Timeless Classics: From The National Endowment for the Humanities

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 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 * Recommended for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them. 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 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 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 and 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 Credits The National Endowment for the Humanities solicited supplemental reading lists from public and private schools in every state. Many of the schools had been chosen by the U.S. Department of Education as exemplary schools; others were known to have strong humanities programs. Sixty of the extracurricular lists that NEH received were used to compile this list. The list includes all titles published in 1960 or before that appeared on at least five of those reading lists. The only exception is in the early grades: Because many schools did not submit suggested readings for these grades, some titles that were mentioned fewer than five times have been added to the K-3 category. For more information about NEH programs, ask for the Overview. Write to NEH, Room 402, Washington, D.C. 20506.