… another walk down comprehensive lane …

Welcome to the new blog! I’ve moved over to WordPress because I was finding Blogger both awkward to use and increasingly slow. I hope you enjoy the new action-packed blog over here. I’m going to be playing with the layout and so on for a while yet — and may end up acquiring a domain name of my own — so feel free to send along any feedback or suggested changes.

So I’m now getting ready to start exam number two. This time, it’s American Literature, and I’m excited for a lot of the selections. There are many books here that I have been pretending to read for years (but I’m not telling which ones!).

My list is below. Many of the titles come from the Heath Anthology of American Literature: Concise Edition which I am still working on sourcing. Many of the others I still need, so if you’re feeling generous feel free to drop a comment.

American Comprehensive Exam List

A. Selections from the Heath
a. Pre-1865 Prose
i. Columbus. Journal of the First Voyage to America, 1492-1493.
ii. Columbus. Narrative of the Third Voyage, 1498-1500.
iii. Cabeza de Vaca. Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.
iv. Hopi oral narrative. The Coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt.
v. Smith. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England.
vi. Morton. New English Canaan.
vii. Winthrop. “A Modell of Christian Charity.”
viii. Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation.
ix. Mather. The Wonders of the Invisible World.
x. Rowlandson. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauartion of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
xi. Edwards. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
xii. Lake. “How America Was Discovered.”
xiii. Franklin. “On the Slave Trade.”
xiv. Franklin. “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America.”
xv. St. John de Crèvecoeur. Letters from an American Farmer.
xvi. Occom. “A Short Narrative of My Life.”
xvii. Haynes. “Liberty Further Extended: Or, Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave-Keeping.”
b. Pre-1865 Poetry and Drama
i. Bradstreet.
ii. Taylor.
iii. Wheatley.
iv. Tyler. The Contrast.
c. Post-1865 Prose
i. Schoolcraft. “Mishosha, or the Magician and His Daughters.”
ii. Appess. “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man.”
iii. Crane. “The Open Boat.”
iv. Douglass. “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”
v. Stanton. Declaration of Sentiments.
vi. Irving. Rip Van Winkle.
vii. Poe. “Fall of the House of Usher.”
viii. Melville. Bartleby, the Scrivener.
ix. Jewett. “A White Heron.”
x. Washington. Up From Slavery.
xi. Perkins Gilman. “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
xii. O’Connor. “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”
xiii. Cheever. “The Swimmer.”
d. Post-1865 Poetry and Drama
i. Dickinson.
ii. Stein. “Tender Buttons: Objects.”
iii. Frost.
iv. Stevens.
v. Williams.
vi. Pound.
vii. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).
viii. Moore.
ix. Eliot. “The Wasteland.”
x. McKay.
xi. Hughes.
xii. Roethke.
xiii. Bishop.
xiv. Lowell.
xv. Rich.
xvi. Lorde.
xvii. Ginsberg.
xviii. Plath.
xix. Oritz.
xx. Harjo.
xxi. Dove.

B. Other Texts
a. Post-1865 Prose
i. Emerson. Nature (Book One).
ii. Emerson. “The American Scholar.”
iii. Thoreau. Walden.
iv. Jacobs. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
v. Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter.
vi. Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
vii. Melville. Moby Dick.
viii. Twain. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
ix. James. The Portrait of a Lady.
x. Wharton. Ethan Frome.
xi. Chopin. The Awakening.
xii. Dreiser. Sister Carrie.
xiii. Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night.
xiv. Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls.
xv. Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury.
xvi. Plath. The Bell Jar.
xvii. Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
xviii. Ellison. Invisible Man.
xix. Morrison. Beloved.
xx. Vonnegut. Mother Night.
xxi. Roth. Operation Shylock: A Confession.
xxii. Silko. Ceremony.
xxiii. Kingston. The Woman Warrior.
xxiv. Erdrich. Love Medicine.
xxv. Cisnernos. The House on Mango Street.
xxvi. DeLillo. Libra.
xxvii. Updike. Rabbit’s Run.
xxviii. McCarthy. Blood Meridian.
xxix. Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49.
b. Post-1865 Poetry and Drama
i. Whitman. Leaves of Grass.
ii. Clampitt. Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Volume 2, Contemporary Poetry Selections.
iii. Wright. Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Volume 2, Contemporary Poetry Selections.
iv. Howe. Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Volume 2, Contemporary Poetry Selections.
v. Wilder. Our Town.
vi. O’Neill. Long Day’s Journey into Night.
vii. Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire.
viii. Miller. Death of a Salesman.
ix. Baraka. The Flying Dutchman.
x. Mamet. Glengarry, Glen Ross.
xi. Kushner. Angels in America (Part One).
xii. Wilson. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
xiii. Glaspell. Trifles.
xiv. Shepherd. Curse of the Starving Class.
xv. Shange. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide.