Go Down, Moses is the 1942 novel by William Faulkner in which "The Bear" first appeared in its entirety. Each of the stories within the novel center around the McCaslin clan, starting with Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy and ending when "Uncle Ike" is an old man.

Jack London's 1910 novel White Fang tells the story of a boy coming of age in the wilderness of Alaska near the turn of the century. The enduring lessons of the wilderness are taught by a very special dog who is also part wolf.

Published in 1845, the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a good starting point for investigating slavery from the slaves' point of view. Douglass's account is relevant to the plight of all slaves in any time period.

Faulkner was an influential figure for Nobel prize-winner Toni Morrison. Her 1977 novel, Song of Solomon, is the account of a youth named Milkman Dead, whose investigations into his family tree take him, among other places, on a hunting trip.

Winesburg, Ohio, published in 1919 by Faulkner's friend Sherwood Anderson is the coming-of-age story of young George Willard, whose upbringing in a small Midwest town is told in a collection of short stories. George's neighbors all confide their personal stories to this budding young journalist, an act that unifies the disparate members of the town into a cohesive whole.

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Big Two-Hearted River" was first published in his 1925 collection In Our Time. The story details the return of Nick Adams to a familiar fishing camp of his youth, where he goes to heal after surviving injuries sustained in World War I.

Margaret Mitchell's 1939 novel Gone with the Wind, written about the time that Faulkner was reworking "The Bear," makes an interesting contrast to the stark portrayal of the South that Faulkner provides. Mitchell's plantations are magnificent, gracious icons of genteel Southern living. Her portrayal of slaves reduces them to picturesque stereotypes of ignorant but faithful servantry.