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 - 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