Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Personal Reminiscences in Book Making and Some Short Stories By: Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894) |
---|
![]()
He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk
with the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in
Northen Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The
letters he had written home were very amusing in their description of
backwoods life, and his family publishing connections suggested that he
should construct a book based on these letters. Three of his most
enduring books were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur
Traders", "Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his
experiences with the H.B.C. In this period he also wrote "The Coral
island" and "Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places never
visited by Ballantyne. Having been chided for small mistakes he made in
these books, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about.
With these books he became known as a great master of literature
intended for teenagers. He researched the Cornish Mines, the London
Fire Brigade, the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down of
submarine telegraph cables, the construction of light houses, the
light ship service, the life boat service, South Africa, Norway, the
North Sea fishing fleet, ballooning, deep sea diving, Algiers, and many
more, experiencing the lives of the men and women in these settings by
living with them for weeks and months at a time, and he lived as they
lived. He was a very true to life author, depicting the often squalid scenes he
encountered with great care and attention to detail. His young readers
looked forward eagerly to his next books, and through the 1860s and
1870s there was a flow of books from his pen, sometimes four in a year,
all very good reading. The rate of production diminished in the last
ten or fifteen years of his life, but the quality never failed. He published over ninety books under his own name, and a few books for
very young children under the pseudonym "Comus". For today's taste his books are perhaps a little too religious, and what
we would nowadays call "pi". In part that was the way people wrote in
those days, but more important was the fact that in his days at the Red
River Settlement, in the wilds of Canada, he had been a little
dissolute, and he did not want his young readers to be unmindful of how
they ought to behave, as he felt he had been. Some of his books were quite short, little over 100 pages. These books
formed a series intended for the children of poorer parents, having less
pocket money. These books are particularly well written and researched,
because he wanted that readership to get the very best possible for
their money. They were published as six series, three books in each
series. In this book of personal reminiscences, the author, hearing in the
distance the Grim Reaper, is at his most pi. The first few chapters
describe the effort he had to make to gain the background information he
needed to write the books, but suddenly he tells us that he doesn't feel
at all well, that his time may well be near, and he fills out the book
with half a dozen short stories, all very moralist, but still well up
to his usual quality of output. Re created as an e Text by Nick Hodson, August 2003. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF BOOK MAKING, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. CHAPTER ONE. INCIDENTS IN BOOK MAKING INTRODUCTORY. Book making is mixed up, more or less, with difficulties. It is
sometimes disappointing; often amusing; occasionally lucrative;
frequently expensive, and always interesting at least to the maker. Of course I do not refer to that sort of book making which is connected
with the too prevalent and disgraceful practice of gambling, but to the
making of literary books especially story books for the young. For over eight and thirty years I have had the pleasure of making such
books and of gathering the material for them in many and distant lands... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Literature |
Short stories |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Robert Michael Ballantyne |
Wikipedia – Personal Reminiscences in Book Making and Some Short Stories |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|