National Endowment for the Arts
“You don’t have to

burn books to 

destroy a culture.

Just get people 

to stop reading

them.”

—RAY BRADBURY
June 2007
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to

supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing 

the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.

Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal

government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the

arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities,

and military bases. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of

federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.

The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that

connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the

national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to

sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and

innovation; and support professional development. 

Arts Midwest connects people throughout the Midwest and the world 

to meaningful arts opportunities, sharing creativity, knowledge, and

understanding across boundaries. One of six non-profit regional arts

organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more

than 25 years.

Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest

combined manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft. 

As a leading contractor to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD),

Boeing works together with its DoD customers to provide U.S. Armed

Forces and U.S. allies around the world with fully integrated highperforming systems solutions and support. 

Additional support for the Big Read has also been provided by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation in partnership with Community Foundations of

America.

The Big Read in the Pacific Northwest is supported, in part, by a grant

from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

Additional funding for the Big Read is provided by the Ruffin A.

Cooper, Jr., Endowment and through a bequest made in memory of

Dorothy Lois Beverly.
Table of Contents

Chairman’s Message.....................................................................1

Letter to Librarians from Dr. Anne-Imelda M. Radice..............3

How the Big Read Books Are Chosen .......................................4

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya............................................5

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ................................................6

My Ántonia by Willa Cather...................................................... 7

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.......................................8

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines...................................9

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett ................................10

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway................................11

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ............12

Washington Square by Henry James..........................................13

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee........................................14

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin ............................15

The Call of the Wild by Jack London........................................16

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.................17

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick....................................................18

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson ......................................19

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ....................................20

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.................................................21

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.........................22

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton...................................23

Old School by Tobias Wolff .......................................................24

Application Guidelines for the Big Read .................................25

International Partnerships for the Big Read .............................26

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy....................................27

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ iii
Chairman’s Message 

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for

the Arts, designed to bring the transformative power of literature

back into the lives of Americans. A 2004 NEA report, Reading

at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, identified a

critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults.

The Big Read aims to address this issue directly by providing

citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book

within their communities. 

The purpose of the Big Read, like the purpose of literature itself,

is pleasure. Not necessarily an easy pleasure, but a deliciously

rich and complex one. A great book combines enlightenment

with enchantment. Literature awakens our imagination and

enlarges our humanity. It can even offer harrowing insights that

somehow console and comfort us. 

The prospect of an America where only a few people share a

love of reading is just too lonely to bear. Even if statistics didn’t

show that readers are more active in their own communities and

more engaged in their own lives, the act of reading would still

be an indispensable part of what makes us fully human. It is for

these reasons, with the incredible legacy of our nation’s

literature, that we at the NEA invite you to join the Big Read. 

This catalogue features the books included in the Big Read

library. These great works of American literature were selected

by our Readers Circle—a group of distinguished librarians,

professors, journalists, and fiction writers from across the

country. We hope you’ll agree that each book selected to be in

the Big Read has the potential to inspire, enlighten, and

enchant.

Dana Gioia 

Chairman

National Endowment for the Arts
C r e a t i n g a N a t i o n o f L e a r n e r s

Washington, DC 20036-5802 •• 202-653-IMLS (4657)

We are a federal, grant-making agency empowering museums and libraries to support life-long learning, essential to success in a knowledge society.

1800 M Street NW •• 9th Floor •• •• Fax 202-653-4625 •• www.imls.gov

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is proud to

partner with the National Endowment for the Arts on the

Big Read. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for

the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. Our

involvement in this program promotes our mission to

connect people to information and ideas.

We are encouraging libraries everywhere—in schools, on

campuses, and in communities—to participate in the Big

Read. Libraries are perfect partners positioned as centers of

civic engagement for the Big Read. They are trusted places

where groups come together to learn. And they have

librarians—well-schooled experts who know about learning

and literacy, and who know their communities and bring the

diverse organizations contained therein to a single table. Such

partnerships, focused on learning and literacy, unite people.

Literacy and literature sharpen the imagination, promote

empathy and learning, and hone critical thinking skills.

The Big Read is an outstanding initiative that benefits 

our entire nation. It has already united communities. 

We encourage your enthusiastic participation.

Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D.

Director

Institute of Museum and Library Services
How the Big Read Books 

Are Chosen

The National Endowment for the Arts is renowned for the

panel process that informs all our grants, including national

initiatives such as the Big Read. To select books for the Big

Read, the NEA has enlisted a panel of 22 literary experts and

laypeople with a passion for literature. The panelists make

recommendations, which are then reviewed by the NEA’s

Literature staff.

Based on the Readers Circle’s choices, the NEA selects a roster

of books embodying a broad array of traditions, cultures, and

regions. Though we try to offer Big Read communities a diverse

choice of reading, the one constant across our list will always be

literary excellence.

To give cities and towns even greater choice, the number of Big

Read books will continue to increase as the program expands.

Luckily, the storehouse of American literature shows no sign of

running low. Great new books join its ranks faster than our list

could ever grow. 

4 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 

Readers Circle

Wendell Berry, poet and

novelist 

Dr. James H. Billington,

Librarian of Congress 

Matthew Bruccoli, scholar

and professor 

James Lee Burke, author 

Lan Samantha Chang, author

and professor 

Maureen Corrigan, author,

book critic, and professor 

Michael Dirda, book critic 

Anne Fadiman, author and

essayist 

Pico Iyer, journalist and

novelist 

Mitchell Kaplan, former

American Booksellers

Association president 

Ted Kooser, United States

Poet Laureate from 2004 -

2006

Jim Lehrer, journalist and

author 

Jonathan Lethem, author 

Aimee Mann, musician 

Lorrie Moore, author 

Azar Nafisi, author and

professor 

Marilyn Nelson, Connecticut

state poet laureate 

Kathleen Norris, author 

P.J. O’Rourke, essayist and

humorist 

Nancy Pearl, author and

librarian 

Richard Rodriguez, author 

Kevin Starr, historian and

former California state

librarian 
Bless Me, Ultima 

by Rudolfo Anaya 

Bless Me, Ultima (1972) by Rudolfo Anaya is a

coming-of-age novel about pride and assimilation,

faith and doubt. The summer before Antonio Juan

Luna Márez turns seven years old, an old woman

comes to live with his family in Guadalupe, New

Mexico. This woman—called La Grande or

Ultima—is a curandera, a traditional healer feared

by many and mysterious to all. Ultima teaches

Antonio and their bond deepens, as Antonio

endures several events that profoundly shake his

understanding of his Hispanic-Catholic heritage

and his destiny. His dreams often foreshadow the

future and feature his three older brothers, just

demobilized from World War II. These surreal dreams

also reflect his existential questions: Why is there evil 

in the world? Why does God sometimes punish the

good? Where will I go after death? How can I know 

the truth? 

THEMES:

tradition, cultural identity, religion, death, education

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming

“I was happy with Ultima...She taught

me to listen to the mystery of the

groaning earth and to feel complete

in the fulfillment of its time. My soul

grew under her careful guidance.” 

—from Bless Me, Ultima

THE AUTHOR

Rudolfo Anaya was born in

the small village of Pastura,

New Mexico, to a cowboy

father and a farmgirl

mother. The author of

more than 30 books,

including The Heart of

Aztlan (1976), Tortuga

(1979), and Alburquerque

(1992), he lives in New

Mexico with his wife,

Patricia. In 2001 Anaya

received the National

Medal of Arts, the nation’s

highest award for artists.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 5
Fahrenheit 451 

by Ray Bradbury 

On October 19, 1953, a young Californian published

a novel with the odd title Fahrenheit 451. In a

gripping story both disturbing and poetic, Ray

Bradbury took the materials of pulp fiction and

transformed them into a visionary parable of a

society gone awry, in which firemen burn books

and the state suppresses learning. Meanwhile, the

citizenry sits by in a drug-induced and mediasaturated indifference. One fireman, Guy

Montag, secretly saves a few books from a

burning house and begins to read deeply for 

the first time in his life. As his knowledge

expands, his growing dissatisfaction leads him to

leave his home and join a resistance force of readers,

each one responsible for memorizing—and therefore

preserving—an entire book. More relevant than ever a

half-century later, Fahrenheit 451 has achieved the

distinction of being both a literary classic and a

perennial bestseller.

THEMES:

censorship, honor, courage, justice, the effects of technology on society

FILM ADAPTATION:

• Fahrenheit 451 (1966, directed by Francois Truffaut, starring 

Oskar Werner and Julie Christie)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• Fahrenheit 451, a play by Ray Bradbury

(www.dramaticpublishing.com)

• Fahrenheit 451 film score by Bernard Herrmann

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio versions available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

“It was a pleasure to burn. It Currently available for programming

was a special pleasure to see

things eaten, to see things

blackened and changed.”

––from Fahrenheit 451

THE AUTHOR

Ray Bradbury was born in

1920, in Waukegan, Illinois.

When his family drove

across the country to

California, young Ray piled

out of their car at every

stop to explore the local

library. With the

publication of The Martian

Chronicles in 1950,

Bradbury ensured his own

lasting place on library

shelves. The author of

more than 85 books,

Bradbury lives in Los

Angeles.

6 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
“There was nothing but land...I

had never before looked up

at the sky when there was

not a familiar mountain ridge

against it. But this was the

complete dome of heaven.” 

––from My Ántonia

My Ántonia 

by Willa Cather 

A beloved American classic, Willa Cather’s My Ántonia

(1918) may be best summarized by its epigraph—“the

best days are the first to flee.” The adult narrator, Jim

Burden, looks back on his childhood through the

memory of his friend, Ántonia Shimerda, an

inquisitive young immigrant girl from Bohemia.

Like Cather, 10-year-old Jim has left Virginia for

Nebraska by train and is shocked by the barren

prairie on his first wagon ride. With time, he

comes to love the land and his immigrant

neighbors, even after he leaves Nebraska to

pursue his education in Boston and his career in

New York. Although Jim hears rumors of Ántonia’s

ruin, more than 15 years pass before he musters up the

courage to return to Nebraska and find out what really

happened to her. The novel teems with romance,

violence, tenderness, cruelty, and tragedy—all bustling

side by side in a narrative at once elegant and

compassionate.

THEMES:

immigrant experience in America, memory, taming of the land, 

youth, friendship

DOCUMENTARY FILM:

• Willa Cather: The Road Is All (PBS American Masters documentary)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• Antonín Dvorák: Piano Trio, Op. 90 (Dumky)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming

THE AUTHOR

Born in 1873 in Virginia’s

Shenandoah Valley, Willa

Cather left nine years later

to join her grandparents in

the Nebraska territory. 

Her best-known novels—

O Pioneers! (1913), The

Song of the Lark (1915),

and My Ántonia (1918)—all

take place in Nebraska, but

she lived most of her life in

New York. She died in 1947

and is buried in Jaffrey,

New Hampshire.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 7

v
“At his lips’ touch she blossomed

for him like a flower and the

incarnation was complete.”

––from The Great Gatsby 

The Great Gatsby 

by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby is a

tragic love story, a mystery, and a social commentary

on American life. The novel concerns the wasteful

lives of four wealthy characters as observed by their

acquaintance, narrator Nick Carraway. The story 

of Jay Gatsby’s desperate quest to win back his 

first love reverberates with themes at once

characteristically American and universally

human, among them the importance of honesty,

the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to

escape the past. Though Gatsby’s love, Daisy,

pledged to wait for his return from World 

War I, she married the wealthy Tom Buchanan.

Gatsby still worships her as his golden girl and, having

made a great fortune, sets out to win her back. In the

novel’s famous conclusion, the characters collide,

leaving human wreckage in their wake.

THEMES:

loyalty, fidelity, class, living in the past, temptation 

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Great Gatsby (1974, starring Robert Redford, adapted by Francis

Ford Coppola) 

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• The Great Gatsby, theatrical adaptation by Simon Levy 

• The Great Gatsby, opera by John Harbison, libretto by Murray

Horwitz

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming

THE AUTHOR

Francis Scott Key

Fitzgerald was born in St.

Paul, Minnesota, in 1896.

During World War I,

Fitzgerald was stationed in

Montgomery, Alabama,

where he met his future

wife, Zelda. After The

Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

took nine years to finish his

next novel, Tender Is the

Night (1934). He died of a

heart attack in Hollywood

in 1940 and is buried in

Rockville, Maryland.

8 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
“You have the chance of being

bigger than anyone who has

ever lived on this plantation

or come from this little town.

You can do it if you try.”

—from A Lesson Before Dying

A Lesson Before Dying 

by Ernest J. Gaines

Set in Louisiana in the 1940s, Ernest J. Gaines’ 

A Lesson Before Dying (1993) transports the reader 

into the pre-Civil Rights-era South, where the divide

between races was as deep and free-flowing as the

Mississippi River. Jefferson, a young uneducated

black man, is called an animal and unjustly

sentenced to death for a white storekeeper’s murder.

The teacher at a former plantation’s schoolhouse,

Grant Wiggins, is asked to help Jefferson die like a

man. Though Grant desperately wants to escape

the poverty and racism of the parish, he is rooted

to the area by a sense of duty and cannot break

away. Using atmospheric prose and pitch-perfect

dialogue, Gaines treats both his characters and the

Louisiana countryside with honesty and understanding.

The result is an evocative look at the brutality of racism

and the power of compassion.

THEMES:

human dignity, education, racism, family, duty

FILM ADAPTATION:

• A Lesson Before Dying (1999, starring Don Cheadle, directed by

Joseph Sargent)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• A Lesson Before Dying, theatrical adaptation by Romulus Linney

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Available for applications due July 31, 2007; in communities as of spring 2008

THE AUTHOR

Ernest J. Gaines was born

on a plantation in Pointe

Coupee Parish, Louisiana.

At 15, he joined his mother

and stepfather in Vallejo,

California. The author of

other acclaimed novels

such as The Autobiography

of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)

and A Gathering of Old

Men (1983), he is Professor

Emeritus of Creative

Writing at University of

Louisiana Lafayette and

lives in Oscar, Louisiana. He

received an NEA Literature

Fellowship in 1968.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 9
“My clients are entitled to a decent

amount of secrecy.... As far as I can

see, my best chance of clearing

myself of the trouble you’re trying

to make for me is by bringing in the

murderers—all tied up.”

––from The Maltese Falcon 

The Maltese Falcon 

by Dashiell Hammett 

Dashiell Hammett’s third novel, The Maltese Falcon

(1930), fulfilled his stated ambition to elevate the

detective novel to the status of literature. Hammett’s

clean prose and sharp ear for dialogue produced a

compulsively readable novel that is at once a thriller,

a love story, and a dry, acerbic comedy. A tough,

independent detective in San Francisco, Sam

Spade gets hired under false pretenses by the

beautiful and mysterious Brigid O’Shaughnessy.

After his partner turns up dead, Spade’s personal

moral code dictates that “when a man’s partner

is killed he’s supposed to do something about

it.” He soon realizes the death is linked to a group of

shady characters seeking an elusive jeweled falcon

statuette once owned by the legendary Knights of

Malta. The quest for the falcon and the killer contains

enough twists and surprises to keep the reader turning

the pages, chasing the truth. 

THEMES:

greed, loyalty, honor, justice

FILM ADAPTATIONS:

• The Maltese Falcon (1931, starring Ricardo Cortez)

• The Maltese Falcon (1941, starring Humphrey Bogart; adapted and

directed by John Huston) 

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming

THE AUTHOR

Dashiell Hammett was

born in St. Mary’s County,

Maryland, in 1894. In 1920

he moved to San Francisco

and began writing

detective stories for pulp

magazines. Works such as

Red Harvest (1929), The

Maltese Falcon (1930), 

and The Thin Man (1934)

cemented his reputation as

a master of hard-boiled

fiction. Hammett died in

1961, and is buried in the

military cemetery at

Arlington.

10 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
“If people bring so much

courage to this world the

world has to kill them to

break them, so of course it

kills them. The world

breaks every one and

afterward many are strong

at the broken places.”

—from A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms 

by Ernest Hemingway 

Ernest Hemingway is the notorious tough guy of

modern American letters, but it would be hard to 

find a more tender and rapturous love story than 

A Farewell to Arms (1929). It also would be hard to

find a more harrowing American novel about World

War I. The tragic love story between an American

ambulance driver, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, and

his English nurse, Catherine Barkley, takes place in

Italy and Switzerland. Badly wounded at the front,

Frederic finds himself bedridden in a Milan

hospital, where he and Catherine fall deeply in

love. While Frederic recovers from surgery and

prepares to return to action, Catherine discovers that

she is pregnant. Though the couple has escaped the

war, there are dangers that cannot be anticipated or

avoided. The final chapter is one of the most famous,

and heartbreaking, conclusions in modern literature.

THEMES:

love, war, liberation, death, honor, courage

FILM ADAPTATIONS:

• A Farewell to Arms (1932, starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes) 

• A Farewell to Arms (1957, starring Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones)

DOCUMENTARY FILM:

• Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea (PBS American Masters

documentary)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming

THE AUTHOR

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, in

1899, Ernest Hemingway

served, like his hero in A

Farewell to Arms, as an

ambulance driver in World

War I, received a severe

wound, and fell in love

with one of his nurses. His

other classic works include

The Sun Also Rises (1926)

and For Whom the Bell

Tolls (1940). He died in

Ketchum, Idaho, in 1961.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 11
Their Eyes Were 

Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God begins with our eyes

fixed on a woman who returns from burying the

dead. Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel chronicles

Janie Crawford’s journey from her grandmother’s

plantation shack to marriage in Eatonville, to the

Florida Everglades—until a tragedy brings her

back to Eatonville. From this vantage point, Janie

narrates her life story to her best friend, satisfying

the “oldest human longing—self-revelation.”

Hurston’s conviction that black culture is

valuable and unique comes through in Their

Eyes Were Watching God via its harmonious blend of

folklore and black idiom. In Janie Crawford, Hurston

rejects the 19th- and 20th-century stereotypes for

women and creates a protagonist who—though

silenced for most of her life—ultimately finds her 

own voice.

THEMES:

sexism, racism, religion, folklore, finding one’s voice

FILM ADAPTATION:

• Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005, starring Halle Berry, adapted

by Suzan-Lori Parks)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• Jump At The Sun, a radio play by Kathleen McGhee-Andersen

(produced by L.A. Theatre Works) 

• Mule Bone, a play by Hurston and Langston Hughes

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming 

“The wind came back with triple

fury, and put out the light for the

last time. . . .They seemed to be

staring at the dark, but their eyes

were watching God.” 

—from Their Eyes Were Watching God

THE AUTHOR

Zora Neale Hurston was

born in 1891 in Notasulga,

Alabama. Her lifelong

passion to record the

many voices of her people

informed all her fiction and

anthropology, including

Mules and Men (1935),

Their Eyes Were Watching

God (1937), and her

autobiography Dust Track

on a Road (1942). Hurston

died in poverty and

obscurity in 1960, years

before her books came

back into print. 

12 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
Washington Square 

by Henry James 

Catherine Sloper, the steadfast heroine of Washington

Square, craves love—from the father disappointed in

her lack of good looks and intellect, from the aunt

inconvenienced by raising the motherless girl, and

especially from her handsome suitor, Morris

Townsend. Her father, refusing to believe his

unremarkable daughter could attract Townsend

with anything other than her wealth, forbids the

match and threatens to disinherit her. Faced with

choosing between obedience to her father and

marrying the man she loves, Catherine

accompanies her father on an extended trip to

Europe but maintains her relationship with

Townsend. Though the novel was not commercially

successful when it was published in 1880, it gained

popularity as Henry James’ literary reputation grew and

has become a much-loved classic whose themes of

obedience, honor, loyalty, and love still resonate with

readers.

THEMES:

honor, love, dignity, fidelity 

FILM ADAPTATIONS:

• The Heiress (1949, adapted from Washington Square, starring Olivia

de Havilland)

• Washington Square (1997, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh) 

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• The Heiress, 1947 play adapted by Augustus and Ruth Goetz

• Washington Square, opera by Thomas Pasatieri, libretto by 

K. Elmslie

• Washington Square, ballet with music by Charles Ives, choreography

by Rudolf Nureyev, adapted by Nureyev and Jean-Claude Carrière

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Available for applications in spring 2008; in communities as of fall 2008

“She grew up a very robust and

healthy child, and her father, as

he looked at her, often said to

himself that, such as she was,

he at least need have no fear

of losing her.”

—from Washington Square 

THE AUTHOR

Henry James was born in

New York City in 1843.

After publication of Daisy

Miller (1879) and The

Portrait of a Lady (1881),

James enjoyed popularity

in Europe and America

while maintaining

friendships with such

writers as Edith Wharton,

Ivan Turgenev, and

Gustave Flaubert.

Eventually a British

subject, he received the

Order of Merit from King

George V in 1916 and died

a month later.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 13
“The one thing 

that doesn’t abide

by majority rule 

is a person’s

conscience.”

––from To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird 

by Harper Lee 

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) is the 

rare American novel that can be discovered with

excitement in adolescence and reread into adulthood

without fear of disappointment. Few novels so

appealingly or convincingly evoke the daily world of

childhood. Scout Finch, the novel’s narrator, and

her brother, Jem, live in the small, rural town of

Maycomb, Alabama, where they attempt to lure a

reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley, out of his home.

Meanwhile, the children’s father, attorney Atticus

Finch, agrees to defend a black man falsely

accused of raping a white woman. Atticus’

decision angers the townspeople and endangers

his family. Tying the stories together are his simple but

profound words, “You never really understand a person

until you consider things from his point of view. . . .

Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

For many young people, this funny and humane novel

becomes their first big read, the grown-up story against

which all later books will be measured. 

THEMES:

racism, poverty, literacy, responsibility, justice 

FILM ADAPTATION:

• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, adapted by Horton Foote, starring

Gregory Peck) 

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• To Kill a Mockingbird, stage adaptation by Christopher Sergel

• To Kill a Mockingbird film score by Elmer Bernstein

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/)

Currently available for programming 

THE AUTHOR

Harper Lee was born in

Monroeville, Alabama, in

1926. She attended

Huntingdon College in

Montgomery, Alabama,

and studied law at the

University of Alabama in

Tuscaloosa before moving

to New York City to pursue

a career as a writer.

Lee’s only novel, To Kill a

Mockingbird, received the

Pulitzer Prize for fiction in

1961 and has sold more

than 30 million copies in 18

languages. 

14 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
A Wizard of Earthsea 

by Ursula K. Le Guin 

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)—the first book of Ursula

K. Le Guin’s two Earthsea trilogies—originated at the

request of Le Guin’s publisher. Intended as a fantasy

story for ages 11 and up, Le Guin created a world

that has fascinated both children and adults.

Influenced by Norse myths and Native-American

legends, A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming-of-age

fantasy adventure. The hero is a young boy, Ged,

with magical talents and a hunger for greater

knowledge and power. When Ged fights a

forbidden duel, he inadvertently summons a

spirit from the dead. An attack from this spirit

almost kills him, and a nameless evil shadow is

unleashed and wanders Earthsea. The novel traces Ged’s

growth as a man and a wizard, as he learns that wisdom

comes from humility, silence brings strength, and the

most powerful magic derives from learning one’s true

name.

THEMES:

adolescence, interrelationship of good and evil, power of language

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications in spring 2008; in communities as of fall 2008

THE AUTHOR

Born in Berkeley,

California, Ursula K. 

Le Guin has written novels,

short stories, children’s

books, poetry, and a

translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao

Te Ching. Other major

works include novels The

Left Hand of Darkness

(1969) and The Lathe of

Heaven (1971). Her many

honors include a National

Book Award, five Nebula

Awards, and five Hugo

Awards. She lives in

Portland, Oregon.

“For magic consists in

this, the true naming

of a thing.” 

––from A Wizard of Earthsea

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 15
The Call of the Wild 

by Jack London 

The hero of The Call of the Wild is Buck, a St.

Bernard/Scotch Shepherd dog. Abducted from his

comfortable home as a pet in Northern California

and sold as a sled dog, he learns to obey through “the

law of club and fang.” He courageously survives

brutal cruelty—from both his trainers and the

wilderness—and rises to become the leader of the

sled team. Buck’s primordial instincts return as he

endures hunger and fatigue, learns to scavenge for

food, and fights with his rival. Set during the

Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 in Canada’s

Yukon territory and Alaska, The Call of the Wild

was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post during

the summer of 1903. Despite its frequent classification

as juvenile fiction, generations of adults have found

London’s portrayal of humans and animals

unforgettable and their struggle for survival in a hostile

environment genuinely moving.

THEMES:

nature vs. nurture, socialism vs. individualism, civilization vs. instinct 

FILM ADAPTATIONS:

• The Call of the Wild (1935, starring Clark Gable) 

• The Call of the Wild (1976, adapted by James Dickey)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications due July 31, 2007; in communities as of spring 2008

The development of resource materials 

for The Call of the Wild is made possible, 

in part, by a grant from the 

Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

“Deep in the forest a call was

sounding, and as often as he

heard this call, mysteriously

thrilling and luring, he felt

compelled to turn his back upon

the fire, and to plunge into the

forest.” 

—from The Call of the Wild

THE AUTHOR

Born in Oakland, California,

in 1876, Jack London lived

a life of romantic adventure.

At 15, he was an oyster

pirate, and by 21 a miner in

the Klondike Gold Rush—

an experience he drew

from for The Call of the

Wild (1903) and White

Fang (1906). By the time

of his death in 1916, he was

arguably the most famous

American writer of his

time. 

16 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers 

Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

(1940) is set in a small Georgia mill town in the late

1930s. John Singer, a deaf man, rents a room in the

Kelly house after his companion, Spiros

Antonapolous, is sent away to an asylum. The

amiable Singer becomes confidant to four of the

town’s misfits—Mick Kelly, a teenage girl who

dreams of becoming a musician; Benedict Mady

Copeland, the town’s black doctor; Jake Blount, an

alcoholic socialist; and Biff Brannon, the owner of

the local café. Over the course of a year, the

characters find solace in Singer, who pines for his

friend, Antonapoulos. This tragic, small-town drama 

is so ambitious in its scope—presenting five radically

different characters whose troubled lives intersect in 

the Depression-era South—it is hard to believe that

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was the first book of 

a 23-year-old writer. It always feels like the work 

of a master storyteller.

THEMES:

isolation, loneliness, communication, loss, racism, suffering

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968, starring Alan Arkin)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 55 (Eroica)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Currently available for programming

THE AUTHOR

To know Mick Kelly—

the precocious, dreamy

heroine of The Heart Is a

Lonely Hunter—is to know

a young Carson McCullers,

born in 1917 in Columbus,

Georgia. At 17 she left

Georgia for New York 

City to become a writer.

The author of five novels,

two plays, 20 short stories,

poetry, and more than 

two dozen works of nonfiction, McCullers died 

in 1967. 

“The town was in the middle of the

deep South. The summers were

long and the months of winter

cold were very few. Nearly always

the sky was a glassy, brilliant

azure and the sun burned down

riotously bright.” 

—from The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 17
The Shawl 

by Cynthia Ozick

In the opening pages of Cynthia Ozick’s The Shawl

(1989), Rosa Lublin is in a Nazi concentration camp

during World War II, “a place without pity” where

she witnesses her young daughter’s murder. The rest

of the book takes place 30 years later in Miami,

where Rosa is living “among the elderly, in a dark

hole, a single room.” Still traumatized by her past

suffering, Rosa struggles to reclaim at least a

portion of the life stolen from her while clinging

tenaciously to a mother’s dreams for what her

child might have become. Though Ozick

examines the brutality of which man is capable,

ultimately the book testifies to the resilience of the

human spirit. Readers should not be fooled by the

slimness of The Shawl. Ozick’s prose is both intensely

poetic and emotionally unsettling. The book—actually

a short story followed by a linked novella—carries the

impact of a work many times its length, and each story

earned the coveted Best American Short Story and O.

Henry awards.

THEMES:

poverty, loss, resilience, grief, discrimination

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• The Shawl, Ozick’s theatrical retelling and extension of the story 

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version of the short story “The Shawl” available

on CD, read by Cynthia Ozick (part of The Best American Short

Stories of the Century)

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications due July 31, 2007; in communities as of spring 2008

“Blue digits on the arm,

what difference? They

don’t call you a woman

anyhow. Survivor.”

—from The Shawl

THE AUTHOR

The daughter of Russian

immigrants, Cynthia Ozick

was born in New York City

in 1928. She has won the

Rea Award for the Short

Story and been nominated

four times for the National

Book Critics’ Circle Award,

winning for Quarrel &

Quandary (2000). She also

received an NEA Literature

Fellowship in 1968 and

lives in New Rochelle, New

York.

18 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
THE AUTHOR

Marilynne Robinson was

born in 1943 and grew up

in the Idaho town of

Sandpoint—not unlike

Fingerbone in

Housekeeping. Many know

her as the author of the

Pulitzer Prize-winning

novel Gilead (2004), the

saga of an ailing

Congregationalist pastor,

recounting his life for a 

son he will never know.

Robinson also has written

two nonfiction books, and

teaches at the University of

Iowa Writer’s Workshop. 

Housekeeping 

by Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping (1981) begins with

a train wreck on a lonely lake during a moonless night.

Because her grandfather died in the crash and her

mother later drowned in the same lake, the novel’s

narrator, Ruth, has grown up with her sister under

the care of a succession of female family members.

Set in the fictional Idaho town of Fingerbone, the

story’s glacial lake is a powerful presence in all their

lives. This lyrical novel examines each character

with precision and clarity, revealing the complex

relationships of individuals caught between

familial responsibility and the wish for freedom.

Through “the clutter of ordinary life,” Housekeeping

suggests that the loss of innocence is most deeply felt

when we try to break the bonds of family and home. 

THEMES:

nontraditional families, grieving, adoption, abandonment, 

small-town life

FILM ADAPTATION:

• Housekeeping (1987, adapted and directed by Bill Forsyth)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications in spring 2008; in communities as of fall 2008

“To crave and to have are as like

as a thing and its shadow...and

when do our senses know any

thing so utterly as when we

lack it?” 

—from Housekeeping

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 19
The Grapes of Wrath 

by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is both 

a great American novel and a significant event in

American history. Capturing the plight of millions of

Americans impoverished by the Dust Bowl and the

Great Depression, Steinbeck awakened the nation’s

comprehension and compassion. The novel begins

with young Tom Joad’s return home from prison

to find his family’s Oklahoma farmstead in ruins.

The Joads soon set out for a better life in

California, only to find a plantation economy

whose bounty makes no provision for them

except as occasional day laborers. Written in an

amazing five-month burst of productivity, The

Grapes of Wrath’s creation stands testament to perhaps

its greatest theme: the dignity of hard work, done by

hand and beset by doubt, with all one has, and for

others to share.

THEMES:

the American Dream, redemption, individuals vs. corporations, 

tolerance, ecology, immigration 

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Grapes of Wrath (1940, starring Henry Fonda)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES:

• The Grapes of Wrath, stage adaptation by Frank Galati (produced by

L.A. Theatre Works) 

• The Grapes of Wrath, opera by Ricky Ian Gordon, libretto by

Michael Korie

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Currently available for programming “On the highways the people

moved like ants and searched

for work, for food. And the

anger began to ferment.” 

––from The Grapes of Wrath

THE AUTHOR

Born in the California farm

town of Salinas in 1902,

John Steinbeck received

decades of enmity from

his hometown for its

depiction in the Pulitzer

Prize-winning The Grapes

of Wrath. Steinbeck soon

thereafter moved to New

York. The 1962 memoir

Travels With Charley: In

Search of America

freshened and deepened

Steinbeck’s already wide

readership. That same year,

he won the Nobel Prize for

literature. He died in

Manhattan in 1968.

20 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
THE AUTHOR

Amy Tan was born in

Oakland, California, in 1952,

several years after her

parents immigrated to the

Bay area from China. After

her first trip to China with

her mother, Tan wrote The

Joy Luck Club. Her other

works include several

acclaimed novels, the

children’s book The

Chinese Siamese Cat

(1994), and the essay

collection The Opposite of

Fate (2003). She lives in

northern California.

The Joy Luck Club 

by Amy Tan

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989) is itself a joyful

study in luck. Initially intended as a short-story

collection, the novel is a mother-daughter saga written

by a woman whose own mother wanted her to be

anything but a writer. The novel features four pairs

of mothers and daughters. One of these mothers,

Suyuan Woo, invented the original “Joy Luck

Club” in China, before the Japanese invaded the

city of Kweilin. After Suyuan reaches America, she

resurrects the club with three other Chinese

immigrants, and the four reinvent themselves in

San Francisco’s Chinatown. These four mothers

hope the mix of “American circumstances with

Chinese character” will give their California-born

daughters better lives. Through the power of

storytelling, all eight women struggle to connect 

despite the ghosts and secrets of the past.

THEMES:

parent-child relationships, sacrifice, memories, fate, joy, faith, hope 

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Joy Luck Club (1993, co-written by Amy Tan and Ronald Bass,

directed by Wayne Wang)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• The Joy Luck Club film score by Rachel Portman

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• abridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Currently available for programming “They see that joy and luck

do not mean the same to

their daughters, that to

these closed Americanborn minds ‘joy luck’ is

not a word, it does not

exist.”

––from The Joy Luck Club

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 21
The Adventures of 

Tom Sawyer 

by Mark Twain

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) 

is ripe for a second look. The story of a mischievous 

boy growing up before the Civil War in a small

Mississippi River town, Twain’s first full-length

novel brims with the exultation of a world-class

sprinter finding out he can run marathons, too.

What many people mistake for a children’s 

novel is really a natural introduction—or 

re-introduction—to the pleasures of literature,

whatever a reader’s age. As Twain himself wrote

in his preface, “Although my book is intended

mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, 

I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on

that account, for part of my plan has been to try to

pleasantly remind adults of what they once were

themselves, and of how they felt and thought and

talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes

engaged in.”

THEMES:

childhood, racism, education, family

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938, starring Walter Brennan)

DOCUMENTAR Y FILMS:

• Mark Twain (3-1/2 hours, two-part documentary from Ken Burns)

• Mark Twain Tonight! (starring Hal Holbrook)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications in spring 2008; in communities as of fall 2008

THE AUTHOR

The writer we know as

Mark Twain was born

Samuel Clemens in 1835 in

Florida, Missouri. He wrote

comic newspaper stories

in the California goldfields,

uproarious nonfiction such

as Roughing It (1872), and

a couple of novels––

including The Adventures

of Huckleberry Finn

(1885)––in which not just

his heroes, but all of

American literature grows

up. He died in 1910 in

Redding, Connecticut.

“Like it? Well I don’t see why I

oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy

get a chance to whitewash a

fence every day?”

—from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

22 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
THE AUTHOR

Born in New York in 1862,

Edith Wharton won literary

fame with The House of

Mirth (1905). One of the

20th century’s most

prolific, wealthy, and

distinguished American

writers, Wharton published

more than 45 books of

poetry, non-fiction, stories,

and novels to both popular

and critical acclaim. She

died in 1937 in France,

where she had lived the

last 27 years of her life.

The Age of Innocence 

by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (1920) begins at

the opera on a January evening in the 1870s. Among

the audience is Newland Archer, an affluent New

York lawyer in his 30s, “sincerely yet placidly in love”

with beautiful May Welland. Newland never

questions that his fiancée will be the perfect wife

until May’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns

home suddenly after many years in Europe. From

the moment Ellen enters the opera, she shocks

Old New York, but when she wants to divorce

her Polish husband, she risks public disgrace.

With time, Newland not only falls in love with

Ellen—despite his impending wedding to May—but

also begins to see the hypocrisy of his world. Will he

follow the wishes of his family and convince Ellen to

remain in an oppressive marriage? Or will he risk his

own name and encourage her to seek a divorce? 

THEMES:

struggle between duty and desire, marriage and divorce, conformity, 

temptation

FILM ADAPTATION:

• The Age of Innocence (1993, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle

Pfeiffer, adapted by Jay Cocks, directed by Martin Scorsese)

PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITY:

• Faust by Charles Gounod (1859, the opera that begins and ends 

the novel)

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• large print edition available

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Currently available for programming

“In reality they all lived in a

kind of hieroglyphic world,

where the real thing was

never said or done or even

thought, but only represented

by a set of arbitrary signs.” 

–– from The Age of Innocence

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 23
Old School 

by Tobias Wolff

In Tobias Wolff’s Old School (2003), the characters

talk and think about literature as if their lives depend

upon it. Wolff’s narrator, a secretly half-Jewish

scholarship student from the Northwest, is nearing

graduation at a classy all-boy prep school during the

Kennedy era. The first three sections take the form

of campus visits by the poet Robert Frost, the

philosopher Ayn Rand, and novelist Ernest

Hemingway, whose anticipated arrival drives

Wolff’s hero-worshipping narrator to an act of

desperation. The fourth section comes decades

later as the adult narrator reckons with his earlier

conduct while visiting the school as a guest writer

himself. Old School examines the price of sacrificing

integrity and the powerful allure of artistic fame. 

THEMES:

truth, honor, fame, plagiarism, integrity, education

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• unabridged audio version available 

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

(NLS) resources available (www.loc.gov/nls/) 

Available for applications in spring 2008; in communities as of fall 2008

“Make no mistake, he said: 

a true piece of writing is a

dangerous thing. It can change

your life.” 

––from Old School

THE AUTHOR

Born in Birmingham,

Alabama, in 1945, Tobias

Wolff is an accomplished

writer and teacher. The

memoirs This Boy’s Life

(1989) and In Pharoah’s

Army (1994) recall his

adolescence in Washington

State and four years in the

military. This Boy’s Life and

Old School were each

nominated for the National

Book Critics’ Circle Award.

Wolff teaches at Stanford

University and lives in

northern California. He also

has received two NEA

Literature Fellowships in

1978 and 1985.

24 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for

the Arts (NEA), in partnership with the Institute of Museum

and Library Services, designed to revitalize the role of literature

in American culture and bring the transformative power of

literature into the lives of its citizens. Created by the NEA in

cooperation with Arts Midwest, the Big Read brings together

partners across the country to encourage citizens to read for

pleasure and enlightenment. 

An organization applying to participate must be a 501(c)(3)

nonprofit organization or a division of state, local, or tribal

government. Eligible applicants include such organizations as

literary centers, libraries, museums, colleges and universities, art

centers, historical societies, arts councils, tribal governments,

humanities councils, literary festivals, and arts organizations.

Applicant organizations must partner with a library (if the

applicant organization itself is not a library). 

Community organizations participating in the Big Read shall

develop and produce a well-planned and well-attended

community-wide read with innovative, diverse programming,

and widespread community partnerships and participation.

Activities should last approximately 4-6 weeks and focus on one

book from the list of available Big Read titles.

Organizations selected to participate in the Big Read will receive

a grant; financial support to attend a national orientation

meeting; Reader’s, Teacher’s, and Audio Guides for their selected

title; promotional materials for broad distribution; an online

Organizer’s Guide for developing and managing Big Read

activities; inclusion of the organization and its events on the Big

Read Web site; and the prestige of participating in a highly

visible national initiative. 

To learn more about the Big Read, including 

current programming and application deadlines, visit

www.neabigread.org.

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 25

Application

Guidelines for

the Big Read
International 

Partnerships for 

the Big Read

The Big Read is expanding to include international

partnerships that will create meaningful cultural exchange

through the reading of great literature. The first of these

developing international exchanges is with Russia. 

Communities considering The Death of Ivan Ilyich are

encouraged to explore partnerships that involve the local

Russian community (if applicable), university

International Centers, Slavic language departments, and

international exchange organizations, such as Sister Cities. 

Communities that select The Death of Ivan Ilyich

(available for programming starting January 2008) may

have the opportunity to participate in NEA-coordinated

cultural exchange activities with Russia. 

Programming expectations and reporting requirements

for The Death of Ivan Ilyich are the same as for selections

of other Big Read titles.

In addition to Russia, partnerships with several countries,

including Mexico and Egypt, are in the planning stages.

To learn more about the Big Read’s current international

partnership opportunities, visit www.neabigread.org.

26 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 
THE AUTHOR

Considered by many

Russia’s greatest novelist,

Count Leo Nikolaevich

Tolstoy (1828-1910) was

orphaned at nine. He later

joined the army and

served in the Crimean War.

Between 1863 and 1869

Tolstoy wrote War and

Peace, his epic of France’s

1812 invasion of Russia.

Anna Karenina (1875-77)

followed, as did his

obsession with early

Christianity subtly present

in The Death of Ivan Ilyich

(1886). 

“Ivan Ilyich’s life had been

most simple and most

ordinary and therefore 

most terrible.” 

––from The Death of Ivan Ilyich

National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 27

The Death of Ivan Ilyich 

by Leo Tolstoy 

The 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich dramatizes

Leo Tolstoy’s central spiritual concerns. Although Ivan

Ilyich is a Russian judge and official, he is also a

middle-class everyman whose death results from a

trivial accident while hanging a curtain in his home.

As his disease progresses, Ivan recognizes the

hypocrisy of his society and the insincerity of his

family, and ultimately confesses the futility of his

life. Surrounded by his wife, daughter, colleagues,

and doctors, Ivan feels even more isolated and

alone. As his physical pain increases, so does

Ivan’s emotional awareness of a horrifying truth:

he has not lived a meaningful life. The power of the

novella stems from Tolstoy’s psychological insight, sharp

satire, and sensory realism. 

THEMES:

conformity, hypocrisy, death, confronting mortality 

ACCESSIBILITY MATERIALS:

• large print edition available

Available for applications due July 31, 2007; in communities as of spring 2008
This publication is published by:

National Endowment for the Arts

Office of Communications

Felicia K. Knight, Director

Don Ball, Publications Manager/Editor

Written by Sarah Cook, David Kipen, Erika Koss, and

Molly Thomas-Hicks, NEA Literature Office

Designed by:

Fletcher Design, Washington DC

Voice/TTY: (202) 682-5496

For individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Individuals who do not use conventional print may

contact the Arts Endowment’s Office for AccessAbility to

obtain this publication in an alternate format.

Telephone: (202) 682-5532

Additional copies of this publication can be obtained free

of charge by the contacting the NEA Web site:

www.arts.gov.

National Endowment for the Arts

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

This publication was printed on recycled paper.

IMAGE CREDITS

Cover: All caricatures by John Sherffius for the Big Read. Book covers: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya book cover ©

1972, used with permission of Warner Books, a division of Hachette Book Group, USA; The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

book cover, photograph of Carson McCullers © 1946 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, Inc., used courtesy of

Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company, New York; The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett dust

jacket. Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. Copyright 1930. Reproduced by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Collection of

Richard Layman; The Grapes of Wrath first edition book cover, courtesy of University of Delaware Library, Newark, Del.,

used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.; The Joy Luck Club book cover used by

permission of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Dana Gioia photo by Vance Jacobs; Anne-Imelda Radice photo courtey of IMLS.

PAGE 5 (ANAYA)

Author Photo: Getty Images; Book Cover: Bless Me, Ultima © 1972, used with permission of Warner Books, a division

of Hachette Book Group, USA

PAGE 6 (BRADBURY)

Author Photo: Getty Images; Book Cover: Fahrenheit 451, used with permission of Del Rey/The Random House

Ballantine Publishing Group

PAGE 7 (CATHER)

Author Photo: © Condé Nast Archive/CORBIS; Book Cover: My Ántonia, courtesy of Viking Books, an imprint of The

Knopf Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York

PAGE 8 (FITZGERALD)

Author Photo: Getty Images; Book Cover: The Great Gatsby, cover painting by Francis Cugat, courtesy of Scribner, an

imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

PAGE 9 (GAINES)

Author Photo: Dianne S. Gaines; Book Cover: A Lesson Before Dying, photograph © 1930 by Doris Ulmann from the

collection of the New York Historical Society, courtesy of Vintage Contemporaries, a division of Random House, Inc.,

New York

PAGE 10 (HAMMETT)

Author Photo: Julie Rivett; Book Cover: The Maltese Falcon dust jacket. Alfred A. Knopf, © 1930. Reproduced by

permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Collection of Richard Layman

PAGE 11 (HEMINGWAY)

Author Photo: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS; Book Cover: A Farewell to Arms first edition, courtesy of

University of Delaware Library, Newark, Del, used by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult

Publishing Group

PAGE 12 (HURSTON)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: Their Eyes Were Watching God, courtesy

of HarperCollins

PAGE 13 (JAMES)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: Washington Square, used by permission

of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

PAGE 14 (LEE)

Author Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS; Book Cover: To Kill a Mockingbird, photograph by John Montgomery, courtesy

of HarperCollins

PAGE 15 (LE GUIN)

Author Photo: © Marian Wood Kolisch; Book Cover: A Wizard of Earthsea, courtesy of Random House, Inc., New York

PAGE 16 (LONDON)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: The Call of the Wild, used by

permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

PAGE 17 (MCCULLERS)

Author Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS; Book Cover: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, photograph of Carson McCullers ©

1946 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, Inc., courtesy of Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin

Company, New York

PAGE 18 (OZICK)

Author Photo: Nancy Crampton, courtesy of Houghton Mifflin; Book Cover: The Shawl, courtesy of Vintage

International, a division of Random House, Inc., New York

PAGE 19 (ROBINSON)

Author Photo: Nancy Crampton, courtesy of Picador; Book Cover: Housekeeping, photograph by Scott Tysick/Masterfile,

courtesy of Picador, New York

PAGE 20 (STEINBECK)

Author Photo: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS; Book Cover: The Grapes of Wrath first edition, courtesy of

University of Delaware Library, Newark, Del., used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group

(USA) Inc.

PAGE 21 (TAN)

Author Photo: © Robert Foothorap; Book Cover: The Joy Luck Club, used by permission of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a

division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

PAGE 22 (TWAIN)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, used by

permission of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

PAGE 23 (WHARTON)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: The Age of Innocence, courtesy of

Modern Library, a division of Random House, Inc., New York

PAGE 24 (WOLFF)

Author Photo: Giliola Christe; Book Cover: Old School, photograph courtesy of Tobias Wolff, courtesy of Vintage

Contemporaries, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

PAGE 27 (TOLSTOY)

Author Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Book Cover: The Death of Ivan Ilyich, courtesy of

Random House, Inc., New York

A Great Nation Deserves Great Art.

National Endowment for the Arts

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

Not for sale––Available for free at www.arts.gov