BALTIMORE: Certain stimuli pervade the urban landscape: sirens and car alarms invade and irritate the ear from afar. Add to this the constant hum of traffic and, in a city like Baltimore, the buzzing sound of the ever-hovering Foxtrot police helicopter, and the modern metropolis sounds like a cacophony conducted within a police state. Where is the order? The balance? Where is the justice?

The following is a chronological list of American texts organized by century. Initially, I set out to compose a compendium of American literature (fiction and poetry) consisting of exactly 250 examples, or one for each year from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. I had envisioned a very tidy list of 25 books to read each year…