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By: Anne Wales Abbott ed. (1808-1908)

Autumn Leaves, Original Pieces in Prose and Verse by Anne Wales Abbott ed. Autumn Leaves, Original Pieces in Prose and Verse

The pieces gathered into this volume were, with two exceptions, written for the entertainment of a private circle, without any view to publication. The editor would express her thanks to the writers, who, at her solicitation, have allowed them to be printed. They are published with the hope of aiding a work of charity,—the establishment of an Agency for the benefit of the poor in Cambridge,—to which the proceeds of the sale will be devoted.

By: Annie L. Burton (c. 1858-)

Book cover Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days

This is a short and simple, yet poignant autobiography of Annie Burton, who recounts her early carefree childhood as a slave on a southern plantation while the Civil War raged around her, and after the Emancipation Proclamation, how her life changed as she struggled to maintain herself and family, manage her finances, and develop as a free person of color. The last half of the narrative relies heavily upon speeches, poems, and hymns written by others that stirred Annie's religious passions and increased her pride in her heritage, including a very powerful speech by Dr...

By: Anonymous

Book cover Life Unveiled, by a Child of the Drumlins

A memoir of a young woman, who lived in the late 19th century in the United States. Starting with her pastoral youth and progressing through to her studies to become a doctor at Boston University, this is a frank and refreshing portrait of a young American girl’s upbringing; the impressions made upon her at a young age, the navigation through adolescence, and the determination of an emerging adult woman. Told with a sense of humor, wonder and delight. - Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

Book cover Unaddressed Letters

“I had a friend who loved me;” but he has gone, and the “great gulf” is between us. After his death, I received a packet of manuscript with these few words:—“What I have written may appeal to you because of our friendship, and because, when you come to read them, you will seek to grasp, in these apparent confidences, an inner meaning that to the end will elude you. If you think others, not the many but the few, might find here any answer to their unuttered questionings, any fellowship of sympathy in those experiences which are the milestones of our lives, then use the letters as you will, but without my name...

By: Archibald Gracie (1858-1912)

Book cover Truth about the Titanic

Colonel Archibald Gracie was the first survivor of the sinking of the Titanic to die, and this first-hand account was published posthumously. He attempts to dispel some of the rumors surrounding the tragic event and gives his personal observations and an account of his survival clinging to the hull of an overturned collapsible lifeboat after helping many others to escape safely. A large portion of the book is given to personal accounts of other survivors from both the American and British boards of inquiry, boat by boat. - Summary by Larry Wilson

By: Arthur Empey

Over the Top by Arthur Empey Over the Top

Arthur Guy Empey was an American who responded to the sinking of the Lusitania by enlisting with the British Army to fight in France. His experiences in the trenches, including his ultimate wounding and convalescence, became this book. When published in 1917, it was a major hit and helped the recruiting effort when America entered the Great War. If you’ve heard of the horror of trench warfare in WWI and want to see it from below dirt level, Empey offers it all here. Also included is Empey’s popular “Tommy’s Dictionary of the Trenches” which humorously demistifies the slang used by the British soldier.

By: Arthur Graeme West (1891-1917)

The Diary of a Dead Officer by Arthur Graeme West The Diary of a Dead Officer

Published posthumously in 1919, this collection of diary entries presents a scathing picture of army life and is said to be one of the most vivid accounts of daily life in the trenches. It chronicles West's increasing disillusion with war and his move toward pacifist and atheist beliefs. The final part consists of his powerful war poems, including God, How I Hate You, You Young Cheerful Men, and Night Patrol. West was killed by a sniper in 1917. In view of some of his poems, one wonders if death was not unwelcome. (Introduction adapted from Wikipedia by Ruth Golding)

By: Arthur Ransome (1884-1967)

Book cover Russia in 1919

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: On August 27, 1914, in London, I made this note in a memorandum book: "Met Arthur Ransome at_____'s; discussed a book on the Russian's relation to the war in the light of psychological background--folklore." The book was not written but the idea that instinctively came to him pervades his every utterance on things Russian. The versatile man who commands more than respect as the biographer of Poe and Wilde; as the (translator of and commentator on Remy de Gourmont; as a folklorist, has shown himself to be consecrated to the truth...

By: Arthur Young (1741-1820)

Book cover Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, 1789

Arthur Young, an English agriculturist, set out to write a travelogue on the state of agriculture in France and found himself in the midst of the French Revolution. His report on life in the capital and in the countryside in the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, replete with droll traveler's mishaps, becomes an eyewitness account of a society on the brink of catastrophe. From the court scene at Versailles to backroads villages comes this astonishing record of unfolding events, conspiracy theories about the queen, jubilation, and mass hysteria.

By: Austen Layard (1817-1894)

Book cover Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon

Austen Henry Layard is best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC. Among its holdings was the famous Epic of Gilgamesh.In this work, he describes his experiences upon his return to the region for a second expedition. - Summary by Soupy Proof-listened by Elijah Fisher and TriciaG.

By: Benjamin Harris (1781-1858)

The Recollections of Rifleman Harris by Benjamin Harris The Recollections of Rifleman Harris

The recollections of a British infantryman who served in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars.

By: Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)

Book cover Lay Down Your Arms: The Autobiography of Martha von Tilling

Die Waffen Nieder, in English: Lay Down Your Arms is a fictional biography, which describes four wars from the perspective of a soldier's wife. The response to the book was worldwide; it became popular, and it can be described as the beginning of the peace movements of our times. Von Suttner received the Nobel Peace Prize - she was a candidate since the first award-ceremony . She foresaw and watched the rise of the First World War, was warning and campaigning against it; but died before the beginning of WW1...

By: Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery

Up From Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his slow and steady rise from a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools—most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and native Americans...

By: Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865-1958)

Book cover Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific-Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission

The Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition was the famous survey that took place in 1913-14 to follow the path of the Rio da Dúvida in the Amazon basin. The expedition was jointly led by Theodore Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, and Colonel Cândido Rondon, the Brazilian military engineer known for his explorations of the Western Amazon Basin and his lifelong support of Brazilian indigenous populations. Almost from the start, the expedition was fraught with problems: diseases...

By: Captain Rees Howell Gronow (1794-1865)

Reminiscences of Captain Gronow by Captain Rees Howell Gronow Reminiscences of Captain Gronow

A collection of memoirs about the Peninsular War, the Battle of Waterloo, and society and personalities of Regency London and 19th century Paris, by a sometime Grenadier Guards officer, unsuccessful parliamentarian, and dandy. Gronow displays social attitudes of the day which would now be regarded as unacceptable, but is a clever raconteur who brings to life both the horrors of war and the gaiety of high society.

By: Carlton McCarthy (1847-1936)

Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 by Carlton McCarthy Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865

The author, who fought as a private in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, describes the Confederate soldier’s daily struggles with hunger, illness, fear, and the perils of combat; as well as his pride of service, love of comrades, and courage in the face of overwhelming odds

By: Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899)

The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill The Backwoods of Canada

The writer is as earnest in recommending ladies who belong to the higher class of settlers to cultivate all the mental resources of a superior education, as she is to induce them to discard all irrational and artificial wants and mere useless pursuits. She would willingly direct their attention to the natural history and botany of this new country, in which they will find a never-failing source of amusement and instruction, at once enlightening and elevating the mind, and serving to fill up the void left by the absence of those lighter feminine accomplishments, the practice of which are necessarily superseded by imperative domestic duties...

By: Catherine Sager Pringle (1835-1910)

Book cover Across the Plains in 1844

The Sager family, including seven children, set out on the Oregon trail in 1844. Accidents and disease made it a dangerous trip, and both parents died along the way. The orphans made it to the Whitman Mission in Walla Walla, Washington, but their lives were still in jeopardy. In 1847, members of the Cayuse tribe attacked the mission and killed the Whitmans and others living there. Catherine was among those who were taken as hostages, and she survived the massacre. She later wrote about these harrowing experiences in this memoir.

By: Chalkley J. Hambleton

A Gold Hunter's Experience by Chalkley J. Hambleton A Gold Hunter's Experience

“Early in the summer of 1860, I had an attack of gold fever. In Chicago, the conditions for such a malady were all favorable. Since the panic of 1857 there had been three years of general depression, money was scarce, there was little activity in business, the outlook was discouraging, and I, like hundreds of others, felt blue.” Thus Chalkley J. Hambleton begins his pithy and engrossing tale of participation in the Pike’s Peak gold rush. Four men in partnership hauled 24 tons of mining equipment by ox cart across the Great Plains from St...

By: Charles Adams (1808-1890)

Book cover Memoir of Washington Irving

Arguably one of America's greatest writers, Washington Irving is the author of such classics as "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Bracebridge Hall," and "Knickerbocker's History of New York." This book is a concise and extremely entertaining biography of this unique author. Note to the listener: There are a couple of typos in this text. Chapter 33 should have been numbered as chapter 32, and there are two chapter 35's. The readers have keep the typos in the reading, therefore, there is no chapter 32, and the two chapter 35's are designated at "the first" and "the second." - Summary by Greg Giordano

By: Charles Anderson Dana (1819-1897)

Book cover Recollections of the Civil War

Recollections of the Civil War records the events that took place during the American Civil war. It forms one of the most remarkable volumes of historical, political, and personal reminiscences which have been given to the public. Mr. Dana wrote these Recollections of the civil war according to a purpose which he had entertained for several years. They were completed only a few months before his death on October 17, 1897. Go to the e-book on this book's catalog page for some great illustrations and an index.

By: Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens American Notes for General Circulation

American Notes for General Circulation is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June, 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of these societies almost as if returning a status report on their progress. This can be compared to the style of his Pictures from Italy written four years later, where he wrote far more like a tourist. His American journey was also an inspiration for his novel Martin Chuzzlewit.

The Uncommercial Traveller by Charles Dickens The Uncommercial Traveller

The Uncommercial Traveller is a collection of literary sketches and reminiscences written by Charles Dickens. In 1859 Dickens founded a new journal called All the Year Round and the Uncommercial Traveller articles would be among his main contributions. He seems to have chosen the title and persona of the Uncommercial Traveller as a result of a speech he gave on the 22 December 1859 to the Commercial Travellers' School London in his role as honorary chairman and treasurer. The persona sits well with a writer who liked to travel, not only as a tourist, but also to research and report what he found; visiting Europe, America and giving book readings throughout Britain...

By: Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900)

Being a Boy by Charles Dudley Warner Being a Boy

Warner's thoughtful and often humorous memoir of his life as a young farm-boy in Charlemont, Massachusetts. (Introduction by Mark Penfold)

By: Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (1807-1886)

Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams, Vol. 1 by Charles Francis Adams, Sr. Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams, Vol. 1

Abigail Adams lived the American Revolution as the wife of one of its central figures--John Adams. Her family correspondence, published along with a memoir by her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, brings that era into eloquent focus. What was it like to hear the cannon's roar from your window? to face pestilence? food shortages? rampant inflation? devalued coinage? to raise four children alone--and earn the money to keep your household afloat, while your husband was engaged in politics and diplomacy miles and oceans away ...

By: Charles Granville Bruce (1966-1939)

Book cover Assault on Mount Everest, 1922

Personal narratives of climbing Mount Everest in 1922-1923. The expeditions did not reach the summit. The northern approach to the mountain was discovered by George Mallory and Guy Bullock on the initial 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition. It was an exploratory expedition not equipped for a serious attempt to climb the mountain. With Mallory leading they climbed the North Col to an altitude of 7,005 metres . From there, Mallory espied a route to the top, but the party was unprepared for the great task of climbing any further and descended...

By: Charles Morris (1833-1922)

The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire by Charles Morris The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire

The first half of this book describes the devastating earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906, and the subsequent destruction caused by fire. Various eyewitnesses and victims give their account on the tragedy. In the second half, a number of different other earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are retold, like the eruption of the Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeij or the explosion of the Krakatoa, together with scientific explanations for the causes of earthquakes and the eruption of volcanos.

By: Charles Sternberg (1850-1943)

Book cover Life of a Fossil Hunter

Charles Sternberg was an American fossil collector and paleontologist. He was active in both fields from 1876 to 1928, and collected fossils for private collectors as well as for international museums. This book is part travelogue, part paleontology, and part historical narrative of life on the open prairie. In it, Sternberg tells of his early interest in fossil hunting as a boy, and scientific expeditions from his first in 1876 to one for the Munich Museum in 1901. - Summary by Ava

By: Charles Todd Quintard (1824-1898)

Book cover Doctor Quintard, Chaplain C.S.A. And Second Bishop Of Tennessee Being His Story Of The War (1861-1865)

Charles Quintard was an Episcopal priest who, in spite of his pro-Union stance, volunteered to be a chaplain in the Confederate army in the American Civil War. A sympathetic, warm, intellectual man loved by soldier and civilian alike, he volunteered because he felt that the soldiers from his local area needed him more than his local parish. Within four months of the end of the war, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, an election ratified by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in October...

By: Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)

Book cover My Trip Abroad

"A steak and kidney pie, influenza and a cablegram. There is the triple alliance that is responsible for the whole thing." So begins Charlie Chaplin's My Trip Abroad, a travel memoir charting the actor-director's semi-spontaneous visit to Europe. Fresh off the success of 1921's The Kid, Chaplin decides to "play hookey" after his seven year stay in Hollywood. He return to his native Europe as an international superstar, beloved by fans and hounded by reporters. The "triple alliance" of the book's opening line sends Chaplin on an whirlwind tour through Great Britain, Germany, and France -- and the results are both funny and insightful...

By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Book cover Benigna Machiavelli

In between "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Herland , feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote and published this delightful fictional autobiography, Benigna Machiavelli , in her monthly magazine, The Forerunner. The narrator, young Benigna MacAvelly, decides as a child that she intends to emulate her ancestor Niccolò Machiavelli but dedicate her machinations to doing good rather than evil. She starts her ingenious plotting very early in life , and moves on to larger goals as she gets older. Her most significant challenge is her domineering father...

By: Christopher Morley (1890-1957)

Book cover Religio Journalistici

The great Canadian journalist and humorist ruminates and reflects upon his life and calling in this 1924 little gem. - Summary by david wales


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