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The Bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire by Billy Parrott, Associate Director, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL)June 1, 2012

Prohibition. Politics. Corruption. Alcohol was not illegal to drink. It was just illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport. Various organized criminal enterprises saw fit to illegally manufacture, sell, and transport alcohol to those who wanted it. 1920. Money. Politics. Corruption. This is Boardwalk Empire.

Like other period television shows, Boardwalk Empire has threads of historical fact running through its core. Steve Buscemi's character "Nucky" Thompson is based on Enoch "Nucky" Johnson. There's Al Capone and Warren G. Harding. There's Arnold Rothstein and the Black Sox scandal. There's the Women's Suffrage Movement. The writers have a wealth of historical material to work with. Prohibition and the early 1920s offer countless events and a host of characters, both upstanding and questionable, stretching along the east coast from Atlantic City to New York City and west to Chicago. The story opportunities are endless.

Boardwalk Empire makes it easy to lose yourself in the roaring twenties. All of that wonderful music, the set design, the costumes, the dialogue. But it's more than the apparent and obvious details such as these. Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference, something minimal and seemingly insignificant that adds volumes to a show's authenticity. Something like a book.

The writers of Boardwalk Empire certainly have a lot of classic literature to work with to add layers to a character's personality. Whether it's for character development or to help set the mood for a specific scene, whether it's a title that appears in multiple episodes or it's only a brief reference to a poem or genre, you can always count on a good book.

Below is a list of books that have appeared in Boardwalk Empire. What other books do you imagine Nucky reading? How about Margaret Schroeder? Jimmy Darmody? Agent Nelson Van Alden? Al Capone? At the bottom is a list of various other books that were published in the five years leading up to prohibition. Most all of the books listed below are available for free as eBooks via Google Books and Project Gutenberg so if you can't find the titles at your local library try searching online. All of these and more would have very likely been on the bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire.

Season 4

Episode 10 - "White Horse Pike"

  "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" / Edgar Allen Poe (click here for more information)

 

 

 

Episode 8 - "The Old Ship of Zion"

 Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks / Horatio Alger (click here for more information)

 

 

Episode 7 - "William Wilson"

   Thus Spoke Zarathustra / Friedrich Nietzsche (click here for more information)

 

 

 

  "William Wilson" / Edgar Allen Poe (click here for more information)

 

 

 

Episode 5 - "Erlkonig"

 Old Surehand / Karl May (click here for more information)

 

 

 

Episode 4 - "All In"

 Tess of the D’Urbervilles / Thomas Hardy (click here for more     information)

 

 

 

 The Dictionary of American History  (click here for more information)

 

 

 

Episode 3 - "Acres of Diamonds"

Good Times (click here for more information)

 

 

 

Episode 2 - "Resignation"

 The Chessmen of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs (click here and here for more information)

 

 

 

 The Bible (click here for more details)

 

 

 

 The Bible (click here for more details)

 

 

Season 3

Episode 11 – “Two Imposters”

Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks / Horatio Alger

 

 

 

Episode 10 – “A Man, A Plan…”

The Redemption of David Corson / Charles Frederic Goss

 

 

 

Episode 6 – “Ging Gang Goolie”

The Birth Control Review / Margaret Sanger

 

 

 

"Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis" / Francois Villon (as translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti) (click here for more details)

 

 

 

Episode 5 – “You’d Be Surprised"

Catching up on the latest trends in prefabricated homes!

 

 

 

Episode 4 - "Blue Bell Boy"

Gasoline Alley / Frank King and Happy Holigan / Frederick Burr Opper

 

 

 

Episode 3 – “Bone for Tuna”

"Dream-Love" / Christina Georgina Rossetti

 

 

 

Episode 2 – “Spaghetti & Coffee”

The poems of Claude McKay (click here for more details)

 

 

 

The work of William Shakespeare (click here for more details)

 

 

Season 2

Episode 12 - "To the Lost"

Julius Caesar / William Shakespeare

(click here for details)

 

 

Episode 11 - "Under God's Power She Flourishes"

The Revenger's Tragedy / Cyril Tourneur

(click here for details)

 

 

The White Devil / John Webster

 

 

 

Episode 10 - "Georgia Peaches"

The Tempest / William Shakespeare

(click here for details)

 

 

Episode 9- "Battle of the Century"

Pretty Robins: Bright Stories for Little Folks

 

 

 

Episode 8 - "Two Boats and a Lifeguard"

The author Louise Bryant

 

 

 

Episode 7 - "Peg of Old"

The Girl, a Horse, and a Dog / Francis Lynde

 

 

 

Episode 6 - "The Age of Reason"

The Bible

 

 

 

Sayings, Proverbs, Maxims, and Mottoes / C.F. Schutz

(click here for details)

 

 

Young People's Illustrated Bible History

 

 

 

The Bible

 

 

 

Episode 4 - "What Does the Bee Do?"

Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book / Christina Rossetti

(for text to the poem see page 113 of the free eBook)

 

 

Episode 3 - "A Dangerous Maid"

The Lost Girl / D.H. Lawrence

 

 

 

Frankenstein / Mary Shelley (click here for details)

 

 

 

Episode 2 - "Ourselves Alone"

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain

(click here for details)

(click here and here for more images from this scene)

 

 David Copperfield / Charles Dickens

 

 

 

Season 1

Episode 12 - "A Return to Normalcy"

The Holy Bible

 

 

 

The Holy Bible

 

 

 

Episode 11 - "Paris Green"

"Halloween" / Robert Burns

 

 

 

The Holy Bible

 

 

 

Episode 10 - "The Emerald City"

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz / L. Frank Baum

(click here and here for more images from this scene)

 

 

Episode 9 - "Belle Femme"

The Road to Oz / L. Frank Baum

(click here for another image from this scene)

 

 

Episode 7 - "Home"

The Tin Solider / Temple Baily

 

 

 

Tom Swift and His Undersea Search / Victor Appleton

 

 

 

Episode 6 - "Family Limitation"

Free Air / Sinclair Lewis

(click here for another image from this scene)

 

 

Episode 5 - "Nights in Ballygran"

Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business / Dale Carnegie

 

 

 

Episode 4 - "Anastasia"

Free Air / Sinclair Lewis

 

 

 

Episode 3 - "Broadway Limited"

Free Air / Sinclair Lewis

 

 

 

Episode 2 - "The Ivory Tower"

The Ivory Tower / Henry James

 

 

 

What else would be on the bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire?

1916

1917

1918

1919

 

1920

View all posts by Billy Parrott

Comments

Patron-generated content represents the views and interpretations of the patron, not necessarily those of The New York Public Library. For more information see NYPL's Website Terms and Conditions.

And what of the book that inspired the HBO series?

Submitted by John B. Bryans (not verified) on June 3, 2012 - 11:16pm

That would be Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, by Nelson Johnson. Given that Johnson's carefully-researched history was published in 2002 it certainly would not have been on Nucky's reading list, but it's a bit surprising that a great library like the NYPL is either unaware of the book or didn't find it worthy of mention here. Boardwalk Empire is an exceptional, award-winning book, Mr. Parrott--I hope you'll read it.

Thank you Mr. Bryans

Submitted by Billy Parrott on June 5, 2012 - 1:40pm

In regards to Johnson's book, it is not a matter of being unaware of it and it is certainly not a matter of its worthiness. This particular list concentrates on books that appear in the show along with books that might have appeared on the bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire. A crowd-sourced supplemental list is an excellent idea and the comments section would be a perfect place for that. Do you have a favorite historical fiction or non-fiction book about prohibition, politics, and the roaring twenties? Keep the suggestions coming!

Impressive Mr. Parrott...very

Submitted by Rob (not verified) on June 7, 2012 - 2:28pm

Impressive Mr. Parrott...very impressive.

Nelson Johnson's Boardwalk Empire

Submitted by Jenny Baum (not verified) on June 8, 2012 - 2:47pm

I mentioned Nelson Johnson's book in a blog post back in 2010, but given that it was a post about Halloween reads, it was easy to miss. Here's the link: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/10/21/halloween-reads-ii-re-ordering

HYPOTHESIS

Submitted by VICTOR HUERTAS ... (not verified) on February 7, 2020 - 12:51pm

Dear Mr Parrott, Thanks a lot for this list. I am actually writing a book chapter on the books of Boardwalk Empire-and I wonder whether you think we could possibly interpret this book list in a given direction? I think that the themes of most books appearing there have to do with liberation and, more crucially, with redemption. Do you think that could be the case? Cheers! Víctor

You seemed to have forgotten

Submitted by Joe (not verified) on February 14, 2020 - 6:22pm

You seemed to have forgotten The International Jew by Henry Ford from episode 1.

Reference List

Submitted by Rebecca Eliza (not verified) on August 28, 2021 - 12:13am

Wow! This was just a fun Easter egg to find online. I recently started watching Boardwalk Empire and as a lover of literature enjoyed the references made in some of the episodes. Thank you for gathering them all. Warm regards, Rebecca Eliza