"He went with his widowed mother to California in 1854, and was thrown as a young man into the hurly-burly which he more than any other writer has made real to distant and later people. He was by turns a miner, school-teacher, express messenger, printer, and journalist. The types which live again in his pages are thus not only what he observed, but what he himself impersonated in his own experience." (from the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH (introduction to) COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS By Bret Harte

The Willows is a parody on the verse of Edgar Allan Poe. Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, fiction, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U.S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been most often reprinted, adapted, and admired. - Summary by Wikipedia

volunteers bring you 12 recordings of The Society Upon The Stanislaus by Bret Harte. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 24, 2021. ------ Taken from Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, Volume II by Thomas L. Masson - Summary by David Lawrence

The Valley of the Squinting Shadows was the author's first novel and proved controversial. In it, he tells a realistic tale of life in a small Irish town as he saw it, rather than the romanticized version told by others, or how the locals wished to be seen. Mrs. Brennan, the local dressmaker, has opinions. Her son is off studying to become a priest, which elevates him -- and thus her -- in her opinion. Mr. Brennan is forgiven all his transgressions, on account of being father to the son. Mrs. Brennan is less tolerant of those not related to her and her acerbic tongue is well-known throughout the village...

The Riot Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1714, the first year of the reign of George I, and came into effect in August 1715. This was a time of widespread social disturbance, as the preamble describes; the Act sought to put an end to this. A group of twelve or more people, “being unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled”, would be read a proclamation; they must disperse within an hour, on pain of death. The same fate would befall anyone preventing the reading of the proclamation, or damaging buildings while on a riot...

Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell was a volume of poetry published jointly by the three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne in 1846, and their first work to ever go in print. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Bronte sisters adopted androgynous first names. Marked by profound sentiments, gravity and melodious harmony, the poems are strewn on the fields of soulful love, rueful reminiscence and the immortal yearnings of a Christian soul, and represent a fragrant assemblage of noetic flowers from the glebes of olden England...

Brooks Adams (1848- 1927), was an American historian and a critic of capitalism. He believed that commercial civilizations rise and fall in predictable cycles. First, masses of people draw together in large population centers and engage in commercial activities. As their desire for wealth grows, they discard spiritual and creative values. Their greed leads to distrust and dishonesty, and eventually the society crumbles. In The Law of Civilisation and Decay (1895), Adams noted that as new population centers emerged in the west, centers of world trade shifted from Constantinople to Venice to Amsterdam to London...

Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France. His birth records were destroyed in a fire at his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought as a young soldier. It was also the war in which he sustained a near fatal injury to his sciatic nerve. The injury left him quite crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. The details of his early life are few and sketchy. However, we know he was educated both at home and by his parish priest whose first name was Lawrence and who was greatly admired by the young Nicolas...

When Ken Holt's father, the famous newspaper writer, comes home for a Christmas visit, one of the gifts he brings is an antique iron box. Soon after he arrives a serious of unexplained events occur, including an attempted burglary. A hunch that the iron box is at the center of these occurrences sends Ken Holt and his friend Sandy Allen on an exciting adventure to solve the mystery! Ken Holt was the central characters in a series of 18 mystery stories for boys written by Sam and Beryl Epstein under the pseudonym Bruce Campbell.

This is a nice collection of 52 kid-aimed sermons by missionary Wright while he served in the Philippines in the World War I era. Each offers a slice-of-life reference point, an appropriate Bible verse, and hymn.

The attractions Roopa experienced and the fantasies she entertained as a teen shaped a male imagery that ensconced her subconscious. Insensibly, confident carriage came to be associated with the image of maleness in her mind-set. Her acute consciousness of masculinity only increased her vulnerability to it, making her womanliness crave for the maleness for its gratification. However, as her father was constrained to help her in becoming a doctor, she opts to marry, hoping that Sathyam might serve her cause though the persona she envisioned as masculine, she found lacking in him...

If passing through youth was like crossing the mirage of life for Chandra and Nithya, it proved to be chasing the mirage of love for Sathya and Prema though for plain Vasavi, Chandra's pitiable sibling, it was the end of the road. As life brings Chandra, who suffers from an inferiority complex for his perceived ugliness, and Nithya, who was bogged down being jilted by Vasu, together, they script their fate of fulfillment. And as poetic justice would have it, Sathya, who caused Prema's heart burn, himself was led down the garden path by Kala, doing a "Sathya on Sathya"...

Glaring Shadow in a stream of consciousness mode is the self-account of the life and times of a man, who liquidates his immense wealth only to consign it to the flames. The agony and ecstasy of his life as he makes it big in our materialistic world and the way he loses his soul in the bargain, only to regain it when tragedy strikes him makes one ponder over the meaning of success in life - He had the soul of our times, and is the namesake of many. He tamed success by the scruff of its neck, only to fuel envy in our neighborhood...

This fascinating saga of life exemplifies the material raise and moral fall of Gautam and Sneha and also the poignant end of the latter and the spiritual rise of the former that is after the fall. Besides, this piquant story depicts the tragic life of their son Suresh Prabhu and his eventual redemption through love for and of Vidya. Book One, Artha and Kama, is about conflict and resolution arising out of ambition and achievement, intrigue and betrayal, compulsion and compromise, sleaze and scandal, trial and sentence and regret and remorse spread over eighteen chapters...

Who could have poisoned Ranjit the realtor, Shakeel the Inspector, Pravar the criminal and Natya his accomplice? Well the needle of suspicion tilted towards Pravar that was till he perished with his mate, but then who was the one? Could it be Radha under the scanner for her role in the death of her husband Madhu and his mistress Mala, Pravar's sister? Or was it Ranjit's spouse Kavya, who owing to Stockholm Syndrome, takes to Pravar her kidnapper. As these deaths by poisoning puzzle Dhruva, Radha, who worms her way into his life, avers that Kavya had the motive and the means to kill her spouse, her paramour and his wife besides the cop...

Voice Over: Under the British Raj in India, the self-indulging Nizams of Hyderabad abdicated the administration of their vast principality to doralu, the village heads, letting them turn the areas under their domain into their personal fiefdoms. While the successive Nizams were obsessed with building palaces and acquiring jewelry, the village heads succeeded in ushering in an oppressive era of tyrannical order. Acting as loose cannon from their palatial houses called gadis, the doralu succeeded in foisting an inimical feudal order upon the downtrodden dalits...

When a bunch of apparently non-practicing Musalmans headed by Mohamed Atta launched that fidayeen attack on New York’s World Trade Centre that Sep 11, the world at large, by then familiar with the ways of the Islamic terrorism, was at a loss to fathom the unthinkable source of that unexpected means of the new Islamist scourge. The symptoms of a latent terrorist in the Muslim youth can be traced to the sublimity of Muhammad's preaching’s in Mecca and the severity of his Medina sermons make Islam a Janus-faced faith that forever bedevils the mind of the Musalmans...

The spiritual ethos and the philosophical outlook that the Bhagvad - Gita postulates paves the way for the liberation of man, who, as Rousseau said, ‘being born free, is everywhere in chains’. But equally it is a mirror of human psychology, which enables man to discern his debilities for appropriate redressal. All the same, the boon of an oral tradition that kept it alive for over two millennia became its bane with the proliferation of interpolations therein. Besides muddying its pristine philosophy, these insertions affect the sequential conformity and structural economy of the grand discourse...

If Mahabharata's Bhagvad-Gita is taken as a philosophical guide, Ramayana's Sundara Kãnda is sought for spiritual solace. What is more, many believe that reading Sundara Kãnda or hearing it recited would remove all hurdles and usher in good tidings! Well miracles apart, it's in the nature of Sundara Kãnda to inculcate fortitude and generate hope in one and all. After all, isn't it a depiction of how Hanuman goes about his errand against all odds! Again, won't it portray how Seetha, on the...

MANUAL OF SURGERY, OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONSBY ALEXIS THOMSON, F.R.C.S.Ed.PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION Much has happened since this Manual was last revised, and many surgical lessons have been learned in the hard school of war. Some may yet have to be unlearned, and others have but little bearing on the problems presented to the civilian surgeon. Save in its broadest principles, the surgery of warfare is a thing apart from the general surgery of civil life, and the exhaustive literature now available on every aspect of it makes it unnecessary that it should receive detailed consideration in a manual for students...

Frank Merriwell is from Yale he excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs the stories show how he handles a number of challenges that come his way. Cast List:Frank Merriwell: Adrian StephensNarrator: Michele EatonBullet headed man, Crowd, McGilvay, Franks second: John PaytonTom Stevens: Jake MaliziaHilda Dugan: Jenn BrodaHarry Collins, Irish Man, Gray Mustached man, policeman, Jones, Bartender, trainman, servant of Alvin Brander:...

A fine football story for boys. This is another dime novel from the author of the Frank Merriman series.

Owen Clancy befriends a lad he saves from peril. He and his friend foil a nefarious plot. - Summary by Howard Skyman

A detective novel set in turn-of-the-century New York City, in which a young lawyer plays the sleuth. Packed with plot twists (and the ubiquitous romantic complication, of course). (

Mr. Lester, a private investigator, and his friend Godfrey are caught up in a strange case that takes them to a large estate in the country where at midnight they witness a mysterious "falling star" that appears to burst into a shower of sparks over two white robed figures standing in the air. There is a young lady in a flowing white dress and many more twists and complications before the mystery is solved.

Stevenson's introduction of the protagonist Lester (law clerk with New York firm Graham & Royce) finds him occupying a front row seat in the murder trial of Wall Street multi-millionaire Hiram Holladay. Scandalously, suspicion points very solidly on the banker's loving daughter, Frances. Lester proves himself a useful aide to the firm's senior partner, Mr. Royce, in his attempt to prove the lovely Frances innocent.

Three men are dead. Killed by a very powerful poison. Their deaths seem to be connected to a very old cabinet purchased in France and a notorious French criminal. What is the link? It is up to the lawyer Lester and the newspaperman Godfrey to pool their talents and solve the mystery.

In this book, Burton Egbert Stevenson writes a brief biography of some of the most noteworthy men in American history. He begins at the very beginning of the history of America with Christopher Columbus and proceeds forward with the story of people who made America what it is today by their respective vocations. It is interesting to note that the vast majority of the subjects started in poverty and excelled financially and in stature.He makes something that could be very dull, a very readable and enjoyable book.

“American Men of Mind” is a collection of short biographies of men of note in various disciplines. It is an absorbing collection of short biographies of men who made a difference in American history; most beginning life in very humble circumstances, both in the United States and in foreign countries. Although “men” is mentioned in the title, Mr. Stevenson also relates biographies of several women.This is a most interesting read.(William Tomcho)

A bride-to-be vanishes and mystery is born. Before it is solved, its pursuers uncover madness, treachery, and a grave in a cellar. Summary by Jacquerie

It is a fictional tale of cavalry actions during the U.S. Civil War, under General John Morgan.