In The Long Winter (1940), De Smet is threatened with near extinction when, during the seven-month blizzard of 1880–81, the supply trains stop running. In a combination of selflessness and high spirits, two young townsfolk, Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland, risk their lives to find a cache of wheat hidden twenty miles from town—sixty precious bushels that save the community from starvation. Little Town on the Prairie (1941) and These Happy Golden Years (1942) tell of Laura’s and Almanzo’s courtship, deepening love, and plans to marry. The series is capped by the posthumously published The First Four Years (1971), an account of the newlyweds’ vain attempt to start a farm on the unforgiving Dakota plains.These five novels, like the four that precede them, are presented by Library of America without the illustrations and typographical trappings of editions for young readers. Here Wilder’s prose for the first time stands alone and can be seen for exactly what it is—a triumph of the American plain style. An appendix contains two little-known sketches in which Wilder presents scenes from her life following the events of These Happy Golden Years.

    M. Kornbluth / The Space Merchants Theodore Sturgeon / More Than Human Leigh Brackett / The Long Tomorrow Richard Matheson / The Shrinking Man 978-1-59853-158-9American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956—1958 Robert Heinlein / Double Star Alfred Bester / The Stars My Destination James Blish / A Case of Conscience Algis Budrys / Who? Fritz Leiber / The Big Time 978-159853-159-6Following its acclaimed three-volume edition of the novels of science fiction master Philip K. Dick, The Library of America now presents a two-volume anthology of nine groundbreaking works from the golden age of the modern science fiction novel. Long unnoticed or dismissed by the literary establishment, these “outsider” novels have gradually been recognized as American classics. Here are genre-defining works by such masters as Robert Heinlein, Richard Matheson, James Blish, and Alfred Bester. The themes range from time travel (Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time) to post-apocalyptic survival (Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow), from the prospect of a future dominated by multinational advertising agencies (Pohl and Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants) to the very nature of human identity in a technological age (Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human and Algis Budrys’s Who?). The range of styles is equally diverse, by turns satiric, adventurous, incisive, and hauntingly lyrical. Grappling in fresh ways with a world in rapid transformation, these visionary novels opened new imaginative territory in American writing.

    Seuss's lovable grump makes his Step into Reading debut in this wonderland adventure through hills of green where the Truffula trees sway. Through easy words and simple sentences, the youngest readers will discover the Lorax's paradise, from singing Swomee-Swans to playful Bar-ba-loots.