Texts from The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 8th (or 9th) Edition:
- Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle”
- William Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Henry W. Longfellow, “The Slave's Dream”
- Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
- Emily Dickinson, poems no. 207, 260, 269, 340, 448, 788: letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (April 25, 1862)
- Bret Harte, “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- Mary Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun”
- Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle”
- William Dean Howells, “Editha”
- Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Wife of His Youth”
- Edith Wharton, “The Other Two”
Novels to be bought separately:
- Lillie Devereux Blake: Fettered for Life (Feminist Press or University of Michigan Press)
- Kate Chopin: The Awakening (Norton Critical Edition)