Selections from the varied writings of a 17th century English doctor with a well-stocked mind, an interest in the new science of his age and a deep religious faith. His prose is famous for its Baroque complexity and its frequent eloquence. Sir Thomas endowed English with numerous quotations and was a notable coiner of words, many of which are still in common use.

As a teenager, Benjamin Franklin apprenticed with his brother James at the shop where The New-England Courant was printed. Since James would not publish any of Benjamin's works, fifteen-year-old Benjamin sent letters to The New England Courant under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. A total of fourteen letters were sent, one each fortnight, between April and December of 1722. (Introduction by Darcy Smittenaar)

The Moralia (or The morals or Matters relating to customs and mores) is a work by the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea. It is a collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches that give an insight into Roman and Greek life. Extremely popular for centuries, Plutarch's Morals have been read and imitated by many generations of Europeans, including Montaigne and the Renaissance Humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. Some of the most famous chapters on history are "On the Fortune or...

A collection of wry looks at literature, education, and other social phenomena by Canadian humourist and economics professor, Stephen Leacock.

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers and include speeches and essays on history, science, politics, nature, travel, psychology and love.

Collection of 32 essays by American authors ranging from Benjamin Frannklin to Emerson to Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Roosevelt. On subjects from the gout to insects with a 24 hour life span to old bachelors to leaves of grass to the odes of Horace. It seems to be an attempt to show off the Americans as writers.

The value of the honey bee in cross pollinating the flowers of fruit trees makes it desirable that exact information be available concerning the actions of the bee when gathering and manipulating the pollen. The results recorded in this manuscript are also of value as studies in the behavior of the bee and will prove interesting and valuable to the bee keeper. The work here recorded was done by Dr. Casteel during the summers of 1911 and 1912.

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN LITERATURE is a collection of essays reviewing contemporary authors on the literary scene at the turn of the century and assessing the uniquely American characteristics of their growing body of work. Excerpted from the author’s preface: “In this book something is said about most, if not quite all, of the emergent figures in American literature; an attempt is made to survey the four corners of the national library and to give an impression of its shape and size. If its purpose is approximately realized, this volume will be found to be a little nearer to a collection of appreciative essays than to a formal history or bibliographic manual...

Volume 1 contains these 12 essays: 1.) "Americans on a Visit to the Emperor of Russia." 2.) "The Austrian Edison keeping school again" 3.) "The Canvasser's tale." 4.) "The Czar's Soliloquy." 5.) "English as She is Taught." 6.) "Grasses in the South." 7.) "Hawaii." 8.) "A Helpless Situation." 9.) "How I Escaped being Killed in a Duel." 10.) "Important to Whom it may Concern." 11.) "The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again" 12.) "Jim's Investments, and King Sollermun."

Twenty short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include architecture, education, philosophy, religion, health, humor, history, and literature.

A look at the year 1891 through literature and non-fiction essays first published that year, including works by Mary E Wilkins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sara Orne Jewett, and Oscar Wilde.

Twenty short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include botany, dreams, farming, history, literature, nature, and religion.

This essay of a cultured observer, for many years United States consul in Rome, appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol 10, issue 59, April, 1855, pp 577 - 600.

Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, one of the greatest orators of the mid-19th century, was a highly sought after lecturer/toastmaster who sold out every hall he engaged throughout America. He was an ardent abolitionist, agnostic, humanist, humanitarian, supporter of the arts, and woman's rights, and member of the Unitarian Church, who railed against the absurdities of the Bible and cruelties of Christianity, praised technology, inventors, authors and great statemen for their contributions to the uplift of mankind...

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include astronomy, religion, United States history, football, child raising, Tokyo firebombing, and more.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the English countryside; William Randolph Hearst and journalism; the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard, John Dewey and others; General William T. Sherman's voyage to San Francisco; the metric system, and the future of the machine age. Bjornson's "Beyond Human Power" and Kierkegaard's "What Says the Fire Marshal?" were both translated by Lee Milton HollanderThe translators of Philemon's "The Highest Good" and Lessing's "On Love of Truth" are unknown.

On 15th June 1215 the Magna Carta was sealed under oath by King John at Runnymede, on the bank of the River Thames near Windsor, England. 2015 is the 800th anniversary of this charter, which led eventually to the rule of constitutional law in England and beyond. This book of essays on various aspects of the Charter was written by distinguished academics for the Royal Historical Society to commemorate the 700th anniversary of Magna Carta. N. B. The readers in this project are not scholars of mediaeval Latin or French. Where there are passages or phrases of Latin and Old French, we have endeavoured to make them clear, but make no claim to authentic pronunciation.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the discovery of X-rays, earthquakes, Hegel, Sir William Osler, Charles William Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Charles Sumner, Monica Lewinsky, and Anita Loos; the Lincoln highway, joys of gardening, goldfish, skunk raising, and the cultivation of tobacco. "Earthquakes" was co-authored by Louis Pakiser.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, blow-pipe weapons, Oriental china; impressions of America by Enrico Caruso, Oscar Wilde, and Charles W. Eliot; Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass; film directors Ernst Lubitsch and King Vidor; architect Louis Sullivan; Roe vs. Wade, women's rights; microphobia, the Boy Scouts, Kentucky's blue-grass region, and wintry weather.

De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the vernacular) is a short essay written by Dante Alighieri in Latin. The work remains incomplete; only one and a half books are extant. It is believed to have been composed during Dante's exile, probably at some point between 1302 and 1305. The work revolves around the relationship between Latin and vernacular, and the need for a literary language, with an excourse on the poetic forms in vernacular.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include bedside books, South African cookery, Bryce canyon, Wilhelm Stekel's psychology, the Theologia Germanica, Paracelsus, John Donne, Cotton Mather, Julia Smith's translation of the Bible, Zen Buddhism, American immigrants, slavery, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, and cats."Cats and Their Care" was edited by Liberty Hyde Bailey. "Looking Backward" was translated by Samuel Aaron Tannenbaum. "The Collector" was translated by Rosalie Gabler. "Thelogia Germanica" was translated by Susanna Winkworth.

First published anonymously in 1836, Nature marks the beginning both of Emerson’s literary career and the Transcendentalist movement. Asking why his generation “should not also enjoy an original relation to the universe,” Emerson argues that “Man is a god in ruins” who might yet be redeemed by the renewal of harmony with nature. Encompassing themes that would preoccupy him for years to come, including the repressive force of social routine, the divinity of nature, and the creative potential of the individual, Nature reflected recent developments in European philosophy and literature even as it pushed American artists to break new ground...

With clear logic and entertaining dialogues, the author presents many reasons for a vegetarian rather than a “flesh-eating” diet, and his arguments for not eating meat are as compelling today as when they were written. (Lee Smalley )

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include a murder during the Yukon gold rush, a perpetual motion fraud, the dissection of a Tasmanian tiger's brain, phlogiston, Bertrand Russell on noting, the memoirs of Louis XIV, the novels of Marie Corelli, marriage, free love, and motherhood. Authors include Benjamin Franklin, Hamlin Garland, Ida Tarbel, Emma Goldman, Florence Nightingale, Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, and the duc de Saint-Simon."The Introduction to the Memoirs of Louis XIV" was translated by Bayle St. John.

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the November Number. It includes the following articles: * The Witwatersrand and the Revolt of the Uitlanders, by George F. Becker * The Economic Aspects of Soil Erosion by Dr N. S. Shaler * A Critical Period in South African History, by John Hyde * Geographical Notes - Asia

A collection of the newspaper columns/essays written by G.K. Chesterton for "The New Witness", under the heading "At the Sign of the World's End". This project compiles the articles included in the issues between November 21, 1919 to April 30, 1920.

This is the 28th Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select and read stories or poems, fiction or non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes' duration or less, suitable for short commutes and coffee breaks. The subject for this collection is "HOBBIES"... and the collection is full after 20 pieces have been submitted.

Soporific dullness is in the ear of the listener, and what's tedium incarnate to one person will be another person's passion and delight. However, it is hoped that at least one from the range of topics here presented will lull the busy mind to a state of sweet sleep.Introduction by Cori Samuel

In January 1909 a friend of the Scientific American paid the sum of 500$ which was to be awarded as a prize for the best popular explanation of the Fourth Dimension. The object being to set forth in an essay not longer than 2500 words the meaning of the term so that the lay reader could understand it. 245 essays were submitted, the 500$ prize was awarded to Lieut.-Col. Graham Denby Fitch, Corps of Engineers, USA, and the essay was published in the Scientific American of July 3rd 1909. Despite the character of the subject, extraordinary interest was manifested in the contest...

Olive Schreiner was a South African writer born in 1855 to missionary parents in the Eastern Cape. She is credited with being the first Internationally famous South African Novelist. She was an extraordinary person and was one of the earliest campaigners for women's rights, including the right to equal pay for equal work, saying: "The fact that for equal work equally well performed by a man and by a woman it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall receive a less recompense is the nearest approach to a willful and unqualified "wrong" in the whole relation of woman to society today"...

This is a posthumous collection of essays by Randolph Bourne. Many originally appeared in the journal "The Seven Arts," before the controversial end to its run. Also included is the unfinished manuscript of "The State," the book Bourne worked on until his tragic death in December, 1918, at the hands of the Spanish flu pandemic. In the words of the book's editor, poet James Oppenheim, "We have nothing else like this book in America. It is the only living record of the suppressed minority, and is, as so often the case, the prophecy of that minority's final triumph." - Summary by Ben Adams

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the June Number. It includes the following articles: * The Seine, the Meuse, and the Moselle, by William M. Davis * Across the Gulf by rail to Key West, by Jefferson B. Browne * A geographical description of the British Islands, by W. M. Davis * The Mexican Census along with geographic literature, notes and miscellanea.

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the February Number. It includes the following articles: * Venezuela: Her Government, People, and Boundary, by William E. Curtis * The Panama Canal Route, by Robert T. Hill * The Tehuantepec Ship Railway, by Elmer L. Corthell * The Present State of the Nicaragua Canal, by Gen. A. W. Greely * Explorations by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1895, by W. J. McGee * The Valley of the Orinoco, by T. H. Gignilliat * Yucatan in 1895 along with geographic literature and notes.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include a woman in Alaska, Cuban folklore, and hunting peccaries on the Nueces; Max Planck's Quantum Theory and Newton's world view; church bells and chocolate cake; naval flag signals, rocket life-saving apparatus, and seashore plants and pebbles; also many literary and philosophical figures including Jonathan Swift, Jonathan Edwards, Johann Fichte, Joseph Butler, George Sand, Marie Corelli, G. K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc.

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the May Number. It includes the following articles: * Africa Since 1888, by Hon. Gardiner G. Hubbard, LL. D. * Fundamental Geographic Relation of the Three Americas, by Robert T. Hill * The Kansas River, by Arthur P. Davis * Annual Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, by Herbert G. Ogden along with geographic literature, and a few miscellaneous notes.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include biographies of astronomer Fiammetta Wilson, naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, mountaineer Jacques Balmat, French Revolutionist Camille Desmoulins, and Buddha; a climb of Mt. Fuji by Lafcadio Hearn, reviews of 20th century poetry and of books by E. M. Delafield, Mrs. Gaskell, and Kierkegaard; marriage; motion pictures; color blindness; and an essay on optimism by Helen Keller.

A number of most agreeable Inquirendoes upon Life & Letters, interspersed with Short Stories & Skits, the whole most Diverting to the Reader. SHANDYGAFF: a very refreshing drink, being a mixture of bitter ale or beer and ginger-beer, commonly drunk by the lower classes in England, and by strolling tinkers, low church parsons, newspaper men, journalists, and prizefighters. Said to have been invented by Henry VIII as a solace for his matrimonial difficulties. It is believed that a continual bibbing of shandygaff saps the will, the nerves, the resolution, and the finer faculties, but there are those who will abide no other tipple...

Nineteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the role of "people of color" in New Orleans and Louisiana history, the question of voting rights for Blacks after the Civil War; W.E.B.Du Bois on the American Negro Academy, and a biography of Harriet Tubman; Irish patriot Robert Everet's execution appeal; Swendenborg and spiritism; the optics of the kaleidoscope; the daily life of sailors and housewives; the relation of meteor showers to a massive earthquake in 1755; John Ruskin; Friedrich Schelling; Bramah's Kai Lung stories; and articles on the bottlenose whale and botrytis mold.

Nineteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include wives, widows, and women scorned--the "Baby Doe Tabor" scandal, the trials of literary marriages, and colonial women; history--Wounded Knee, the Underground Railroad, Edward Bellamy's "nationalism," and English railroads; inspiring places--the Alhambra and Squaw Rock; invention--the marine chronometer; and essays on the Constitution, the natural equality of men, old age, the consolation of reading, and on the fantastic imagination...

Logan Pearsall Smith was an American-born British essayist who was known for his epigrams and aphorisms, often humorous. This recording is of two of his collections of these bon mots. For example: “These pieces of moral prose have been written, dear Reader, by a large Carnivorous Mammal, belonging to that suborder of the Animal Kingdom which includes also the Orang-outang, the tusked Gorilla, the Baboon with his bright blue and scarlet bottom, and the long-eared Chimpanzee.”

Thirty three essays by more or less well-known authors of Britain, the United States, and Canada, each fronted by an introductory paragraph. Early twentieth or late nineteenth centuries. “I think I can offer you, in this parliament of philomaths [lover of learning], entertainment of the most genuine sort;…as brilliant and sincere work is being done to-day in the essay as in any period of our literature. Accordingly the pieces reprinted here are very diverse. There is the grand manner; there is foolery; there is straightforward literary criticism; there is pathos, politics, and the picturesque...

This is the second volume of the Letters, Epistles LXVI-XCII. Among the personalities of the early Roman Empire there are few who offer to the readers of to-day such dramatic interest as does Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the author of the Epistles. These letters, written by Seneca towards the end of his life, are all addressed to his friend Lucilius, who, at the time when these letters were written, was a procurator in Sicily. The form of this work, as Bacon says, is a collection of essays rather than of letters. Summary paraphrased from the Introduction in Volume 1 by Suprad.

“We must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wage system’” The Industrial Workers of the World , members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies," is an international labor union that was founded in 1905. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism," with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements. The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union," and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy...

A posthumous collection of Bourne's writing from publications such as The Atlantic Monthly and early issues of The New Republic, with a long introduction by his friend and colleague Van Wyck Brooks. Includes the influential and perennially relevant essay "Trans-National America" as well as a fragment from the autobiographical novel on which Bourne was working at the time of his death. - Summary by Ben Adams

The Columbian Orator, a collection of political essays, poems, and dialogues first published in 1797, was widely used in American schoolrooms in the first quarter of the 19th century to teach reading and speaking. Typical of many readers of that period, the anthology included many speeches celebrating "republican virtues" and promoting patriotism. The Columbian Orator is an example of progymnasmata, containing examples for students to copy and imitate. In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, former slave and abolitionist writer Douglass describes how he "got hold" of a copy of the Columbian Orator at the age of twelve, with far-reaching consequences for his life...

Twenty short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include meteor showers, smallpox inoculation, telegraphy, fear of death, church bell change-ringing , painting as a pastime, prejudice against Jews from Mark Twain's perspective, the view from Braddock Heights, Maryland, philosophical reflections by Saint Bonaventure, Paracelsus, and Friedrich Jacobi, letters written by Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, and eulogies to Alexander Hamilton and John Keats.The Degrees of Ascension to God by Saint Bonaventure was translated by Thomas Davidson.

This is a frank eyewitness description of the suffering, starvation in particular, that was widely experienced in Central and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of "The Great War". “It is not stating matters too strongly to say that…peace had caused at least as much misery as the four years’ fury of embattled armies.” It is a powerful political and anti-war statement with scant mention of any battle. – Lee Smalley

Arthur Bingham Walkley was an exceedingly popular critic, working as a drama critic at The Times alone for no less than 26 years, and writing for several other newspapers and privately besides that. This book of pastiches was completed after he already had more than two decades of work as a theatre critic under his belt, and it draws some brilliant characterisations. Among the literary and historical figures found in the different pastiches are such illustrious figures as Aristotle and Shakespeare, but also more modern phenomena as movies are discussed, along with politicians and other famous persons of the time. - Summary by Carolin

A collection of essays on 19th century novelists, both famous ones and those largely forgotten now. Among the writers presented most wrote in English, but three foreign authors are also discussed. Phelps taught a course on novels at a university and he added to those biographical essays some of his ideas about the importance of novels in the process of teaching about literature.

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include philosophy and thought -- Plato, Aristotle, Leonhard Euler, Henri Amiel, and the French Rights of Man; adventure and mystery -- the ascent of Aconcagua and the mystery ship Mary Celeste; science -- a new comet and lichen dyes; portraits of the seasons by Lucy Maud Montgomery: biographies of Charles Dickens and Clara and Robert Schuman; a history of the Transcendental utopia Fruitlands by Louisa May Alcott, and an essay on reading by Isaac Disraeli. summary by Sue Anderson

People learn from other people, and races have forever learned from other races. Herein we are treated to an in-depth understanding of categorized social characteristics of the Native American peoples, primarily those of the western U.S. as they existed at the time of book publication . 'In dealing with [the Native Americans] as a race, a people, therefore, I do as I would with my own race, I take what to me seem to be racial characteristics, or in other words, the things that are manifested in the lives of the best men and women, and which seem to represent their habitual aims, ambitions, and desires.' - Summary by Roger Melin & book foreword

This is a collection of 32 highly diverting essays of English author Richard Middleton. Although Middleton is now best remembered for his ghost stories, he was also an accomplished poet and essayist. The musings collected in this volume cover a variety of topics, including poetry, art, and politics. - Summary by Carolin

Étienne de La Boétie was the closest friend of Michel de Montaigne and the subject of the latter's famous essay "On Friendship." Here, however, he tackles a different, more impersonal relationship: that of ruler and ruled. The argument in this work is encapsulated in this quote: "A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it...

"I am of the company of book men who read simply for the love of it," confesses E. Walter Walters, in this gently written tome. Walters documents his habit of "book fishing--" seeking and finding quality volumes in the discount binds at his booksellers, and as a connoisseur of wine might match varieties with courses, he matches his books with the contexts in which he reads them--in the garden, in the bedroom, with friends. He also provides a list of his favorite authors and favorite books, as well as favorite characters from the books he has read, not in a way to impose his choices on other readers, but to share his own personal experiences.

Written when the United States extended only to the Mississippi River, by one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, this short work explores the physical, social, and mental effects of distilled liquors; the classes of people prone to intoxication by them; suggested drinks to use instead of them; and remedies for intoxication and for their habitual use. He takes a medical view of alcoholism, exploring the physical causes rather than blaming moral failure as the cause. Alcoholic drinks that are not distilled are viewed as wholesome drinks, and opium is suggested for pain as being without bad effects or addictive qualities.

Lafcadio Hearn was one of the first Westerners to live in Japan during the early Meiji era, and a prolific writer. Although chiefly known for his collections of Japanese ghost stories , he also wrote many non-fiction essays about his life in Japan. This book contains 11 essays covering a variety of topics. For example, Hearn writes about his visits to Kyoto and Osaka, Japanese art, as well as Buddhism and Nirvana. Prooflisteners for this book were Isana and Margot.

A series of poetically written meditations on the seasons and other nature subjects. Or “ …Minstrel Weather, a series of open-air vignettes which circle the zodiac with the attentive eye of a naturalist and the enchanted ardor of a poet.” - Summary by Christopher Morley, Modern Essays, 1921, and David Wales

Baron Friedrich von Hugel was a lay Catholic theologian whose work was influential during the rise of modernist thought. His Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion became a favorite work of later Christian writers C.S. Lewis and Flannery O'Connor. The book compiled previously written material into a single collection, divided into three parts: the first, on religion and theism in general; the second, on Christ's teachings and Christianity in general; the third, on the Catholic Church. - Summary by Dylan P. Straub

A selection of short works about Christmas.

Endymion is the largest work by John Keats and was composed between April and November 1817. When it was published in April 1818 the critical reception was almost universally hostile. Since that time, many readers have found the poem dense and inaccessible, and have preferred to focus on the occasional gems of poetic commentary for which it has become famous. Feeling that the poem was both undervalued and misunderstood, in 1919 Professor Clement Notcutt published a lengthy essay, which could be considered a “user’s guide” to Endymion...

Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include Nature and Science--fall scenery, rose oil, large type books for low vision, the pulmotor, and the method of scientific investigation; Philosophy and Thought--Joseph Priestly, Kierkegaard, Rousseau, and A.C. Bradley on poetry; History and Travel--John Johnston founder of Sault St. Marie, eating in Berlin, and Sir John Mandeville's travels; a Japanese folk tale; a defense of Lady Bryon by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and a Virginia slave narrative by Minnie Fulkes. "Preparation for a Christian Life" was translated by Lee M. Hollander.

"Samuel Langhorne Clemens", "Mark Twain At Home", "Youth of Mark Twain" & "Mark Twain Gossip" Published in the June 16, 1888 edition of "Literature - An Illustrated Weekly Magazine" these four, early magazine articles about Mark Twain fill in and analyze areas of Twain's persona for the first time. "Mark Twain At Home" was originally published in the London, England "World".

Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include Science and Exploration--a tribute to Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, and discourses on gravitation and relativity by Georges-Louis Le Sage and Ralph Sampson; Sociology and Society--Julio Guerrero on the Mexican character, reflections on life from Kierkegaard's Diapsalmata, Immanuel Kant on religious education, the fate of romance in the King of Siam's harem, nickelodeons, and the tragic results...

This book was called Nachala i Kontzy when first published in 1908 in Russian and has been titled Anton Tchekhov and other essays as well as Penultimate Words in English when published in 1916. Lev Shestov, like Soren Kierkegaard before him, liked to ask questions. He asks if its possible to disentangle the hidden meaning of Tchekhov's works. If Dostoevsky is doomed eternally to be 'on the eve'. What if every possibility should have been exhausted, and endless repetition should begin? He discusses writers and philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Ibsen, Dostoevsky, Kant, and the ancient Greek philosophers in this book...

The Atlantic was a popular periodical with a wide range of essays and stories. In an effort to remain current, many strong and valid submissions ended up being pushed aside. The Atlantic Classic was an experimental publication, drawing on some sixteen of these good but rejected essays. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

This is the first volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part I include China, Korea, Japan and the Islands of the Pacific. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Sorrows of...

This is a volume of essays by American author Brander Matthews. Matthews is today mostly remembered for his short pieces of speculative fiction, but his essays are also of enduring interest. This volume contains 15 essays on different topics, ranging from contemporary history over literature to philosophy. They are written in a very accessible style and will interest readers and listeners today as much as they must have interested readers when the book was published in 1922. - Summary by Carolin

Mabel Elizabeth Wotton, an author herself, moved in the literary circles of the late nineteenth century establishing many close friendships, She presents for us here, not literary criticism nor biographical sketches, but "word portraits," shore vignettes of a persons physical appearance and elements of behavior or personality. These are all drawn from many sources -- biographies, newspapers, or personal friends of the authors. Some descriptions are based on paintings or drawings, but the majority are derived from personal acquaintance. Thus, we have a unique view of these famous artists that we seldom read. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Thinking she would be ill for the rest of her life, Harriet Martineau wrote these partly autobiographical essays about life in the sickroom. Considered ground breaking, it asserted that the sickroom is the sick person's place and not the doctor's. Sick people were able and willing to decide what is best for them. In England and abroad, people declared that "a sick person cannot write a healthy book" and that Harriet Martineau was definitely out of her senses. It would be interesting to see how much has changed. - Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia.

Mencken sharpens his pen and in a collection of short essays delivers acerbic opinions on issues and persons of the time. Among his targets in this volume are critics, H.G. Wells Thorstein Veblen, Arnold Bennett, William Dean Howells, Irvin S. Cobb. Mencken's critiques are delivered against a background of his own well known ethnic, racial, religious, and sectional prejudices. Not for the faint of heart, Mencken's prickly, yet unapologetic, prose reveals a window into American attitudes at the time they were written and their influences on the larger American culture. - Summary by DrPGould

An example of one of the leading literary magazines of the early 20th Century. Poetry by e.e. cummings and Louise Bryant , a short story by Sherwood Anderson, a memoir of the late poet James Flecker, theater and book reviews by Gilbert Seldes, and other critical works.

“[these essays on Shakespeare, Pepys, Restoration novels, and bohemianism]—the results of many hours of quiet but rather aimless browsing among books, and not of special investigations, undertaken with a view to definite scholastic ends. They are, moreover, as will readily be seen, completely unacademic in style and intention.” Published in 1897. Hudson was a prolific author, naturalist, and ornithologist. His most popular book in the early 20th century was Green Mansions.

This is the second volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part II include India, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for Sakoontala, or the lost ring: King: Tomas Peter First Attendant: Eva Davis Second Attendant: TJ Burns Child: lorda Sakoontala: Monika M...

This two-volume work includes heroines from the works of Eliot, Trollope, Hardy, Harte, Austen, Edgeworth, Scott, Dickens, Hawthorne, E. Bronte, Thackeray, and others. These studies of nineteenth-century literature were by a critical light of the time.

This is the sixteenth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between about 3 and 15 minutes in length. These are great for study breaks, commutes, workouts, or any time you'd like to hear a whole story and only have a few minutes to devote to listening. The theme for this collection is "Crime", where crime or criminals are significant. readers have chosen a combination of social commentaries, newspaper reports of true crimes and criminals, letters, fictional accounts of the life of the criminal and short 'whodunnit' mysteries. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Natural cataclysm is the subject of several readings: the 1899 Alaskan earthquake, which uplifted cliffs at Yakutat Bay 47 feet; a terrifying forest fire in Northern Wisconsin in 1899; the fiery sunsets which followed the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883; a storm at sea which sank the English frigate Anson in 1807; and the explosion of a hydrogen-filled dirigible over Chicago in 1919. Natural beauty, also a topic, includes a guide to the Antrim coast of Ireland, observations on Black Walnut trees and the communal life of Yellow-Jacket wasps, and an essay on how to paint reflections...

Mary Webb was a novelist and poet and two of her novels "Gone to Earth" and "Precious Bane" have been successfully adapted for film and television. She was passionate about nature and particularly the Shropshire countryside where she grew up and spent much of her life. At the age of 20, she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease known as Graves' disease, a thyroid condition. She was often confined to her bed but came to believe that her love of and connection with nature helped in her healing...

This is the seventeenth Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is health and fitness... views on these, including physical activity, nutrition and sport, have changed drastically over the years. Readers have chosen selections on subjects ranging from judo and walking to advice for the nutrition and education of children, Summary by Lynne Thompson

Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Volume 59 contains an eclectic mix of readings, ranging from a description of a Coney Island elephant colossus to meditations on mental telepathy and baseball. Philosophical essays by Leibniz, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Francis Bacon and William Blake touch on the topics of truth, prejudice, poetic genius, suicide, and preparation for a Christian life. An educator at a women's college in the early 1920's bemoans the decline in the way high school girls dress for school and recommends a "serge jumper dress, made with a washable under blouse...

Thirty four whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, and entertaining essays about not much in particular, published in 1902, by one of the most popular writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The American Gelett Burgess was an artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist. Nonsense verse was a specialty. - Summary by David Wales

A Collection of 31 essays from G.K. Chesterton. “I have strung these things together on a slight enough thread; but as the things themselves are slight, it is possible that the thread may manage to hang together. These notes range over very variegated topics and in many cases were made at very different times. They concern all sorts of things from lady barristers to cave-men, and from psycho-analysis to free verse. Yet they have this amount of unity in their wandering, that they all imply that it is only a more traditional spirit that is truly able to wander.”

A collection of 35 essays by G.K. Chesterton originally published in his weekly columns in "The Illustrated London News" and the "New Witness". The subjects vary greatly from lamp posts to Jane Austen's Emma, from "On Pigs as Pets" to Mormonism and Christian Science.

This book records Bertrand Russell's impressions of the new regime after a 1920 visit to Russia following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, including his meetings with Lenin, Trostky, and Gorky. It includes a chapter that was authored by Dora Black, educational theorist and feminist author, and Russell's spouse. This chapter was unfortunately removed in the second edition, which was issued after Dora and Bertrand divorced. This recording is dedicated to my darling wife, Jill. Happy Hanukkah and Happy 2020! - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

Dedications is an anthology of the forms used from the earliest days of book-making to the present time. My purpose in the following anthology of dedications has been to make a representative, rather than an exhaustive collection. My first idea was to take only beautiful dedications, and above all those which showed thought and originality. I next sought those which were quaint and curious, grave and gay, and then wandering through the wide field of English literature, tried to have each section of it represented...

Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were friends for 44 years. Their personal and professional relationship is considered by many to be one of the most important in American literature. Howells published his famous "My Mark Twain" in the same year Clemens died, 1910. A few years earlier, Clemens wrote this "remembrance" and "appreciation" of the man who stuck with him through the ups and downs of his long literary journey.

We have felt that the most fitting tribute that we, of the Anti-Caste movement, can pay to the memory of this noble and faithful life is to issue broadcast—as far as the means entrusted to us will allow—his last great appeal for justice . A slanderous charge against Negro morality has gone forth throughout the world and has been widely credited. The white American has had his say both North and South. On behalf of the accused, Frederick Douglass claims, in the name of justice, to be heard.

The Coffee Break Collections are themed anthologies, selected and read by readers. Each short piece is fifteen minutes long, or less -- perfect for coffee breaks, commutes and work outs. Essays, prose, fiction, non-fiction, poetry -- who knows what gems will be uncovered? Spring is the time we see plants and flowers, dormant over the cold winter months, burst into life; and they make their appearance here. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

The Coffee Break Collections are themed anthologies, selected and read by readers. Each short piece is fifteen minutes long, or less -- perfect for coffee breaks, commutes and work outs. Essays, prose, fiction, non-fiction, poetry -- who knows what gems will be uncovered? In this collection, we explore old age -- grandparents, retirement, wisdom, decline. It is an opportunity to reflect on mortality and depth of experience. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. "Why Women Should Vote" is one of several selections devoted to women's interests, as are Martha Foote Crow's "The Young Woman on the Farm" , Alice Freeman Palmer's "Three Rules for Happiness," and Myrtle Reed's recipes for "Coffee Cakes, Doughnuts, and Waffles." Tradition and belief are treated in two selections from Kierkegaard, a letter from Japan , a creation myth , and an essay by Mark Twain on "Mental Telegraphy." Topics in history and political...

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. Two U.S. Presidents are remembered in "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison" and Washington's "Address to Congress on Resigning His Commission ." Other topics in history and political theory include two of George W. Ball's memos about the Vietnam War from 1965, "Irish Marriage Rites," "Celts and Celtophiles," Kropotkin on "Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution," a tragedy at sea , and a look back at "The Passing of the Sailing Ship." Religion and philosophy are represented with two selections from Kierkegaard's "Preparation for a Christian Life" and a sermon by Spurgeon ...

A collection of essays regarding the pros and cons of prohibition of alcoholic beverages, principally in the United States. - Summary by KevinS

This is the twenty-first Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is fairy tales... traditional children's tales, tall stories and notorious scams and the authors of thm may be uncovered! Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays... all are welcome here.

Twenty short nonfiction works in the public domain. "The Regulation of Time" and "Uniform Standard Time" are two of several readings which touch on social regulation, societal norms, and individual expression. Others examine dancing mania ; gender conformity ; race laws ; etiquette and social class "; "Opportunity" ; organized religion ; oratory and persuasion ; legal protection for original ideas ; and an exhortation to judge men by their deeds, not their names . Music and books are celebrated in "Fidelio;" "The Function of a National Library;" "Books in the Wilderness;" and Oscar Wilde's "To Read or Not to Read...

This is the twenty-second Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is Days Gone By. All pieces were of a historical nature at the time written . Ancient Rome, Greece or Egypt, medieval Europe, the early days of the American colonies.

"It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place" is the way 15-year old Alexander Hamilton described living through a hurricane . Other natural and man-made disasters chronicled in vol. 069 are "The Eruption of Mt. Asama of 1783," "The Great Chicago Fire," and "The Siege of Nicaea ." Society and social reform are treated from a variety of viewpoints: "Tatlings: Epigrams ," "Wooed a 'Marjorie Daw' for 14 Years," Petty Management" , "The Public Schools of Today," "What a Colored Man Should Do to Vote," "Patriotism and Government" , the "Prison Journal of Stephen F...

This is the twenty-third Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is Mysteries, Riddles and Conundrums. Short mystery fiction, puzzles that have baffled generations, whether solved or unsolved and anything our forefathers have struggled to explain. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays...who knows what you will discover?

William Cowper Brann earned the nickname “The Iconoclast” by fearlessly attacking established beliefs and institutions which he thought to be pompous and self-serving. He settled in the wild and wooly West Texas town of Waco in the late 1800s as a newspaper man - first as a writer and then as owner of newspaper he named “The Iconoclast”. During this period, Catholics and Protestants were duking it out over the soul of Texas and there was even further sectarian strife among Protestants. Brann wrote prolifically and aired his Politically Incorrect views with vigor and colorful language...

This is the twenty-fourth Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is Ghosts, Ghouls and Spooky Things in honor of Halloween. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays... all chill and perplex.

This is the twenty-fifth Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is water, a subject that has attracted Archimedes, Shelley and Masefield, to name but a few.

This is the 26th Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select and read poems, fiction and non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes' duration or less. The subject for this collection is "It's a Small World". Readers have interpreted this in their own way, so we have selections such as Asteroids, Small Country Houses of Today and stories for "small people", such as Jack and the Beanstalk.