Wyoming State Law Library

"Upon the border of a remote and out-of-the-way village in south-western Missouri lived an old farmer named John Gray. . . ."In 1876, the same year The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published, Mark Twain wrote a story for The Atlantic Monthly. He meant it as a "blind novelette"a challenge to other writers to submit their own ending of the story in a national competition. Twain asked his editor at The Atlantic to request submissions from leading authors...

The "Genius" (1915) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Based partly on his own experience as an artist from the Midwest, The "Genius" examines the nature of talent, the difficulty of desire, and the meaning of faith itself. Although he had high hopes for the novel, reviews were mixed, and sales suffered due to charges of obscenity. Some critics, however, praised Dreiser's openness on sex and desire, opposing the censorship targeting the author's work....

"The War Chief" is a realistic historical novel about life and death on an Apache reservation during the final years of the Apache wars until the death of Cochise and the surrender of Geronimo.

"Middlemarch - A Study of Provincial Life" is an 1871 novel by English author George Eliot. Set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch, the story revolves around the lives of its inhabitants in the years leading up to the Reform Act in 1832, particularly those of Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Nicholas Bulstrode, and Mary Garth. The novel deals with a variety of themes and issues including marriage, religion, hypocrisy, education, political...

In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. He is Irving's most heartbreaking hero.

Based on Melville's real-life experiences after having jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands, his first novel was extremely popular, provoking public skepticism until the events within were corroborated by a fellow castaway. Typee is properly considered a work of fiction, as the three week stay on which the author based his story is here extended to four months, and the book is supplemented with imaginative reconstruction and adaptation of material...

Betty Smith, the beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, weaves a riveting modern myth out of the experiences of her own life in this rediscovered classic. In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate...

Literally meaning "The tailor re-tailored," "Sartor Resartus" is Thomas Carlyle's 1836 novel which was first serialized in "Fraser's Magazine" in 1833-1834. The novel poses as a review for the work "Clothes, Their Origin and Influence" by the fictional philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo University. Intended by Carlyle as a new kind of book, "Sartor Resartus" is at once a work of fiction and social...

The exciting adventures of Paddy the Beaver and his friends of the Green Meadows.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, originally published in Colliers Magazine on May 27th, 1922. The story follows Benjamin's life from his birth in 1860. However he is no ordinary child, as he has the appearance of a 70 year old man, already capable of speech. His family soon realizes that Benjamin is aging in reverse, becoming younger as the years go by. The fascinating story looks at his triumphs and struggles...