Autumn is intensive with its yellows, oranges, and brilliant reds. The nights are longer, and the chill is in the air, as we walk over the fallen leaves. One season is ending, as winter begins to make its mark. Literary writers like Yeats, Browning, and Dickenson have written with eloquence about the beauty of the autumnal season. Read more about fall literature.
1. Beneath the Second Sun: A Cultural History of Indian Summer
by Adam Sweeting. University Press of New England. From the publisher: "Nineteenth-century authors such as Philip Freneau, Susan Cooper, Lydia Sigourney, John Greenleaf Whittier, Francis Parkman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and, especially, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and William Dean Howells freely employed Indian summer imagery in their works."
2. The Heart of Autumn
by Robert Atwan (Editor). Beacon Press. From the publisher: "Illustrated throughout with graceful pen-and-ink drawings of fall foliage, this volume features a selection of some of the world's most acclaimed poets from Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, and William Wordsworth to more contemporary poets including e. e. cummings, Robert Bly, and W. S. Merwin."3. Autumn Willows: Poetry by Women of China's Golden Age
by Bannie Chow (Translator), Ye Li, and Thomas Cleary (Translator). Story Line Press. From the publisher: "In this exotic, beautiful, and forbidding culture, poetry was revered and practiced by many. Three women poets, especially, endured through the centuries as the voices of their time. For the first time in English, the poetry of the Taoist priestesses, Le Yi and Yu Xuanji, and the slave, Xue Tao is presented."4. East of Eden
by John Steinbeck. Penguin. From the publisher: "First published in 1952, 'East of Eden' is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, 'East of Eden' is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis."5. Where the Red Fern Grows
by Wilson Rawls. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books. From the publisher: "A young boy living in the Ozarks achieves his heart's desire when he becomes the owner of two redbone hounds and teaches them to be champion hunters."6. Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll. Norton. From the publisher: "This Norton Critical Edition reprints the 1897 editions of 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' and the 1876 edition of 'The Hunting of the Snark'. New to the Second Edition is 'The Wasp in a Wig,' a recently discovered episode Carroll deleted from 'Through the Looking-Glass,' but which fits into the story in interesting ways. Each text is accompanied by ample explanatory notes."7. Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books. From the publisher: "Marilla and Matthew want to adopt an orphan boy to help out on the farm. By mistake, they are sent spunky red-haired Anne instead. At first, it seems that wherever Anne goes, trouble follows. She hits a boy over the head with her slate at school. Then she falls off the neighbor's roof during a game of truth or dare! But as she grows up, all of Avonlea comes to love Anne of Green Gables."8. To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee. HarperCollins. From the publisher: "One of the best-loved stories of all time, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Most recently, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century."9. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers. Houghton Mifflin Company. From the publisher: "At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book'sheroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music."10. The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Norton. From the publisher: "The text of 'The Scarlet Letter' offered here is that of the first edition (March 1850), to which the editors have prefixed Hawthorne’s brief Preface to the second edition (April 1850). The editors of this Norton Critical Edition were among the first to recognize the validity of this text, and their choice has been vindicated ever since."