Timeless Classics: A list of books published before 1960
Compiled by NEH with suggestions from schools across the nation in 1994
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 -
- 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 (selected)
- Austen, Jane -
- Emma
- Northanger Abbey
- Pride and Prejudice
- Sense and Sensibility
- Baldwin, James - Go Tell It
on the Mountain
- 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
- Cather, Willa -
- Death Comes for the
Archbishop
- My Antonia
- Cervantes, Miguel - Don
Quixote
- Chaucer, Geoffrey - The
Canterbury Tales
- Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry
Orchard
- Conrad, Joseph -
- Heart of Darkness
- Lord Jim
- The Secret Sharer
- Victory
- Crane, Stephen - The Red
Badge of Courage
- Dickens, Charles -
- Bleak House
- David Copperfield
- Great Expectations
- Hard Times
- Oliver Twist
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Dickinson, Emily - Poems
- Dostoevski, Fyodor -
- Brothers Karamazov
- Crime and Punishment
- Ellison, Ralph - Invisible
Man
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott -
- The Great Gatsby
- Tender Is the Night
- Golding, William - Lord of
the Flies
- Graves, Robert - I, Claudius
- Hamilton, Edith - Mythology
- 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
- Hesse, Hermann -
- Demian
- Siddhartha
- Steppenwolf
- Homer -
- 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
- Keats, John - Poems
- Lawrence, Jerome and Robert
E. Lee - Inherit the Wind
- Llewellyn, Richard - How
Green Was My Valley
- Melville, Herman -
- Billy Budd
- Moby-Dick
- Typee
- Miller, Arthur -
- The Crucible
- Death of a Salesman
- O'Neill, Eugene -
- The Emperor Jones
- A Long Day's Journey
into Night
- Mourning Becomes
Electra
- Orwell, George -
- Poe, Edgar Allan - Short
stories
- Remarque, Erich - All Quiet
on the Western Front
- Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de
Bergerac
- Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher
in the Rye
- Shakespeare, William - Plays
and sonnets
- Shaw, George Bernard -
- Arms and the Man
- Major Barbara
- Pygmalion
- Saint Joan
- 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
- Updike, John - Rabbit Run
- Vergil - The Aeneid
- Voltaire - Candide
- Warren, Robert Penn - All the
King's Men
- 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
- Wright, Richard -