# library.forgemesh.io — American Fiction 19th Century Shelf

> library.forgemesh.io — American Fiction 19th Century Shelf is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.003/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Returns a ranked, pageable list of up to 199 public-domain American fiction titles from the 19th century, with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/american-fiction-19th-century
- Price: $0.003/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-american-fiction-19th-century-shelf-3ed3f7b3
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_M0A_LcXqVJisv0Dg4Qwwj

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability library-forgemesh-io-american-fiction-19th-century-shelf-3ed3f7b3 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Show me the top 30 public-domain American fiction books from the 19th century available on library.forgemesh.io — I want the ranked list with links to read the full texts.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a curated, ranked list of 19th century American public-domain fiction titles and want drill-down access to full texts. Prefer it over a full-text search endpoint when you want to browse or enumerate the catalog rather than query for specific passages. It requires no API key and costs only $0.003 USDC per call via x402.

## Known failure modes

- limit exceeds maximum of 50 — server may reject or clamp the value
- payment of 0.003 USDC not sent or rejected — endpoint returns 402 Payment Required
- network timeout on POST request
- malformed request body — missing or wrong-typed fields

## How this service works

Curated shelf: American fiction -- 19th century — 199 public-domain books including The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1, Cruel as the grave. Returns a ranked list with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A ranked list of up to 50 public-domain American fiction books from the 19th century (default 20), each with title, author, and drill-down routes for full-text retrieval. The corpus contains 199 books total including works like The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volumes 1 and 2, and Cruel as the Grave.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max books to return (default 20, max 50)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "books": [
   {
    "year": null,
    "title": "The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2",
    "author": "Poe, Edgar Allan",
    "book_id": 2148,
    "subjects": [],
    "download_count": 37076
   }
  ],
  "count": 5,
  "shelf": "American fiction -- 19th century",
  "coverage": {
   "target": 61015,
   "indexed": 61015
  },
  "drill_down": [
   "/book-metadata",
   "/book-chapter",
   "/book-quotes",
   "/literature-search"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-american-fiction-19th-century-shelf-3ed3f7b3/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from library.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/library.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)