"Few women have worked so faithfully for the cause of humanity as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin [1759-1797], and few have been the objects of such censure...The young were bidden not to read her books, and the more mature warned not to follow her example, the miseries she endured being declared the just retribution of her actions." So begins this short, vivid biography of Mary Wollstonecraft by the American expatriate author, Elizabeth Robins Pennell. We read how Wollstonecraft's father, an unstable, irascible, and often violent alcoholic squandered his fortune and dragged his large family from lodging to lodging...

Otto von Bismarck famously said, "The great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches or the decisions of the majority...but by iron and blood." Prince Bismarck unified the German states under Prussian hegemony through a series of carefully orchestrated wars, which excluded Austria from the new Confederation and added Schleswig-Holstein, and Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. But Bismarck avoided useless confrontations and was, above all, a master of balance of power diplomacy. His skills, both at home and abroad, won him the loyal support of Kaiser Wilhelm I...

The book is a biography of Abraham Lincoln with emphasis on how his personality and beliefs impacted the history of the American Emancipation and its causes. The book is very well written, easy to read and includes incredible historical information being written by a man who was there during the civil war. He even fought in the war and was able to add his insight into the happenings from his own perspective. This book would add knowledge to anyone who really wants to know the truth about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. - Summary by philip chenevert

Compared with the unimaginable richness of his inner life as the overpowering volume and splendor of his works reveal it, Bach’s day-to-day existence seems almost pedestrian.... The present volume, which advances no claim whatever to any new or original slant, aims to do no more than furnish for those who read and run a meager background of a few isolated highspots in Bach’s outward life and a momentary sideglance at a tiny handful of his supreme creations. Its object will have been more than accomplished if in any manner it stimulates a radio listener to deepen his acquaintance with Bach’s immeasurable art. - Summary by Author's Foreword

Included in this little book are analyses and backgrounds of most of Tschaikowsky’s standard concert music. A short sketch of Tschaikowsky’s life precedes the section devoted to the orchestral music. Yet, the personal outlook and moods of Russia’s great composer are so inextricably bound up with his music, that actually the whole booklet is an account of his strangely tormented life. In the story of Tschaikowsky, life and art weave into one closely knit fabric. It is hoped that this simple narrative will aid music lovers to glimpse the great pathos and struggle behind the music of this sad and lonely man. - Summary by Author's Foreword

Haydn, barring a few hardships in his youth, lived an extraordinarily fortunate life and had abundant reason for the optimism which marked every step of his progress.... Haydn was a master by the grace of Heaven and a servant only by the artificial conventions of a temporary social order... About the vast number of symphonies, the magnificent string quartets, the clavier works, the songs there can here be no question. - Summary by Author's Foreword

Handel’s long career resembles a gigantic tapestry, so bewilderingly crowded with detail, so filled with turmoil and vicissitude, with vast achievements, extremes of good and ill fortune, and unending comings and goings that any attempt to force even a small part of it into the frame of a tiny, unpretentious booklet of the present sort is as hopeless as it is presumptuous.... Handel was time and again a composer of exquisitely delicate colorations, and sensuous style, not to say a largely unsuspected master of many subtle intricacies of rhythm...

How much more futile is it to attempt on the minuscule scale of the following tiny, if rambling, pamphlet to touch upon even a thousandth of those achievements and unremitting conflicts which entered into the texture of this master’s agitated and inharmonious life! Actually, it aims to do no more than contribute a mite toward a larger interest in the writings and the great mass of insufficiently discovered compositions of a Romanticist whose labors are still surprisingly unrecognized art works of the future.

Jesse Harding Pomeroy was only 12 years old when he was arrested for the assault of 7 boys near his home in the South Boston area of Massachusetts. He was sent to reform school for a year and released. Shortly after his release, the body of a young boy was found mutilated almost beyond recognition. Then the body of a young girl was discovered in the basement of the building which Jesse's mother had rented to run her small dressmaking shop. Jesse would be tried and found guilty of the two murders when he was but 14 years of age, and thus has been referred to as "America's youngest serial killer"...

In the compass of the present pamphlet it is impossible to give more than a cursory survey of Mendelssohn’s happy but extraordinarily crowded life. He was only slightly less prolific a composer than such masters as Bach, Mozart or Schubert, even if he did not reach the altitude of their supreme heights. But irrespective of the quality of much of his output, the sheer mass of it is astounding, the more so when we consider the extent of his travels and the unceasing continuity of his professional and social activities, which immensely exceeded anything of the kind in the career of Schubert or Bach. - Summary by Author's Foreword

There was not much truly spectacular about the course of [Strauss's] life, which was most happily free from the material troubles which bedeviled the existence of so many great masters... If “Salome” and “Elektra”, “Ein Heldenleben” and “Till Eulenspiegel” were in their day scandalously “sensational” did not the whirligig of time reveal them as incontestable products of genius, irrespective of inequalities and flaws? However Richard Strauss compares in the last analysis with this or that master he contributed to the language of music idioms, procedures and technical accomplishments typical of the confused years and conflicting ideals out of which they were born...

[This is] the sketchiest outline of Robert Schumann’s short life but amazingly rich achievement. Together with Haydn and Schubert he was, perhaps, the most completely lovable of the great masters. It is hard, moreover, to think of a composer more strategically placed in his epoch or more perfectly timed in his coming. Tone poet, fantast, critic, visionary, prophet—he was all of these! And he passed through every phase, it seemed, of romantic experience. The great and even the semi-great of a fabulous period of music were his intimates—personages like Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Moscheles, Ferdinand David, Hiller, Joachim, Brahms...

"The Life of Jesse Harding Pomeroy: The Most Remarkable Case in the History of Crime or Criminal Law" by E. Luscomb Haskell was published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1892 by the Harvard Law School Library, and is part of "The Making of the Modern Law, Legal Treatises, 1800-1926" series. Remarkable insight into the life of Pomeroy prior to, during, and following the crimes for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the tender age of 14, this is an excellent complement to Pomeroy's "autobiography" which was published immediately following his trial in 1874...

William Ewart Gladstone , four times Prime Minister of Great Britain, dominated the Liberal Party for thirty years, but ultimately divided it over the issue of Irish Home Rule, which he unsuccessfully championed. He brought to parliamentary politics a moral fervor which made him the personification of the Victorian Age, but which also challenged the complacency of its imperialistic assumptions. In this 1897 biography, the Liberal Irish member of Parliament, Justin McCarthy, presents a Gladstone still...

He tells of the shame, misery and pain which alcohol brought on him, and will bring to anyone whosoever be tempted by the pleasant feeling it produces at the time of drinking. It doesn't bring one home to shelter but drives them away. It leads one to forget the evil it brings and tempts one to pursue more for the pleasant feeling it produces. This "pleasant feeling" produces many murderers in our land. It doesn't push the sufferer to ask for help but to lie about the drinking. Once Satan has a foothold he wants an even tighter grasp...

Edward I of England will always be remembered as the "Hammer of the Scots" who condemned William Wallace to a traitor's death in 1297. But Edward was one of England's greatest statesman-kings. In this short biography the British historian, Thomas Frederick Tout writes of Edward that he was "a man of unusual and commanding height," lean and powerful, who, despite a slight stammer, was able to "speak with a simple and natural eloquence that often moved his susceptible auditors to tears." Edward conquered...

This is a lively and highly accessible overview of the life and times of one of England's most beloved authors. Using excerpts from a wide variety of sources, such as Austen's own personal correspondence and the works of her contemporaries, Mitton chronicles her literary career and family life amidst the changing climate of the Georgian and Regency eras, giving the reader a sense of what it was like to live in her world. A must-read for the dedicated Austen aficionado! - Summary by Tomas Peter

Here are thirteen biographical sketches of physicians penned by one of the founders of modern medicine, William Osler, published in 1908. "Sir William Osler, one of the best-loved and most influential teachers of his time, was born in Canada in 1849…. Wherever he worked his gifted and unique personality was a center of inspiration… one would like to see his honorable place as a man of letters more generally understood. His generous wisdom and infectious enthusiasm are delightfully expressed in his collected writings…...

This book consists of 17 biographies of remarkable men and women who, in 1921, were "unsung." Some of them are now pretty well known while others are still, sadly, rather unrecognized. Written by Elizabeth Ross Haynes , her heroes include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Laurence Dunbar, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Alexandre Dumas, and many others. - Summary by kathrinee

This book is readable account of one of the greatest inventions of modern time: moveable type. Gutenberg's work lays the foundation for the printing press, without which the world would look very different... It reads both as biography and as historical fiction, in addition to being an introduction to the history of printing. We follow along on the ups and downs of Gutenberg himself and his family life, and the collaborations with others that lead to printing. - Summary by kathrinee

Two diaries from Middle St. John’s, Berkeley, South Carolina, February – May, 1865. Journals kept by Miss Susan R. Jervey and Miss Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel, at Northampton and Poooshee Plantations, and reminiscences of Mrs. Henagan. With two contemporary reports from Federal officials. Published by the St. John’s Hunting Club, Middle St. Johns, Berkeley, South Carolina, 1921. - Summary by Book title and david wales

The delightful tale of "le petit Santos" as he dances through the sky above the City of Light at the dawn of the aerial age.A note to the listener: Throughout this story the author makes several references to helpful figures and illustrations. These may be found upon the corresponding pages in the Project Gutenberg e-book.

In 1813, the year that he was appointed Poet Laureate, Robert Southey published "The Life of Nelson". Horatio, Lord Viscount Nelson was Britain's greatest Naval hero who had been killed during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 during which he had issued that famous message to the fleet; "England expects that every man will do his duty."In a preface to the first edition, Southey wrote: "Many Lives of Nelson have been written; one is yet wanting, clear and concise enough to become a manual for the young sailor, which he may carry about with him till he has treasured it up for example in his memory and in his heart...

This is a short life of Henry John Temple , Third Viscount Palmerston, Great Britain's affable, able, and always available Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, and Prime Minister. Sanders writes that by 1841 Palmerston "had raised the prestige of England throughout Europe to a height which it had not occupied since Waterloo. He created Belgium, saved Portugal and Spain from absolutism, rescued Turkey from Russia, and the highway to India from France."

L.M. Montgomery's autobiography highlighting her childhood and early literary career. Published in 1917 after she had written several novels. - Summary by Carolyn Agee

This 1906 collection of memories of Oscar Wilde is by friends. Wilde said that his genius was his life; only his talent was in his works.

The story of Sir Walter Raleigh from his boyhood days to his exploits in Ireland and his unexpected entry into the court of Queen Elizabeth. We travel with him as he pursues the ships of the Spanish Armada and makes voyages to the New World in search of gold and lands to settle. We learn how he introduced potatoes and tobacco to England and Ireland. We hear how he is relegated to the Tower of London where he spends the last years of his life. The Story of Sir Walter Raleigh is a wonderful adventure.

It has been the object of the writer to make each of these “famous assassinations” the central scene of a picture in which the political, religious, or national features of the epoch in which the assassination occurred are portrayed with historical fidelity and strict impartiality…. Only those assassinations have been included which either had an important and political bearing on the world, or on the nation immediately affected, or which left a profound, and, it would seem, indelible impression on the imagination of contemporaries and posterity. - Summary by Book Preface

In November 1889, the New York World announced that it was sending its reporter Nellie Bly around the world, in a bid to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious 80-day journey in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Catching wind of this publicity stunt, John Brisben Walker, who had just purchased the three-year-old and still-fledging Cosmopolitan, decided to dispatch Bisland on her own journey.] Six hours after being recruited, Bisland departed westward from New York. Meanwhile, Bly left on a steamer headed to Europe, both on the same day—November 14, 1889...

This is a 1905 memoir of one great litterateur’s latter days written by another great litterateur. This recording omits the numerous footnotes and two letters in French untranslated by the translator. -Summary by david wales

A history of Florence Nightingale , the founder of modern nursing. Here's the definitive biography, gleaned from a lifetime of her notes, letters and writings, that goes way beyond the mere legend of "The Lady With The Lamp", and the "Founder Of Modern Nursing". This well written saga covers the vastly more expanded story of her development into an intelligent woman with a high purpose, her social standing and family connections that opened many doors for her, her extensive work after the Crimean War working with governments to develop better health care delivery systems to the indigent in England and in India, and her voluminous writings on numerous topics...

Enos Mills , naturalist and conservationist, was instrumental in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Like his mentor John Muir, Mills was an intrepid solitary high country rambler, as well as an accomplished Colorado mountain guide. There are mountain tales aplenty in "Adventures of a Nature Guide." At one point, Mills climbs Long's Peak alone in a gale with winds topping 170 mph., "carried away with the wild, elemental eloquence of the storm." Near the summit, the wind is so fierce he cannot make headway, so he concludes to "reverse ends...

“Here are boys, all sorts of boys: French, English, Italian, American… These are soldiers’ letters written home. But reading, one finds that he does not think of them as letters at all, but as boys… but the spirit of these letters cannot be defeated. The dead will rise again.” Each letter is introduced by a paragraph or two about the writer. - Summary by Author's Introduction and David Wales

Madame Germaine de Staël was the daughter of the Swiss banker and statesman, Jacques Necker. Her mother hosted a popular Paris salon where intellectuals gathered, many of whom contributed to the education of the brilliant girl. After his fall from political power in 1781, her still-wealthy father was able to marry Germaine to Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, but the couple separated in 1797. A successful novelist, Madame de Staël was a fervent defender of J.J. Rousseau and of the ideals of the French Revolution...

Louis Pasteur famously said, "In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind." Pasteur brought to the study of chemistry, microbiology, and applied immunology, a mind open, innovative, and insightful. Born of peasant stock in the French Jura, he worked with dogged determination all his life and often in the face of strenuous opposition. Through an unbroken succession of rigorously designed and meticulously performed experiments, Pasteur developed veterinary vaccines and halted grievous losses in the French wine, silk, and dairy industries...

Abraham Lincoln: A History is an 1890 ten-volume account of the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, written by John Nicolay and John Hay, who were his personal secretaries during the American Civil War. Volume 5 chronicles Lincoln's life from November 1861 through August 1862.

After the Civil War, Harriet and her husband Charles bought an Orange Plantation in Mandarin, on the upper east coast of Florida, where they lived during the winter months. Over the years they expanded their cottage to accommodate many guests . They opened schools to educate and churches to care for the recently freed negros pouring into Florida seeking refuge and opportunity. These charming essays, each describing a largely undeveloped rural land, became one of the first travel guides written about Florida and stimulated the first boom of tourism and residential development to that area...

Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre , , was the sister of Francis I, King of France. She was highly-educated and was courted by the future Henry VIII of England. However, at the age of seventeen, she was married by royal decree to the untutored dolt, Charles IV of Alençon. After his death she wed Henry II of Navarre by whom she had a daughter and a son, who died in infancy. The author takes us with Margaret on her perilous journey over the Pyrenees to Spain to attempt to free her brother, Francis, held captive by the Holy Roman Emperor...

Dumas's play talks of American Naval Hero John Paul Jones's romantic entanglements and affairs of honor ashore in France. He later converted it to a novel. - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: The Marquis D'Auray: Amy Gramour The Marchioness, his wife: Sonia Count Emanuel, their child: Tomas Peter Margaret, their child: Leanne Yau Baron De Lectoure: Nemo Paul Jones: ToddHW Louis Achard: Thomas A. Copeland Mr. De La Jarry: Roger Melin Mr. De Nozay: RecordingPerson Notary: Zames Curran Laffeuille, valet to the Marchioness: Son of the Exiles Jasmin, valet to Emanuel: Eva Davis Stage Directions: Sandra Schmit Edited by: ToddHW

This volume, published in 1919 by the American Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, opens with an introduction spelling out the important work done by African American women. It speaks both to the "invisible work" of as mothers and wives, and the work done outside the homes in all sorts of industries, as well as in medicine, education, and arts. In addition, it contains short biographies of five brave, inspiring women. - Summary by kathrinee

Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." -- Summary by TriciaG and from the book.

The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the later years of his life by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's condensed composition is especially notable for its exclusion of all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine. - Summary by Wikipedia

Emily Brontë is best known for her only novel, "Wuthering Heights." She was born in Yorkshire, northern England, where her father was an Anglican curate. When Brontë was three years old her mother died of cancer. At the age of six she joined her three sisters briefly at the Clergy Daughters' School, where privations and abuse contributed to the deaths of two of them. Her elder sister, Charlotte, immortalized this terrible place in "Jane Eyre." In 1846 Emily Brontë, under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, published a selection of her poetry...

The results of a survey undertaken by Galton to learn more about individual differences and similarities between the "pre-eminent" men of his time. Brief biographical information, biometric data and extensive quotations have been compiled and presented. Summary by niobium.

Abraham Lincoln: A History is an 1890 ten-volume account of the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, written by John Nicolay and John Hay, who were his personal secretaries during the American Civil War. Volume 6 chronicles Lincoln's life in early 1862.

Lady Jane Grey was an English noblewoman, great-granddaughter of Henry VII. As her cousin, Edward VI, lay on his death-bed, he nominated her as his successor to the English crown ahead of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Jane's reign lasted a mere nine days, before she was convicted of treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Often considered one of the most romantic characters of royal history, Taylor gives us a full biography of the Nine Day Queen. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick , wealthy and powerful peer of England, was one of the leaders of the Wars of the Roses . He joined Richard, Duke of York in opposing the ineffectual and often incapacitated Lancastrian king, Henry VI. Falling out with York's son, King Edward IV, he switched sides and joined forces with Henry's exiled queen, Margaret of Anjou, but was killed at the Battle of Barnet. In this short biography, the British military historian, Charles Oman brings to life a consummate medieval warrior, who was also a politician ahead of his time.. - Summary by Pamela Nagami

Phineas Pett was a Master Shipbuilder from one of England's greatest shipbuilding families of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and kept a journal of his experiences and thoughts at this important and turbulent time in the industry. Although some pages were damaged or lost, the diary was transcribed by Samuel Pepys and preserved in the British Library. It was edited and published in the form of an autobiography by William Gordon Perrin of The Council of the Navy Records Society in 1918. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elisabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before.Volume eight includes the biographies of Henrietta Maria and Catharine of Braganza.

These biographical essays of British subjects were written in 1907-1908 for The Daily News newspaper and reflect their subjects as seen before the great cataclysm of World War I. Gardiner was a British newspaper editor, journalist, and author. His essays were and are highly regarded. - Summary by David Wales

Written for the centenary of Jane Austen's death, W. H. Helm reflects poetically on the timelessness of her work: the must of age has not settled on her books. The lavender may lie between their pages, but it is still sweet. Helm briefly surveys Jane Austen's influences, literary contemporaries and themes. He is particularly interested in her ideas and characters, and his short book is fully of pithy quotes encapsulating "the best of Jane Austen". Summary by Beth Thomas

Memoirs of General George Brinton McClellan, commanding general of the Army of the Potomac during the early years of the American Civil War. The work covers the time that McClellan commanded the Army of the Potomac, including the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days' Battles, and the Battle of Antietam.

This little book by the British military historian, Charles Oman, begins with the accession of the warrior king, Edward III, to the English throne in 1327 and ends with the downfall of Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485. By carrying the story of the Hundred Years' War through the Wars of the Roses, Oman portrays this era of battle and plague within the larger context of the dynastic struggles and civil wars which destabilized England and left France vulnerable to invasion and conquest. Summary by Pamela Nagami.

This book gives an exciting account of Napoleon's rise to power. It opens with his humble beginning on the island of Corsica and ultimately emperor of over half of Europe. This book focuses on his victorious military campaigns, his disastrous Russian campaign, his exile to the island of Elba, his final loss at Waterloo, and his last days on the lonely island of St. Helena. Summary by pjcsaville.

In this 1916 work, Albert Payson Terhune introduces twelve immensely influential women, whose actions influenced world history. Terhune chooses well-known figures whose stories are as much myth as history, like Cleopatra and Helen of Troy, artists such as George Sand, and a number of ladies whose names are not so well-known today, because their work was not immediately visible to the uninitiated. All stories will be interested to the modern feminist, and each reader and listener should be able to find a personal heroine among these select twelve. - Summary by Carolin

Abraham Lincoln: A History is an 1890 ten-volume account of the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, written by John Nicolay and John Hay, who were his personal secretaries during the American Civil War. Volume 7 chronicles Lincoln's life from 1862, including the major battles in the American Civil War that year.

Sergeant Sullivan tells the story of his life as a Texas Ranger for 12 incredible years in the late 1800s.

This is Volume VIII of the National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs series. It is read as 33 sections using the memoir headings. John Wesley Powell was a leading figure in the geological explorations of the West and helped establish the federal U.S. Geological Survey in 1879. He also led the Bureau of Ethnology and advocated for better treatment and study of Native American tribes and culture. He wrote a definitive study of the arid western U.S., advocating for thoughtful irrigation and land management practices...

A biographical summary of the pre-eminent men of Britain grouped by profession. The extensive survey draws from information including college graduation, reputation during career, fellowships, and even known relatives. Includes discussions on findings and observations as well as referenced appendices. - Summary by Leon Harvey

The Meditations is divided into 12 books that chronicle different periods of Marcus' life. Each book is not in chronological order and it was written for no one but himself. The style of writing that permeates the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps reflecting Marcus' Stoic perspective on the text. Depending on the English translation, Marcus' style is not viewed as anything regal or belonging to royalty, but rather a man among other men which allows the reader to relate to his wisdom...