Elizabeth Stern was two and a half years old, when her family emigrated from Poland to Pittsburgh. My Mother and I is the story of Stern's Americanization and how it ultimately alienated her from her parents. Stern's father had been a small village rabbi. Strict and traditional in his views, he sends Elizabeth to learn Hebrew at age four, so she can fulfill her destiny "as the wife of a rabbi or scholar," but he opposes letting her attend high school. Stern's mother tries fitfully to pry open doors for her daughter...

"My Confession" is a brief autobiographical story of Leo Tolstoy's struggle with a mid-life existential crisis of melancholia. It describes his search for answers to the profound questions "What will come of my life?" and "What is the meaning of life?", without answers to which life, for him, had become "impossible." Tolstoy reflects on the arc of his philosophical life until then: his childhood abandonment of his Russian orthodox faith; his mastery of strength, will, power, and reason; and how, after he had achieved tremendous financial success and social status, life to him seemed meaningless...

Johnson's only novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, was originally published anonymously in 1912. It is a fictional novel written as a memoir of an unnamed biracial narrator who grew up in the South during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras. It is a story in which the narrator relates how as a young boy he initially assumed that he was white, and how his notions of racial identity were suddenly turned upside down one day—how from that moment on he was inclined to view himself and the world about him from the perspective of blackness. The novel received very little notoriety until Johnson republished it in 1927, this time taking full credit as its author.

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens, and a few words are necessary to explain why the characters in the stories act and speak as though they belonged to a later age. These stories are adapted from the Book of Romance by ANDREW LANG. It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and when the Britons, left to defend themselves against the attacks of the marauding Saxons, rose and defeated them at Mount Badon, securing to themselves peace for many years...

Per the author: "The book has one high ambition. It has tried to tell the sad story of the wilderness itself—to show, from the woodsman's view-point, the play of great forces which have been tearing down his home and turning it into the flesh and bone of cities." But this story is much more than that. It revolves around Silas Strong and his distaste for the modernization and destruction of his beloved forest surroundings, and how it pleases him to teach younger folk how to appreciate that which has been given us...

Samuel Pepys was the first Secretary to the Admiralty during the reign of Charles II, instrumental in developing the Royal Navy and witness to some of the most significant events of the Restoration period, including the Great Fire of London. His famous diary, which covers a period of some ten years, throws a frank and intimate light on a fascinating period, through the lens of a vigorous, intelligent and refreshingly candid and extrovert personality. This volume covers the third year of the diary.

A comic dialogue written in John Collier's idiosyncratic version of the 18th century South Lancashire dialect together with a collection of 19th century texts on Collier and his work. Egged on by Meary (Mary), Tummus (Thomas) recounts the series of misadventures that ensue when he makes a trip to Rochdale on an errand for his master. First published in 1746, the text grew over subsequent editions as Collier expanded the story, added a preface in which he berates publishers who had pirated his work, and inflated and amended his glossary...

"Narrative of my captivity among the Sioux Indians: with a brief account of General Sully's Indian expedition in 1864, bearing upon events occurring in my captivity" "I was a member of a small company of emigrants, who were attacked by an overwhelming force of hostile Sioux, which resulted in the death of a large proportion of the party, in my own capture, and a horrible captivity of five months' duration. Of my thrilling adventures and experience during this season of terror and privation, I propose...

"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...

Hazard Stevens and P.B. Van Trump, aided by the Indian guide Sluiskin, made the first documented successful ascent of Mt. Rainier on August 17, 1870. Hazard's account of the climb was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1876 and later reprinted with an introduction by Edmond S. Meany in 1916. Sluiskin tried to dissuade the climbers. "Takhoma” (the Indian name for Mt. Rainier) "was an enchanted mountain, inhabited by an evil spirit, who dwelt in a fiery lake on its summit. No human being could ascend it or even attempt its ascent and survive...

This memoir dating from 1812ff, but only published in 1840s is a strikingly profound contrast with our modern materialism and comfort. It is personal and at the same time very formal and reserved. As a foot soldier traipsing about the wild countryside of the Midwest, hardly after the Louisiana Purchase, against British/Canadian/Native mercenaries, the story is one of looking through the wrong end of a telescope, as one not understanding the forces/motivations at play with the writer's life and his...

This was written in the mid 1800’s at time when Australia saw an influx of immigration from Europe and when England was sending some prisoners to Australia rather than to prisons. Haygarth shows us what it is like, and what it takes, to live in the Australian Bush. He shows us about the different life on a cattle/sheep station, living miles from the nearest neighbor, getting to town just a few times a year and that it may be several hundred miles away. From his own experiences relates dealings with BushRangers (thieves), building and running a station, breaking wild horses, helping neighbors in times of need...

Liverpool in the second half of the 19th century was burgeoning with rich merchants and swollen with poor immigrants. It was known variously as the "New York of Europe" and the "Black Spot on the Mersey." Waist-deep in this mosaic we find William Bower Forwood making a busy life for himself, making his fortune in cotton trading (including running the American blockade of the Southern States) and then delving into public affairs. We see the civic leader, dedicated to the betterment of "the good old town and the trade thereof," and we see the statesman and tourist, dining with kings and wrestling with presidents...

Idomen (1843) is the creative-nonfiction memoir of the beautiful and brilliant American poetess Maria Gowen Brooks, who was compared in the 19th century to Byron and Swinburne. In it she tells the story of an ill-fated love affair she had twenty years earlier while traveling with her young son in Canada following the death of her much older husband. The traumatic breakup led to suicide attempts on her part, which romantic masochist Brooks byronically relates in full, albeit changing everybody's name...

John L. Ransom was the quartermaster of Company A, 9th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry during the American Civil War and a Union prisoner in the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. This is his diary which he published some few years after the end of the Civil War. Note that in pages 193 through 301 are included 1) List of the Dead and 2) Recapitulation of Deaths By States; both of these sections are omitted from this Librivox reading. The Andersonville National Historic Site, located near Andersonville, Georgia, preserves the former Camp Sumter (also known as Andersonville Prison), a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War…...

Flora Sandes was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in World War I. Initially a St. John Ambulance volunteer, she traveled to Serbia, where, in the confusion of war, she was formally enrolled in the Serbian army. While the Serbian Army was regrouping in Corfu, Ms. Sandes returned to England to recuperate and publish these memoirs.

In 1911, decades before California's coast Highway 1 was built, an Englishman rode 2000 miles on horseback the length of California, from Mexico to Oregon. On the way he is courteously received at isolated ranches, has many quiet adventures, and is generally amazed by the beauty of our coast. A classic early California travelog. Chase was born in Islington (London) and but lived most of this life in the California desert.Here are Chase's major landmarks, first going south and then turning north:Chap...

"But it is not for those who heard the call in the later months so much as in memory of those early heroes of Mons, who knew the bitterness of a valiant retreat, the horror of forced marches along parched roads, with only the prod of the next man's bayonet to keep him awake, and only a flap cut from the tail of his shirt between the pitiless sun and the dreaded delirium that would leave him a prey to the Huns' barbarities; in memory of these it is that I take up the pen to run the gauntlet of a thousand critical eyes on a way fraught with difficulties." ~ Kate John Finzi

Theodore Roosevelt's personal account of The Rough Riders, the name affectionately bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one to see action. Roosevelt, serving first as Lt. Colonel and 2nd in command, gives a rousing depiction of the men and horses, equipment, talent, their trip to Cuba, battle strategies, losses, injuries and victories. He says: "In all the world there could be no better material for soldiers than that afforded by these grim hunters of the mountains, these wild rough riders of the plains ...

The Boy has fallen ill with scarlet fever while at school in France. His parents rush to his side. A touching memoir.

Isaac Mason was born into slavery. As a young man, he escaped to freedom and made a life for himself. An intelligent man, he gave lectures on his experiences and was later encouraged to publish them in book form.

Hero or assassin? Victim or criminal? Marie Sukloff fits no easy category. A young peasant woman who became a political radical and activist, Sukloff carried out an assassination plot against a Russian governor known for murderous pogroms and rampages against the Jews of his province. This mesmerizing autobiographical account tells the story of Sukloff's peasant childhood, radicalization, direct action, exile to Siberia, and escape. She tells her story with a colorful verve, sincerity, intensity, and simplicity that makes it almost impossible to put down, raising questions of political philosophy and responsibility that challenge the complacency of every reader.

A biography of Jesse James as told by his son, Jesse James, Jr. We are treated to inside tales of Jesse's childhood and home life; what drove him to become a Confederate guerrilla during the Civil War; his life after the war and how he became a wanted man. Since it was written by his son, it is a little biased and we are not told anything about any crimes Jesse and his gang committed. Some of the stories of Jesse's war adventures are a little hard to believe, but a good read nonetheless.

This is a brief sketch of the last years of the life of Johannes (John) Gutenberg, the man who invented the movable letter press. We join him in Mayence, where he lives in poverty. We get to know his enemies and his friends, and some information about why he isn't the rich man we'd expect him to be. This book was prepared and completed within two days by the volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders to mark their 15th anniversary with the 50,000th published book at Project Gutenberg. ( Claudia Salto)

Between February and October 1919, Nikola Tesla submitted many articles to the magazine Electrical Experimenter. The most famous of these works is a six part series titled "My Inventions", which is an autobiographical account of Nikola Tesla's life and his most celebrated discoveries. This work has been compiled and republished as a stand-alone book several times under different names, but has been a cause of some controversy due to some versions deviating from the original text without explanation...

The publishers believe that a picture of a life sketched by a master hand-somebody who stands in the world of crime as Edison does in his field or Morgan and Rockefeller do in theirs-could not fail to be impressive and valuable and prove the oft repeated statement that crime does not pay. Such a person is Sophie Lyons, the most remarkable and the greatest criminal of modern times. This extraordinary woman is herself a striking evidence that crime does not pay and that the same energy and brains exerted in honest endeavor win enduring wealth and respectability.

Marie Stopes was a highly controversial scientist and activist in her era, campaigning for radical new views of love-based marriage, birth control, and women’s rights. As a scientist, she was a renowned palaeobotanist, specializing in issues concerning coal; these scientific pursuits led her to spend several years in Japan, where she went into some of the country's remotest coal mines to study fossils. While there, she pursued a notorious relationship with Japanese botanist Fujii Kenjiro as well as several romantic dalliances with European women in the lively Tokyo diplomatic community...

Sometime in the latter half of 1911, Harry A. Franck jumped out of a box-car and crossed the Rio Grande, from Laredo. Thus began a journey, often afoot, that Harry estimated would take him 8 months. It ended up occupying four years of his life. The first leg of his Latin American epic is recorded in "Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras; Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond" . He then headed south to the Canal Zone, Teddy Roosevelt's grand experiment in socialism, and applied within the Zone police force for a position as a census taker ...

A Voice from Harper's Ferry is the abolitionist testament of Osborne Perry Anderson, the only surviving black participant in the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry organized by John Brown. The book details the motivations and preparations for the raid, the events that unfolded over several days in October 1859, and Anderson's subsequent escape. It ends with a short selection of poems from various sources honoring Brown and the movement for abolition.

Silent film star, Mae Marsh, recounts her life as an actress in this publication, what she deems as being the answer to thousands of letters written to her over the years inquiring about what it takes to be a screen actor. As she states in the introduction, "So much ambition, so many questions!" - Summary by Amanda Friday

This second volume of the biography of Lord Cochrane deals with his fall from grace, imprisonment for debt, loss of honours, and attempts to clear his name. It has had a marked influence on naval fiction, most obviously on some of the novels by Patrick O'Brian. - Summary by Timothy Ferguson

Ibn Battuta , was a Moroccan explorer. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, West Africa, the Horn of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Battuta is generally considered one of the greatest travellers of all time. This is a journal/record of his travels, omitting the translator's note and preface. NOTE: The material contains racial terms and ideas that are objectionable today. The final section speaks of cannibalism with the natives as the victims, for example.

Fully titled My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum, by a Sane Patient, this memoir describes its author's, Herman Merivale's, experience in one of England's countryside asylums during the 1860's. The main subject - in this case, the author - is less than justly sentenced to a facility for the mentally disturbed. Literally crazy caricatures abound, prisoner and jailer alike. Lofty psychology experts float in and out of Merivale's stay, some more respectable than others, but mostly clueless to patients' real needs...

This is a collection of broadsides from London. Broadsides are short, popular publications, a precursor to today's tabloid journalism. The collection contains sensationalist and sometimes comical stories about criminal conduct, love, the Royal Family, politics, as well as gallows' literature. Gallow's literature were often sold at the execution. As a collection these broadsides are a reminder of how important the printer was at this time -- it is surely no coincidence that the printers are printed at the end of every broadside, while the authors remain anonymous. - Summary by kathrinee

The sequel to "Chicot the Jester" and final book of the "Valois Romances." This story begins six years after the famed "Duel of the Mignons" between the favorites of the courts of King Henry III and Henry the Duke of Guise . Dumas concludes his historical fiction on the War of the Three Henries while detailing the formation of the Forty-Five Guardsmen , following Chicot the Jester as he stays loyal to the failing regency of King Henry III, and continuing the story of Diana . - Summary by jvanstan

An review essay of "Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay". The Edinburgh Review, January, 1843. Reprinted in vol. iii of Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays. "Hundreds of remarkable persons had passed in review before her....The account which she has given of the King's [George III] illness contains much excellent narrative and description, and will, we think, be as much valued by the historians of a future age as any equal portion of Pepys's or Evelyn's Diaries..." Her novels were "the precursors" of those of Jane Austen. - Summary by barbara2

George Cary Eggleston's Civil War memoir begins with a separate essay on the living conditions and political opinions of Virginia’s citizenry before secession. The body of the work contains vivid descriptions and accounts of the men and women of the South during the time of the Confederacy. Eggleston praises its war heroes, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jeb Stuart, but is highly critical of Jefferson Davis and of his government’s inefficiencies, red-tape, and favoritism. The book concludes with the war's end and a tribute to the character of the newly freed slaves...

It is asserted that the inspiration for Elizabeth Gaskell's marvellous stories of Cranford was her childhood home of Knutsford, a small town in Cheshire and to where she returned for a while as a young woman. This assertion is born out by an essay she wrote in 1849 entitled The Last Generation in England, in which she writes about "The town in which I once resided ...". There can be little doubt when reading this that it provided her with the template for Cranford.In 1851 the year she began to write Cranford, she also wrote a novella entitled Mr...

First to the South-seas, Thence to the East-Indies, and Homewards by the Cape of Good Hope. Begun in 1708, and Finish'd in 1711. Containing a Journal of All the Remarkable Transactions; Particularly, of the Taking of Puna and Guiaquil, of the Acapulco Ship, and Other Prizes; an Account of Alexander Selkirk's Living Alone Four Years and Four Months in an Island; and a Brief Description of Several Countries in Our Course Noted for Trade, Especially in the South-sea. With Maps of All the Coast, from the Best Spanish Manuscript Draughts...

Hard Tack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life is a memoir by John D. Billings, a veteran of the 10th Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery Battery in the American Civil War. Hard Tack and Coffee is not about battles, but rather about how the common Union soldiers of the Civil War lived in camp and on the march. It covers the details of regular soldier life, including enlisting, how soldiers were sheltered, Army rations, offenses and punishments, a day in camp, boxes from home, foraging , the army mule, hospitals and ambulances, clothing, breaking camp and marching, and other similar topics...

This book continues Sentimental Tommy, also in the catalogue. Tommy grows up and marries Grizel. But life is not only roses and rainbows. This book has all the elements of a good love story, but it is also a book about growing up and finding out your distinct voice in the world. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

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

Volume 2 of Aubrey's sparkling gossipy biographical pieces on his contemporaries, including Bacon, Jonson and Shakespeare, Brief Lives' glimpses into the unofficial side of these towering figures has won it an undying popularity, with Ruth Scurr's recent reimagined "autobiography" of Aubrey, breathing new life into this classic for the next generation of readers - Summary by Nicole Lee

This book is often described as an instruction manual on the subject of rat-catching. It does indeed contain a good deal about rats, ferrets and dogs, but it is much more than that. Barkley fills the book with humour, sharp observation, and his sheer joy of living in the countryside. The framework of the book is indeed a course by fictional rat-catcher Bob Joy, who suggests that rat-catching might be a suitable alternative career for boys at Eton, Harrow and the other major English public schools...

For many people, the name Caroline Herschel will be unfamiliar, but she was one of the most significant women on the English scientific scene during the late 18th and early 19th century. Sister of the well known William Herschel , she first worked as his assistant in his astronomical works, and then went on to become a noted astronomer in her own right. She discovered eight new comets in her lifetime, and was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science, and was awarded a Gold Medal...

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230. The name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts . Heimskringla is a collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177...

Samuel Rogers was a renowned conversationalist who associated with the most distinguished persons of his time. This volume contains fascinating source material for the social and literary history of Great Britain over the span of his long life. - Summary by barbara2

This is quite the adventure tale and travelog. We see cities, peoples, plants and wildlife of Columbia and the ports our intrepid 'hunter' visits on the way there and back. It is an interesting period; a canal is being cut through Columbia to the city of Panama by the French . The characterisation is appropriate to the time - Europeans and the South American elite are seen as admirable, especially in comparison to the natives and blacks. Indeed, the deaths of several of Millican's native support staff along the way seem to be of minor concern...

A lively picture of the origin and completion of the Suez Canal and his architect, Vicomte de Lesseps. This is the translation of a lecture given before the Societe de Gens Lettres in Paris, in April 1870 by de Lesseps himself.

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

This is the first volume of Chateaubriand's Memoires d'Outre Tombe, in a Victorian translation. It covers the period from his birth, including the extraordinarily evocative childhood years and his travels in America, the source of some of his later writing, up to his return to France in 1800. Writer, politician and the father of French Romanticism, Chateaubriand lived close to the heart of the France's travails in the nineteenth century and engaged with them passionately. His frankness, fluency and the tumultuous times in which he lived make his Memoirs one of the enduring monuments of the art of autobiography. - Summary by Nicole Lee

Within these pages find passages from the "lost diaries" of a wide range of people: royal, regular, famous, infamous, historical, and fictional. - Summary by A. Gramour

An aristocratic Frenchwoman's personal record of the dazzling extravagance of the Ancien Régime, of the court of Marie Antoinette, of the Revolution, of her life in exile and of the court of Napoleon Bonaparte. This famous historically valuable memoir, written for her son, ends with Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815.

John Jewitt , a blacksmith by trade, spent the years 1803-1806 as a slave among the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, off the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, after the trading vessel on which he served as armorer was attacked and its crew murdered by the native tribal chief Maquinna. Maquinna spared Jewitt's life on condition that the Jewitt would be his slave, would repair his muskets and make daggers, knives, and fishing gear for him. Jewitt's memoir is a considered a major source of information about the customs of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. - Summary by Sue Anderson

“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...

"Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" is a memoir by Clarence King of his adventures and work with the California Geological Survey. King later led a major survey along the 40th Parallel in the American West and then was appointed the first director of the new U.S. Geological Survey.King's 1872 "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" exhibits a modern sense of timing and insight, and his accounts of hand-and-foot rock climbing seem as fresh as last week's blog post. He was part of the Victorian wave...

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

This work details personal memories of Mary Emily Donelson Wilcox, adopted granddaughter of Rachel Donelson Jackson, wife of President Andrew Jackson, and assumed to be the first baby born in the White House. The book focuses on three Christmas memories--the first of a Christmas in the White House during the 1830's and Jackson's Presidency; the second, a Christmas in Prussia at the home of the Crown Prince, to which she was invited because her father was US minister to Berlin; the last story, a Christmas in Texas in the 1830s...

The Hundred Years' War: a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, over the succession to the French throne. It was a time of intrigue, plot, murder and romance. Agnes Sorel, aged 20, became the favorite mistress of the King of France, wielding much influence over him and earning many enemies. Her untimely death at the age of 28, just days after bearing him a fourth child, was blamed on dysentery...

Peter Randolph was born a slave in 1825 , was freed before the American Civil War, and became a clergyman in the Baptist tradition, dying in 1897. This is his 1893 autobiography. The latter third of the book is a slightly edited re-publication of a pamphlet he published in 1855 entitled “Sketches Of Slave Life." This recording omits chapter fourteen of "From Slave Cabin To Pulpit" because it is only a several-pages-long list of friends of the author with no narrative.