some excellent older books that are missing from the list, because they appeared too infrequently in the school selections: Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, for example; Dylan Thomas's - A Child's Christmas in Wales; Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Despite the absences, we hope this compilation will nevertheless bring hours of pleasure and enlightenment.

The titles presented for suggested extracurricular reading provide a solid foundation and hours of enjoyment for students and scholars of all ages.

We at NEH hope that the "Timeless Classics" booklist will continue to be a rich source of material for everyone. Sheldon Hackney - Chairman

"Books are humanity in print" ...Barbara Tuchman

"Literature is an investment of genius which pays dividends to all subsequent times." ...John Burroughs

"All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." ...Thomas Carlyle

### Kindergarten through Grade 6 ###

Adamson, Joy - Born Free

Aesop - Fables*

Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women

Andersen, Hans Christian - Fairy tales

Atwater, Richard and Florence - Mr. Popper's Penguins*

Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin - Miss Hickory

* Recommended for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them.

Barrie, J.M. - Peter Pan

Baum, L. Frank - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Bemelmans, Ludwig - Madeline series*

Bond, Michael - A Bear Called Paddington

Boston, L.M. - The Children of Green Knowe

Brink, Carol Ryrie - Caddie Woodlawn

Brown, Margaret Wise - Goodnight, Moon*

Brunhoff, Jean de - The Story of Babar*

Burnett, Frances Hodgson - The Secret Garden

Burton, Virginia Lee - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel*

Butterworth, Oliver - The Enormous Egg

Clark, Ann Nolan - Secret of the Andes

Cleary, Beverly - Henry Huggins series

Coatsworth, Elizabeth - The Cat Who Went to Heaven

Dalgliesh, Alice - The Bears on Hemlock Mountain* - The Courage of Sarah Noble*

De Angeli, Marguerite - The Door in the Wall

De Jong, Meindert - The House of Sixty Fathers - The Wheel on the School

Dodge, Mary Mapes - Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates

Du Bois, William Pene - The Twenty-One Balloons

Edmonds, Walter D. - The Matchlock Gun

Estes, Eleanor - Ginger Pye - Moffats series

Farley, Walter - The Black Stallion

Field, Rachel - Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

Fritz, Jean - The Cabin Faced West

Gilbreth, Frank B. and Ernestine G. Carey - Cheaper By the Dozen

Gipson, Fred - Old Yeller

Godden, Rumer - The Mousewife*

Grahame, Kenneth - The Reluctant Dragon* - The Wind in the Willows f

Gray, Elizabeth Janet - Adam of the Road

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm - Grimm's Fairy Tales

Hawes, Charles - The Dark Frigate

Haywood, Carolyn - Betsy series*

Henry, Marguerite - King of the Wind - Misty of Chincoteague

Keith, Harold - Rifles for Watie

Kelly, Eric - The Trumpeter of Krakow

Kipling, Rudyard - Captains Courageous - Just So Stories for Little Children* - The Jungle Books

Kjelgaard, Jim - Big Red

Knight, Eric - Lassie Come Home

Krumgold, Joseph - ...and Now Miguel - Onion John

LaFarge, Oliver - Laughing Boy

Lamb, Charles and Mary - Tales from Shakespear

Latham, Jean Lee - Carry on, Mr. Bowditch

Lawson, Robert - Ben & Me - Rabbit Hill

Leaf, Munro - The Story of Ferdinand*

Lear, Edward - Book of Nonsense*

Lenski, Lois - Strawberry Girl

Lewis, C.S. - Chronicles of Narnia series

Lindgren, Astrid - Pippi Longstocking series

Lofting, Hugh - Doctor Doolittle series

London, Jack - The Call of the Wild - White Fang

MacDonald, Betty - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle*

MacGregor, Ellen - Miss Pickerell series

McCloskey, Robert - Blueberries for Sal* - Homer Price - Make Way for Ducklings*

McSwigan, Marie - Snow Treasure

Meigs, Cornelia - Invincible Louisa

Milne, A.A. - The House at Pooh Corner* - Now We Are Six* - When We Were Very Young* - Winnie-the-Pooh*

Minarik, Else Holmelund - Little Bear

Montgomery, L.M. - Anne of Green Gables

Mukerji, Dhan Ghopal - Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

Norton, Mary - The Borrowers series

O'Hara, Mary - My Friend Flicka

Pearce, Philippa - Tom's Midnight Garden

Perrault, Charles - Cinderella*

Potter, Beatrix - The Tale of Peter Rabbit*

Pyle, Howard - The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Rey, H.A. - Curious George series*

Richter, Conrad - The Light in the Forest

Selden, George - The Cricket in Times Square*

Seuss, Dr. - The Cat in the Hat*

Sewell, Anna - Black Beauty

Sorenson, Virginia - Miracles on Maple Hill

Speare, Elizabeth George - The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Sperry, Armstrong - Call It Courage

Spyri, Johanna - Heidi

Steinbeck, John - The Red Pony

Stevenson, Robert Louis - A Child's Garden of Verses* - Kidnapped - Treasure Island

Travers, Pamela L. - Mary Poppins series

Van Loon, Hendrik - The Story of Mankind

White, E.B. - Charlotte's Web - Stuart Little

Wilder, Laura Ingalls - Little House series

Williams, Margery - The Velveteen Rabbit*

Wyss, Johann - Swiss Family Robinson

Zion, Gene - Harry the Dirty Dog*

### Grades 7 and 8 ###

Alcott, Louisa May - Little Men

Bagnold, Enid - National Velvet

Blackmore, Richard D. - Lorna Doone

Boulle, Pierre - The Bridge over the River Kwai

Bradbury, Ray - Dandelion Wine - Fahrenheit 451 - The Illustrated Man - Martian Chronicles

Buchan, John - The Thirty-Nine Steps

Bunyan, John - The Pilgrim's Progress

Carroll, Lewis - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Through the Looking Glass

Clark, Walter - The Ox-Bow Incident

Cooper, James Fenimore - The Deerslayer - The Last of the Mohicans

Curie, Eve - Madame Curie: A Biography

Dana, Richard Henry - Two Years before the Mast

Day, Clarence - Life with Father

Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe

Dickens, Charles - A Christmas Carol

Douglas, Lloyd C. - The Robe

Doyle, Arthur Conan - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Dumas, Alexander - The Count of Monte Christo - The Three Musketeers

Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca

Edmonds, Walter D. - Drums along the Mohawk

Ferber, Edna - Cimarron

Forbes, Esther - Johnny Tremain

Forester, C.S. - The African Queen - The Hornblower series

Frank, Anne - Diary of a Young Girl

Frost, Robert - Poems

Gallico, Paul - The Snow Goose

Gunther, John - Death Be Not Proud

Guthrie, A.B. - The Big Sky

Haggard, H. Rider - King Solomon's Mines

Hansberry, Lorraine - Raisin in the Sun

Hemingway, Ernest - The Old Man and the Sea

Hersey, John - A Bell for Adano - Hiroshima - The Wall

Heyerdahl, Thor - Kon-Tiki

Hilton, James - Goodbye, Mr. Chips - Lost Horizon

Hudson, W.H. - Green Mansions

Hughes, Richard - A High Wind in Jamaica

Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Irving, Washington - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Keller, Helen - Story of My Life

Kennedy, John F. - Profiles in Courage

Kipling, Rudyard - Kim

Knowles, John - A Separate Peace

Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird

London, Jack - The Sea Wolf

Lord, Walter - A Night to Remember

Malory, Sir Thomas - Le Morte d'Arthur

Maxwell, Gavin - Ring of Bright Water

McCullers, Carson - Member of the Wedding

Michener, James - The Bridges at Toko-Ri

Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind

Nordhoff, Charles and J.N. Hall - Mutiny on the Bounty

O'Dell, Scott - Island of the Blue Dolphins

Orczy, Baroness Emma - The Scarlet Pimpernel

Paton, Alan - Cry, the Beloved Country

Pyle, Howard - Men of Iron

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan - The Yearling

Renault, Mary - The King Must Die

Roberts, Kenneth - Northwest Passage

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de - The Little Prince - Wind, Sand and Stars

Saki - Stories

Schaefer, Jack - Shane

Scott, Sir Walter - Ivanhoe

Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein

Smith, Betty - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Steinbeck, John - The Pearl - Tortilla Flat

Stevenson, Robert Louis - The Black Arrow - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll - and Mr. Hyde

Stoker, Bram - Dracula

Thurber, James - The Thurber Carnival

Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Hobbit - The Lord of the Rings

Twain, Mark - The Adventures of - Huckleberry Finn - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - A Connecticut Yankee in - King Arthur's Court - Innocents Abroad - Life on the Mississippi - The Prince and the Pauper

Verne, Jules - Around the World in Eighty Days - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Mysterious Island - 20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Wallace, Lewis - Ben-Hur

Washington, Booker T. - Up from Slavery

Wells, H.G. - The Time Machine - War of the Worlds

Wharton, Edith - Ethan Frome

Wilder, Thornton - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Wister, Owen - The Virginian

Yates, Elizabeth - Amos Fortune, Free Man

- ### Grades 9 through 12 ###

Agee, James - A Death in the Family

Anderson, Sherwood - Winesburg, Ohio

Austen, Jane - Emma - Northanger Abbey - Pride and Prejudice - Sense and Sensibility

Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain

Balzac, Honore de - Pere Goriot

Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot

The Bible - Old Testament - New Testament

Bolt, Robert - A Man for All Seasons

Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre

Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights

Browning, Robert - Poems

Buck, Pearl - The Good Earth

Butler, Samuel - The Way of All Flesh

Camus, Albert - The Plague - The Stranger

Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop - My Antonia

Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote

Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales

Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard

Chopin, Kate - The Awakening

Collins, Wilkie - The Moonstone

Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness - Lord Jim - The Secret Sharer - Victory

Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage

Dante - The Divine Comedy

Defoe, Daniel - Moll Flanders

Dickens, Charles - Bleak House - David Copperfield - Great Expectations - Hard Times - Oliver Twist - A Tale of Two Cities

Dickinson, Emily - Poems

Dinesen, Isak - Out of Africa

Dostoevski, Fyodor - Brothers Karamazov - Crime and Punishment

Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy - Sister Carrie

Eliot, George - Adam Bede - Middlemarch - Mill on the Floss - Silas Marner

Eliot, T.S. - Murder in the Cathedral

Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man

Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Essays

Faulkner, William - Absalom, Absalom! - As I Lay Dying - Intruder in the Dust - Light in August - The Sound and the Fury

Fielding, Henry - Joseph Andrews - Tom Jones

Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby - Tender Is the Night

Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary

Forster, E.M. - A Passage to India - A Room with a View

Franklin, Benjamin - The Autobiography of - Benjamin Franklin

Galsworthy, John - The Forsyte Saga

Golding, William - Lord of the Flies

Goldsmith, Oliver - She Stoops to Conquer

Graves, Robert - I, Claudius

Greene, Graham - The Heart of the Matter - The Power and the Glory

Hamilton, Edith - Mythology

Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd - Jude the Obscure - The Mayor of Casterbridge - The Return of the Native - Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The House of the Seven Gables - The Scarlet Letter

Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms - For Whom the Bell Tolls - The Sun Also Rises

Henry, O. - Stories

Hersey, John - A Single Pebble

Hesse, Hermann - Demian - Siddhartha - Steppenwolf

Homer - The Iliad - The Odyssey

Hughes, Langston - Poems

Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables

Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World

Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House - An Enemy of the People - Ghosts - Hedda Gabler - The Master Builder - The Wild Duck

James, Henry - The American - Daisy Miller - Portrait of a Lady - The Turn of the Screw

Joyce, James - Portrait of the Artist - As a Young Man - Dubliners

Kafka, Franz - The Castle - Metamorphosis - The Trial

Keats, John - Poems

Kerouac, Jack - On the Road

Koestler, Arthur - Darkness at Noon

Lawrence, D.H. - Sons and Lovers

Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee - Inherit the Wind

Lewis, Sinclair - Arrowsmith - Babbitt - Main Street

Llewellyn, Richard - How Green Was My Valley

Machiavelli - The Prince

MacLeish, Archibald - J.B.

Mann, Thomas - Buddenbrooks - The Magic Mountain

Marlowe, Christopher - Dr. Faustus

Maugham, Somerset - Of Human Bondage

McCullers, Carson - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Melville, Herman - Billy Budd - Moby-Dick - Typee

- Miller, Arthur - The Crucible - Death of a Salesman

Monsarrat, Nicholas - The Cruel Sea

O'Neill, Eugene - The Emperor Jones - A Long Day's Journey into Night - Mourning Becomes Electra

Orwell, George - Animal Farm - 1984

Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago

Poe, Edgar Allan - Short stories

Remarque, Erich - All Quiet on the Western Front

Rolvaag, O.E. - Giants in the Earth

Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac

Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye

Sandburg, Carl - Abraham Lincoln: - The Prairie Years - Abraham Lincoln: - The War Years

Saroyan, William - The Human Comedy

Sayers, Dorothy - The Nine Tailors

Shakespeare, William - Plays and sonnets

Shaw, George Bernard - Arms and the Man - Major Barbara - Pygmalion - Saint Joan

Sheridan, Richard B. - The School for Scandal

Shute, Nevil - On the Beach

Sinclair, Upton - The Jungle

Sophocles - Antigone - Oedipus Rex

Steinbeck, John - East of Eden - The Grapes of Wrath - Of Mice and Men

Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin

Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels

Thackeray, William M. - Vanity Fair

Thoreau, Henry David - Walden

Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina - War and Peace

Trollope, Anthony - Barchester Towers

Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons

Twain, Mark - Pudd'nhead Wilson

Updike, John - Rabbit Run

Vergil - The Aeneid

Voltaire - Candide

Warren, Robert Penn - All the King's Men

Waugh, Evelyn - Brideshead Revisited - A Handful of Dust

Wharton, Edith - Age of Innocence

White, T.H. - The Once and Future King - The Sword in the Stone

Wilde, Oscar - The Importance of Being Earnest - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Wilder, Thornton - Our Town

Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie - A Streetcar Named Desire

Wolfe, Thomas - Look Homeward, Angel

Woolf, Virginia - Mrs. Dalloway - To the Lighthouse

Wouk, Herman - The Caine Mutiny

Wright, Richard - Black Boy - Native Son

Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird

London, Jack - The Sea Wolf