Seneca the Younger’s letters to his friend, Lucilius Junior, appear to have been written with a broad audience in mind. These letters introduce major themes of Stoic philosophy and have been a source of inspiration and comfort for readers throughout the centuries. - Summary by jvanstan

In this short book Edward Ellis Morris writes a vivid account of the reigns of the first two Georges. Scarcely had the fifty-four-year-old king assumed the throne when James Stuart roused the Highlanders in the "Fifteen." Five years later the collapse of the South Sea Company convulsed Britain and her first prime minister, Robert Walpole, emerged to stabilize the country's finances. George II succeeded his father in 1727 and Morris writes that "the new King was in person short, and like many short men, proud and touchy...

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints : with reflections for every day in the year : compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other approved sources : to which are added lives of the American saints : placed on the calendar for the United States by special petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore - Summary from the book itself

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints : with reflections for every day in the year : compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other approved sources : to which are added lives of the American saints : placed on the calendar for the United States by special petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore - Summary by From the book itself

Col. Ingersoll begins his famous lecture on SHAKESPEARE as follows: "It is hard to overstate the debt we owe to the men and women of genius. Take from our world what they have given, and all the niches would be empty, all the walls naked—meaning and connection would fall from words of poetry and fiction, music would go back to common air, and all the forms of subtle and enchanting Art would lose proportion and become the unmeaning waste and shattered spoil of thoughtless Chance." One of the most...

The story of Imperial Rome has been told frequently and impressively in our literature, and few chapters in the long chronicle of man’s deeds and failures have a more dramatic quality. The fresh aspect of this familiar story which I propose to consider is the study of the women who moulded or marred the succeeding Emperors. Woman had her part in the making, as well as the unmaking, of Rome. Long before the commencement of our era, the thought and the power of the Roman woman went out into the larger...

The Life of Cromwell is in part based on an article contributed by the author to the Dictionary of National Biography in 1888, but embodies the result of later researches, and of recently discovered documents such as the Clarke Papers. The battle plans have been specially drawn for this volume by Mr. B. V. Darbishire, and in two cases differ considerably from those generally accepted as correct. The scheme of this series does not permit a discussion of the reasons why these alterations have been made, but the evidence concerning the battles in question has been carefully examined, and any divergence from received accounts is intentional...

"In the year 1907, the Woman’s Home Companion commissioned me to go to Russia to write the story of the early days, courtship and marriage of her whom the world knows to-day as the 'Tsaritsa,' The following year, the same periodical sent me to Italy to write a similar account of the life of Queen Elena; and in 1910 I was once more sent abroad, this time to Spain, to learn all about Queen Victoria Eugenie....'Your task is difficult,'remarked a friend to whom I had just explained that I was writing the lives of the Empress of Russia, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Italy...

A Little Book of St. Francis and His Brethren presents with superlative charm the great simplicities and eternal verities in the life of St Francis. The author EM Wilmot Buxton is already well known for valuable work in making vivid the lives God's heroes. The Little Book will be found delightful by both children and adults.

Booker T. Washington was one of the first nationally recognized African American leaders after the Civil War. He was born to a slave woman in Virginia, who then took him as a young boy to West Virginia after the emancipation. Booker became a leader in education heading the Tuskegee Institute for more than 30 years and working with other universities. He advocated a moderate approach to elevating the African Americans through education and business, but worked behind the scenes to change discriminatory laws and practices, and became an adviser to the White House. He authored 14 books, and many articles and speeches, including his autobiography, Up from Slavery. - Summary by Larry Wilson

This volume is a simple narrative suited to children's understanding of the thrilling times when English Catholics suffered for the Faith in the troubled days of the sixteenth century, when Tyburn tree was a concrete fact, and when ardent love hurled the defiance, "Come rack! Come rope!" Martyrs lay and cleric are here commemorated. The Carthusians, Houghton, Lawrence, Webster; the Jesuits, Campion, Sherwin, Southwell; the secular priests, Hart, Lacey, Ingleby; the countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole; the Chancellor of England Blessed Thomas More, Philip Earl of Arundel, and Margaret Clitherow, harborer of priests...

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , was the oldest surviving son of Sir Winston Churchill, an impoverished country gentleman. After the restoration of Charles II, John's sister, Arabella, became the mistress of the King's brother, James, Duke of York. The family fortunes were made and Churchill's military career launched. In the winter of 1677-78, Churchill married Sarah Jennings, the intimate friend of the future Queen Anne. Ruthlessly changing sides during the Glorious Revolution, he deserted his patron James and joined the army of William of Orange...

Among all the numerous life stories written by Ferdinand Schmidt for the delectation and education of German youth, none surpasses that of Washington. The author has condensed his material, drawn from the most authoritative sources, in a masterly manner, and presents it in a very attractive form. He has accompanied it by moralization which is pertinent, but never becomes tedious. It is questionable, indeed, whether any story of Washington’s life written for young people excels Schmidt’s in accuracy, conciseness, and general interest...

The Real Oscar Wilde is the third book about the Irish poet and playwright by his earliest and most prolific biographer. Since writing his earlier The Life of Oscar Wilde , Sherard had read Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas's Oscar Wilde and Myself and the unexpurgated manuscript of Wilde's De Profundis. - Summary by Rob Marland

Charles James Fox was a prominent British Whig member of Parliament and the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger. A staunch opponent of George III, he supported the American colonists throughout the War of Independence. He was a leading parliamentary advocate of religious tolerance, individual liberty, and the anti-slavery cause. A notorious gambler and womanizer, Fox fell in love with and married Elizabeth Armistead, the former mistress of the Prince of Wales, and found happiness and tranquility in their home, St...

Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua was a former slave, native of West Africa. He was sold as a slave in 1845 and worked in Brazil as a captive; however, when the ship where he was enslaved crew was at the harbor in New York in 1847, he fled. He studied at the New York Central College in McGrawville for almost three years. In 1854, he moved to Canada; he narrated his autobiography to the abolitionist Samuel Downing Moore in Detroit, who published it. His narrative is the only known document about the slave trade written by a former Brazilian slave. - Summary by Leni

This short biography of Martin Luther, by Gustav Just, who taught at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran School, St. Louis, is a standard resource for students, young and old. The first five chapters give a swift moving, succinct overview of church history up to Luther’s time, and the final two chapters deal with the church after Luther’s death. Martin Luther is presented in a favorable, but objective light and his influence appreciated as the primary leader of the Reformation. - Summary by Larry Wilson

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...

From time immemorial, women have served as wives, mothers and domestic organizers. But in the nineteenth century, the lives of women were changing, allowing those with drive to serve in other capacities. In this volume, we briefly examine the lives of eleven such women, ranging from 'Our Lady of the Red Cross', Clara Barton to 'A Champion of the Cause', Anna Howard Shaw and 'The White Mother of Darkest Africa', Mary Slessor. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

James P. Beckworth, born in Virginia at the dawn of our Nation, moved with his family to eastern Missouri settling a few miles below what is now St. Charles. Still young, James began his education in the character of the Indian nations where he gained first hand knowledge of the Indian tactics and at times, their brutality. At the young age of 19, he became a member of the famed company known as Ashley's hundred. Working along side some our countries most revered adventurers. Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and of course, General Ashley himself...

Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving lives contain twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired, single lives. Plutarch was not concerned with writing histories, as such, but in exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men. The first pair of lives the Epaminondas-Scipio Africanus no longer exists, and many of the remaining lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae and/or have been tampered with by later writers...

As one of the first two bishops of the Methodist church in America and one of the most well-known circuit riders during the spread of Methodism, Francis Asbury kept a journal of his travels and activities. His journal begins with his prayerful decision to come to America in 1771 and continues to December of 1815, a few months before his death. In the meantime, we travel with Rev. Asbury across the ocean, over mountains, through rivers, and up and down the whole length of the fledgling United States of America. Summary by Devorah Allen

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints : with reflections for every day in the year : compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other approved sources : to which are added lives of the American saints : placed on the calendar for the United States by special petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore - Summary from the book itself

Brief sketches of the lives and music of 12 well-known musicians. - Summary by KevinS

James Cook , British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy was the son of a farm laborer. Apprenticed to a grocer, he ran away to sea. He saw hard service in the Baltic as a merchant seaman, while applying himself to the study of mathematics, navigation, and astronomy. In 1755 he volunteered for the Royal Navy, working his way up to captain. This little biography by Walter Besant, chronicles Cook's three voyages of discovery and his violent death in Hawaii. Cook replaced vague mythology with accurate observations of people and places, animals and plants...

In this trim volume the British historian, Osmund Airy writes of the period between 1648 and 1679 when Cardinal Mazarin, having concluded the masterly Peace of Westphalia for France, confronts the rebellions of the nobility known as the Fronde. By the time of his death in 1661, Mazarin has completed the work of Richelieu and made Louis XIV an absolute monarch, ready to extend his borders by conquest. But in Holland, the young Stadtholder, William III of Orange, resolutely opposes Louis's military...

While there are many general histories of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, the Oxford historian, Charles Oman, writes that his little book is rather "a series of studies of the leading men of the century, intended to show the importance of the personal element in those miserable days of storm and stress." We hear of the tragic struggle of the brothers Gracchi to make farm ownership possible again for ordinary Romans, of Marius's reform of the army, and of the ruthless proscriptions of Sulla...

This is this story of William Duncan, an English missionary, who established a colony among the Tsimshian people of the Pacific Northwest. He worked there from 1856 until his death in 1918 at the age of 86. - Summary by Fritz

This biography of Abraham Lincoln focuses on his practice as a lawyer.

Henry Martyn , a brilliant and ambitious young student in Cambridge, England, was led by God to be a missionary to India and Persia. While pastoring, starting schools, and teaching the locals as well as Europeans through his role as chaplain for the East India Company, he worked on several far-reaching Bible translations. All this despite much weakness and illness due to harsh climates and difficult travels. This short life of 31 years is a testament to the power of God to work through one life fully dedicated to Him.

A collection of short biographies of six Catholic Queens who became saints. Saint Margaret of Scotland - Saint Elisabeth of Portugal - Saint Clotildus, Saint Ragedund, and Saint Bathildis, all Queens of the Franks - and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

In this short book, the British Naval historian, Julian Stafford Corbett, chronicles the adventurous career of Sir Francis Drake , the farmer's son who became Queen Elizabeth's most feared privateer and her most daring and resourceful naval officer. In his quest for the gold and silver of Spanish Peru, he rounded Cape Horn, losing men and ships in that "enchanted void, where wind and water, ice and darkness, seemed to make incessant war." After capturing the treasure ship from the astonished Spaniards, he circumnavigated the globe...