These stories have come to me from many sources—some from my own experience, others from settlement workers, still others from the records of organized charity, that are never dry, as some think, but alive with vital human interest and with the faithful striving to help the brother so that it counts. They have this in common, that they are true. For good reasons, names and places are changed, but they all happened as told here. I could not have invented them had I tried; I should not have tried if I could...

This audiobook is a collection of Mark Twain's anti-imperialist writings (newspaper articles, interviews, speeches, letters, essays and pamphlets).

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. He was an exponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's. He was a forceful proponent in the fight for government intervention in social reform.

'The Well-Beloved' tells the story of Jocelyn Pierston and his love for three generations of women - the grandmother, her daughter and grand-daughter over a period of forty years. Pierston is seeking for perfection in his choice of lover and in doing so lets opportunities for happiness pass him by. However, at the end of his life, he finds some kind of contentment in compromise.

Ethelberta was raised in humble circumstances but became a governess and consequently, at the age of 18, married well. However, her husband died two weeks after the wedding. Her father-in-law, Lord Petherwin, died shortly afterwards. Ethelberta (now 21) lives with her mother-in-law, Lady Petherwin. In the three years that have elapsed since her marriage, Ethelberta has been treated to foreign travel and further privileges by Lady Petherwin but restricted from seeing her own family. The story follows Ethelberta's career as a famous poetess and storyteller...

Dawn (also known in England as "Keith’s Dark Tower"), was published in 1919, and is set during World War I. Keith Burton is going blind. It is hard for him and his family. Most of the book deals with their ways- right and wrong- of dealing with the situation. At the end, Keith finds pride in helping blind solders.Eleanor H. Porter was a writer of many popular children’s books and novels, including the Pollyanna and Miss Billy series, as well as Just David, Oh, Money! Money! and more.

'The story of The Log-Cabin Lady is one of the annals of America. It is a moving record of the conquest of self-consciousness and fear through mastery of manners and customs. It has been written by one who has not sacrificed the strength and honesty of her pioneer girlhood, but who added to these qualities that graciousness and charm which have given her distinction on two continents.'(from the introduction)

When two children come to stay with their cousin, they immediately realize something is wrong, but no one will tell them what. Their cousin is strangely altered: nervous, preoccupied, hardly aware of their existence. They soon discover that a conflict is brewing among the hills and farms of the Medford Valley, one whose origins reach back over a century. They must piece it together from scattered clues, and from the stories told to them by a mysterious bee keeper and his daughter. This 1922 Newbery Honor Book tells of the traits that run in a family—honor, stubborn pride, and a dark lust for wealth—and how they shape the destinies of three generations. (Introduction by Peter Eastman)

Uncle Remus tells these 11 stories but to the son of the original "little boy" who is visiting his grandmother on the plantation. As always Uncle Remus can be relied upon to provide funny and pointed insight into human personalities through his story telling. These were all published in the Uncle Remus magazine from 1905 and 1906 and gathered together in this book by the author. Note that these stories are reflections of another period in time and some of the language used would definitely be considered rude and/or offensive now. In keeping with the desire to present the text as the author wrote it, nothing has been changed or edited.

Published in 1911 as part of the "Harper's Library of Living Thought," this volume presents an introduction to the chemistry of cells in the context of plant physiology and gives an interesting overview of the field of biochemistry and related sciences at the time. The author, Frederick Czapek, was a Czech botanist and professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Prague. He is perhaps best known for his two-volume work on Plant Physiology, "Biochemie der Pflanzen" and for Czapek solution agar or Czapek-Dox medium, a culture medium for cultivation of fungus species such as Aspergillus and Penicillium molds. (

A collection of short stories by famed Winnie the Pooh author, A.A. Milne. This charmingly humorous work from Milne's earlier writing period was first published in Punch magazine.

"The White Heart of the Mojave" recounts a 1920's adventure "in the wind and sun and big spaces" of Death Valley by two independent minded women, Edna Brush Perkins and Charlotte Hannahs Jordan. Both women were early feminists, Edna as chairwoman of the greater Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party (1916-18). At the end of the Great War, the two friends wanted nothing more than to escape "to the solitariness of some wild and lonely place far from city halls, smokestacks, national organizations, and streets of little houses all alike...

The Three Essays on Religion were written at different times during Mill's life, and only published after his death. The first two, 'Nature' and 'The Utility of Religion' date from the 1850s - the period between the publication of 'The Principles of Political Economy' and 'On Liberty'. The third longer essay, 'Theism' was written between 1868 and 1870. The three essays were published posthumously in 1874.

Good Books are wise counselors. They point out the right way in the devious paths of life. Have we not often stood at the juncture of two roads, the one of righteousness and the other of unfaithfulness, and was it not then that some golden little book acted the part of an opportune adviser and directed us down the highway of truth? Is there one of us who can truthfully say that good books have not been his loyal and trustworthy helpers, his vigilant guardians in life's intricate ways? This unpretentious little book of goodness stories, a companion volume to "Tell Us Another," must speak for itself...

Published in 1899, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line is a collection of narratives that addresses the impact of Jim Crow laws on African Americans and white Americans of the South. Many of Chesnutt's characters are of mixed-race ancestry which sets them apart for a specific yet degrading kind of treatment from blacks and whites. These stories examine particularly how life in the South was informed through a legacy of slavery and Reconstruction—how members of the “old dominion” desperately struggled to breath life into the corpse of an antebellum caste system that no longer defined the path and direction in which this country was headed...

In The Feast of St. Friend, a Christmas book, Arnold Bennett shares his views on Christmas as the season of goodwill. As always, Bennett's writing includes some thought-provoking ideas liberally spiced with his wry sense of humour, and as always too, you can barely believe it was written so long ago. This was published exactly 100 years ago, in 1911. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

Buzz, buzz, buzz. A fascinating and beautifully written explanation of the life of the honey bee. Is the queen the master of the hive or just a hard working servant? What is the purpose of the drones? Why do bees make honey? Do bees ever sleep? Why do bees swarm? Maeterlinck, who won the Noble Prize for Literature, wrote a more scholarly work called The Life of the Bee but then rewrote it in simpler terms so that children could appreciate what goes in a hive. The book describes in simple language the inner workings of a hive from its beginning with a swarm to the fully functional hive with thousands of workers, drones and a queen busily building, repairing and gathering.

John Dryden published Absalom and Achitophel: A Poem in 1681. It is an elaborate historical allegory using the political situation faced by Kind David (2 Samuel 14-18) to mirror that faced by Charles II. Each monarch had a son whom a high-ranking minister attempted to use against him. James Scott, first Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son, was detected planning a rebellion late in 1681, supposedly instigated by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was tried for high treason, and it is believed that Dryden wrote the poem in an effort to sway the jury in his trial...

On an American college campus, in the early years of World War II, a professor from Germany is murdered and the plans for a new bomb sight he had invented are missing. Who murdered the professor and stole the plans? And are the accidents, happening with alarming frequency to young student aviators from the campus, really accidents -- or is some unknown conspiracy afoot?This mystery novel was written by Daniel A Lord, S.J., a priest and popular American Catholic writer. The subjects of the works in his bibliography range from religion, humor, plays, songs, mysteries and even politics. His most influential work was possibly in drafting the 1930 Production Code for motion pictures. (

Teenagers Peggy Prescott and her brother Roy share a love of aviation that they inherited from their late father. Mr. Prescott had always dreamed of building an aeroplane that would be free of the defects of planes already invented. Peggy and Roy manage to build a plane starting with the framework their father had begun. Peggy christens it ‘The Golden Buttefly’ and she and Roy are determined to enter it in a young aviator’s contest for a prize of $5000. The Prescotts need the money desperately to save the home they share with their aunt which is about to be taken from them by the rather nasty banker, Mr...

Semi-autobiographical series of incidents in the life of an intellectual American family in the late 19th - early 20th Century as seen by favored daughter, Sylvia Marshall. Her father is an economics professor in a Midwestern state university and she is following in his inquisitive footsteps. Canfield writes this in a matter-of-fact manner with Tarkingtonesque good humor.

Mary Pengilly was taken to a Lunatic Asylum by her sons where she kept a diary, which this book is taken from. Mary records the harsh conditions and treatments received at the hands of the nurses during her stay. Once Mary is released she takes it upon herself to make the authorities aware of the situation at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.

This is the second issue of the classic science fiction Astounding Magazine. It contains the finale of The Beetle Horde by Victor Rousseau, as well as stories by Harl Vincent, Charles Willard Diffin, Hugh B. Cave, Sophie Wenzel Ellis, Sterner St. Paul, Anthony Pelcher and Captain S. P. Meek.

A man who has been condemned to death writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while he is waiting for his execution. He does not betray his name to the reader or what he has done. He describes his life in prison, everything from what his cell looks like to the personality of the prison priest. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Sophocles' play recounts an episode from the Trojan War, in which the wily Odysseus and Achilles' son Neoptolemus travel to a remote island to persuade Philoctetes to come with them to Troy. A prophet has foreseen that the Greeks will need Philoctetes and his bow (given to him by Heracles before his death) in order to defeat the Trojans. The problem is that years before Odysseus had engineered Philoctetes' abandonment on the island, due to a festering, stinking wound he had received from a snakebite. Will Philoctetes forgive and forget, or will he take his revenge?

The full title of this book is Immortality and the Unseen World - A Study in Old Testament Religion. Oesterley describes the beliefs that pre-Christian Hebrews and Semites held regarding the afterlife and the immortal nature of humans. The nature, form and evolution of these beliefs are derived from the Tanakh (Old Testament), comparisons with the beliefs and mythologies of neighboring cultures, and archeological finds. To develop a full study, additional beliefs of these people are also considered, including the beliefs of the constituent parts of humans; demonology, angelology, shades and the Satan; the home of the dead, ancestor worship, necromancy, and burial customs...

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". (Introduction by Wikipedia) The three translations by women comprise this collection of recordings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The Sunday School Times says of the author, "he was a specialist in prayer and his books are for the quiet hour, for careful meditation and for all who wish to seek and find the treasures of God." This book is a ready helper for those who want to follow his path, with more and better communication with the Lord.

The Roaring Girl is a rip-roaring Jacobean comedy co-written by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker and first published in 1611. The play is a fictionalized dramatization of the life of Mary Frith, known as "Moll Cutpurse", a woman who had gained a reputation as a virago in the early 17th century. (The term "roaring girl" was adapted from the slang term "roaring boy", which was applied to a young man who caroused publicly, brawled, and committed petty crimes.) The play combines the exploits of the cross-dressed Moll with the amorous adventures of a trio of merchants' wives, and the forbidden romance between Sebastian Wengrave and Mary Fitzallard.

Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, born Genoa 1447 – 15 September 1510) is an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravaged Genoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.In 1551, 41 years after her death, a book about her life and teaching was published, entitled Libro de la vita mirabile et dottrina santa de la Beata Caterinetta de Genoa...

Stoddard’s novel traces the education and development of a young female in American middle-class society. The protagonist, Cassandra Morgeson, is educated by a series of journeys she makes throughout her youth and early adulthood. Each new setting represents a different stage in her intellectual development.Cassandra is born in Surrey, a small New England town. Surrey is quiet and isolated, granting a young woman little intellectual stimulation. Cassandra escapes the boredom of domestic life through stories of adventure and exploration. Surrey instills in Cassandra a restlessness that drives her quest for knowledge and experience.(Introduction by Wikipedia)

A biography of Abraham Lincoln by his long-time law partner, William Herndon and Herndon's collaborator, Jesse Weik. The book is notable for its extensive use of first hand interviews (unusual for its time) and for Herndon's overriding determination to convey an affectionate but frank picture of his law partner's life story as remembered by Lincoln's family, friends, associates and neighbors.