History[edit]

This program featured film adaptations by renowned works by American literary giants, and debuted in October 2000. The films are produced by WGBH and ALT films.

Theme music[edit]

The theme for this series was created by John Williams, and featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It can be listened to here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/music.html

Title design[edit]

Karin Fong, Dana Yee and Grant Lau won a 2001 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design for their work on this series.[1]

's Our Town[2]

Thornton Wilder

's Almost a Woman[3]

Esmeralda Santiago

's A Death in the Family[4]

James Agee

's The Ponder Heart[5]

Eudora Welty

's The Song of the Lark[6]

Willa Cather

's The American[7]

Henry James

's Cora Unashamed[8] (a short story from his 1934 collection The Ways of White Folks)

Langston Hughes

Official website

National Council of Teachers of English's American Collection site