Library of Congress' Books that Shaped America
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C. that serves as the library and research service of the U.S. Congress and the de facto national library of the United States.[3] Founded in 1800, it is the United States' oldest federal cultural institution. As part of a multi-year Library of Congress “Celebration of the Book,” the list – initially 88 books, now expanded by the Library to 100 – and its accompanying exhibition at the Library last June 25-Sept. 25 engendered months of public dialogue. Some 165,400 people attended the exhibit and more than 9,000 responded to a survey about “Books That Shaped America” posted by the Library on its National Book Festival website.
- 1
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925 · 43 lists
- 2
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville · 1851 · 34 lists
- 3
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee · 1960 · 33 lists
- 4
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger · 1951 · 32 lists
- 5
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · 1939 · 32 lists
- 6
Beloved
Toni Morrison · 1987 · 31 lists
- 7
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961 · 29 lists
- 8
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison · 1952 · 29 lists
- 9
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner · 1929 · 26 lists
- 10
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · 1885 · 25 lists
- 11
On the Road
Jack Kerouac · 1957 · 24 lists
- 12
Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 1936 · 22 lists
- 13
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1937 · 22 lists
- 14
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut · 1969 · 19 lists
- 15
Native Son
Richard Wright · 1940 · 18 lists
- 16
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote · 1965 · 16 lists
- 17
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway · 1940 · 13 lists
- 18
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman · 1855 · 13 lists
- 19
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1848 · 13 lists
- 20
My Ántonia
Willa Cather · 1918 · 13 lists
- 21
The Call of the Wild
Jack London · 1903 · 13 lists
- 22
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1850 · 13 lists
- 23
Charlotte’s Web
E. B. White · 1952 · 12 lists
- 24
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe · 1849 · 12 lists
- 25
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand · 1936 · 9 lists
- 26
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury · 1953 · 9 lists
- 27
Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett · 1929 · 9 lists
- 28
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson · 1962 · 9 lists
- 29
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Alex Haley · 1968 · 9 lists
- 30
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith · 1943 · 8 lists
- 31
Poems of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson · 1890 · 8 lists
- 32
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair · 1906 · 8 lists
- 33
Roots
Alex Haley · 1861 · 7 lists
- 34
Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein · 1961 · 7 lists
- 35
The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane · 1855 · 7 lists
- 36
Walden
Henry David Thoreau · 1854 · 7 lists
- 37
Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown · 1947 · 6 lists
- 38
The Double Helix
James D. Watson · 1968 · 6 lists
- 39
The Education of Henry Adams
Henry Adams · 1777 · 6 lists
- 40
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum · 1900 · 6 lists
- 41
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1850 · 6 lists
- 42
Where the Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak · 1963 · 6 lists
- 43
Pragmatism
William James · 1999 · 5 lists
- 44
Tarzan of the Apes
Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1912 · 5 lists
- 45
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
Benjamin Spock · 1946 · 5 lists
- 46
The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan · 1963 · 5 lists
- 47
And the Band Played On
Randy Shilts · 1987 · 4 lists
- 48
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie · 1913 · 4 lists
- 49
Howl and Other Poems
Allen Ginsberg · 1956 · 4 lists
- 50
The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss · 1957 · 4 lists
- 51
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin · 1962 · 4 lists
- 52
- 53
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois · 1903 · 4 lists
- 54
Goodbye, Columbus
Philip Roth · 1959 · 3 lists
- 55
Riders of the Purple Sage
Zane Grey · 1912 · 3 lists
- 56
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
Alfred C. Kinsey · 1948 · 3 lists
- 57
Bless Me, Ultima
Rudolfo Anaya · 1972 · 2 lists
- 58
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Alexander Brown · 1970 · 2 lists
- 59
Common Sense
Thomas Paine · 1776 · 2 lists
- 60
Cosmos
Carl Sagan · 1981 · 2 lists
- 61
Free to Choose
Milton Friedman · 1980 · 2 lists
- 62
How the Other Half Lives
Jacob A. Riis · 1890 · 2 lists
- 63
Journals
Meriwether Lewis, William Clark · 2013 · 2 lists
- 64
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass · 1845 · 2 lists
- 65
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Boston Women's Health Collective · 1973 · 2 lists
- 66
Stories of Washington Irving
Washington Irving · 1899 · 2 lists
- 67
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin · 1883 · 2 lists
- 68
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay · 2004 · 2 lists
- 69
The Frontier in American History
Frederick J. Turner · 1962 · 2 lists
- 70
The History of the Standard Oil Company
Ida Tarbell · 1904 · 2 lists
- 71
The Iceman Cometh
Eugene O'Neill · 1946 · 2 lists
- 72
The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats · 1962 · 2 lists
- 73
The Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston · 1989 · 2 lists
- 74
A Curious Hieroglyphic Bible
Isaiah Thomas · 1788 · 1 list
- 75
A Grammatical Institute Of The English Language
Noah Webster · 1968 · 1 list
- 76
A Street In Bronzeville
Gwendolyn Brooks · 1945 · 1 list
- 77
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams · 1947 · 1 list
- 78
- 79
A Treasury Of American Folklore
Benjamin A. Botkin · 1945 · 1 list
- 80
American Cookery
Amelia Simmons · 1796 · 1 list
- 81
Experiments And Observations On Electricity
Benjamin Franklin · 2021 · 1 list
- 82
Family Limitation
Margaret Sanger · 1914 · 1 list
- 83
Harriet, The Moses Of Her People
Sarah H. Bradford · 1886 · 1 list
- 84
Idaho: A Guide In Word And Pictures
Federal Writers' Project · 1937 · 1 list
- 85
Mark, The Match Boy
Horatio Alger Jr. · 2017 · 1 list
- 86
- 87
New England Primer
Anonymous · 1760 · 1 list
- 88
New Hampshire
Robert Frost · 1880 · 1 list
- 89
Our Town
Thornton Wilder · 1938 · 1 list
- 90
Peter Parleys Universal History
Samuel Goodrich · 2018 · 1 list
- 91
Poor Richard Improved, The Way To Wealth
Benjamin Franklin · 1795 · 1 list
- 92
Spring And All
William Carlos Williams · 1923 · 1 list
- 93
- 94
The Bay Psalm Book
Stephen Daye · 1903 · 1 list
- 95
The Book Of Mormon
Anonymous · 1948 · 1 list
- 96
The Common Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. · 1911 · 1 list
- 97
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes · 1926 · 1 list
- 98
The Words Of César Chávez
César Chávez · 2002 · 1 list
- 99
Unsafe At Any Speed
Ralph Nader · 1965 · 1 list
