The Professor’s House (1925) by American great Willa Cather (1873-1947) is centred around the story of an orphan.

Tom was orphaned as a baby and taken in by the O’Briens, “informally adopted” by them in Kansas before the family moved to New Mexico.

Tom is a young man when he discovers an ancient city in New Mexico. Unable to persuade authorities in Washington, DC to preserve the site, he returns to New Mexico and discovers, to his horror, that his friend, Roddy Blake, has been looting the site and selling artifacts for a handsome profit.

Tom Outland later goes to university where he takes up physics and patents an invention. However, he dies during WW1 and never benefits financially from that invention – as others do.