Immigrants to America from 1850 to 1900

Compiled 2002

Archer, Jeffrey.  Kane & Abel.  FIC ARC.  1980.  Kane and Able, both born in 1906 on the same day, came from widely different backgrounds, one from a wealthy U.S. banking family and the other born in a forest and making great strides as a Polish immigrant in the hotel business.  They become obsessed with power and destroying one another.

Caldwell, Taylor.  Captains and the Kings.  FIC CAL.  1972.  Joseph Armagh, nearly penniless as a twelve-year-old Irish immigrant in the 1850s builds and empire, but the second generation of his family seems cursed by the wealth he had accumulated.

Denker, Henry.  The Healers.  FIC DEN.  1983.  David Lilliendahl immigrates to America from Austria to practice medicine as he wishes and marries physician Mary Sinclair with whom he establishes Mt. Sinai hospital.  Together they work to overcome the obstacle of their different faiths as well as prejudices against Jews and female doctors.

Fast, Howard.  The Immigrants.  FIC FAS.  1977.  This family saga begins with Italian immigrants Anna and Joseph Lavette crossing the North Atlantic into a new world in December of 1888 and continues to the fourth generation, bringing the interaction of California families from the time of the San Francisco earthquake through World War II and the sixties (sequels:  Second generation; The establishment; The legacy; The immigrant's daughter).

Fleming, John  The Legend of the barefoot mailman.  FIC FLE.  1996.  Earl Shank has plans for turning Figulus, Florida, into a tourist mecca.  As Postmaster he takes on Josef Steinmetz, a young, naive immigrant from Austria, who, obsessed with his missing shoes, insists on walking the mail route barefoot.  The immigrant is soon turned into an American hero by an ambitious and unscrupulous reporter.

Hegi, Ursula.  The Vision of Emma Blau.  FIC HEG.  2000.  Beginning in 1894 when 13-year-old Stefan Blau leaves Burgdorf, Germany, four generations are followed, including the World War II years when German-Americans were held with suspicion.

Jakes, John.  Homeland.  FIC JAK.  1993.  Paul Crolin, a Berlin street boy, immigrates to Chicago in the late 1890s and has the opportunity to work in cinematography, the wonder of motion pictures.

Kincaid, Jamaica.  Lucy.  FIC KIN.  1990.  Lucy Josephine Potter, 19, determined never to return, leaves her home in Antigua and works with a family as an au pair.  She is angry about racism, colonialism and about having to come to the U.S. as a servant so is slow to warm up to her generous employer.

Lacy, Al.  Let freedom ring.  FIC LAC.  2001.  In 1886 Russian Vladimir Petrovna faces bankruptcy and despair.  Hearing rumors of persecution of Christians by the Czar, he flees with his family through a fierce blizzard to Rotterdam, where they head for America and unexpected challenges there.  This is the first book in the Shadow of Liberty series.

Mark, Grace.  The dream seekers.  FIC MAR.  1992.  Jewish immigrants Josef and Hannah from Russia arrive in Chicago in the 1890s and Josef becomes involved with unions during the organization of the Pullman Strike of 1894.

Mukherjee, Bharati.  Jasmine.  FIC MUK.  1989.  Jasmine, married at fourteen in a small village in India, comes to the United States after becoming widowed.  She marries and settles in Iowa and with her stepson, a Vietnamese immigrant, tries to shrug off memories and traditions of their pasts to pursue the American Dream.

Plain, Belva.  Evergreen.  FIC PLA.  1987.  Jewish orphan Anna Friedman leaves Poland for the United States at the beginning of the 20th century in search of a better life.  She is employed as a domestic, marries and starts the three generation Werner family saga, moving from sweatshops to ballrooms.

Proulx, E. Annie.  Accordian crimes.  FIC PRO.  1996.  This is the century-long story of an accordion and its various doomed owners from 1890 Sicily through New Orleans to an immigrant community in South Dakota.  The accordion music reminds the immigrants of their past, softening somewhat the difficulty of a new country and its strangeness.

Richards, Emilie.  Whiskey Island.  FIC RIC.  2000.  Two dramas, separated by a century and linked together by the 1990s journal of Father Patrick Sweeney, bring the reader to a reunion at the family-owned Whiskey Island Saloon near Lake Erie and the world of Irish immigrants Lena and Terence Tierney 120 years before.

Rolvaag, O.E.  Giants in the Earth.  FIC ROL.  1929.  Per Hansa and his wife come to the Dakota prairie from Norway, each having a different reaction to the open expanse of land awaiting them.

Sontag, Susan.  In America.  FIC SON.  2000.  Suffering under Russian occupation, Poland's star actress Maryna Zalezowska is in need of a change.  It is 1876 and she inspires her family and others to move to California to found a utopian commune, where they attempt to live off the land.

Tax, Meredith.  Rivington Street.  FIC TAX.  1982.  Russian Jewish matriarch Hannah Levy brings her family to America, which she sees as the land of opportunity.  Her daughter Sarah builds the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and becomes the force behind the Shirtwaistmakers' Strike of 1909.  The New York setting moves from the Triangle Factory to the dazzling splendor of the Fifth Avenue department stores.

Williamson, Penelope.  Passions of Emma.  FIC WIL.  1997.  Emma Tremayne, whose life consists of mansions, foxhunts, and ballrooms in Rhode Island, plans to marry well until Irish immigrant appears with a dead child in her arms, killed in her fiance's textile mill.  Shay McKenna, a revolutionary who fled Ireland, despises the rich but is drawn to Emma.

Wood, Barbara.  Domina.  FIC WOO.  1983.  Born in the slums of London, Samantha Hargrave struggles to enter the all-made profession of medicine, and when her plans are rejected, she takes her ambitions to America.

08/28/2006