Dumas's 'Celebrated Crimes' was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language -- has minced no words -- to describe the violent scenes of a violent time.In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true perspective, and in others the author makes unwarranted charges. The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact.The first volume comprises the annals of the Borgias and the Cenci. The name of the noted and notorious Florentine family has become a synonym for intrigue and violence, and yet the Borgias have not been without stanch defenders in history...

Not a complete history of tea, but a pleasant diversion concerning tea, the pleasures found in its drinking, effects, benefits, cautions, etc. Sprinkled with poetry and excerpts from historical personages and the occasional sermon. - Summary by KevinS

In The Concept of Nature, Alfred North Whitehead discusses the interrelatedness of time, space, and human perception.The idea of objects as ‘occasions of experience’, arguments against body-mind duality and the search for an all-encompassing ‘philosophy of nature’ are examined, with specific reference to contemporary (Einstein, with whose theory of relativity he has some complaints) and ancient (Plato, Aristotle) approaches.

In 1907 Wallace wrote the short book Is Mars Habitable? to criticize the claims made by Percival Lowell that there were Martian canals built by intelligent beings. Wallace did months of research, consulted various experts, and produced his own scientific analysis of the Martian climate and atmospheric conditions. Among other things Wallace pointed out that spectroscopic analysis had shown no signs of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, that Lowell’s analysis of Mars’ climate was seriously flawed and badly overestimated the surface temperature, and that low atmospheric pressure would make liquid water, let alone a planet girding irrigation system, impossible.

The Chemical Constituents of Piper Methysticum or The Chemical Constituents of the Active Principle of The Ava Root is the text of a Master’s Degree thesis presented in June 1915 by Alice A. Ball. Ms. Ball was the first woman and African American to receive a Master’s Degree from the University of Hawaii. Her thesis includes some history of the use of the ava root in the South Pacific islands along with the isolation and analysis of the extracts of the kava root and some preliminary observations of its effects when administered to animals. - Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), a Scotsman by birth and a barrel-maker by trade, settled in Chicago in its infancy and founded the Pinkertons, the world's first detective agency. Though events associated with the agency after his death have tarnished the name, Pinkerton himself was one of the original human rights advocates. He was a dear friend to John Brown, an advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and 80 years ahead of his time in hiring female detectives. He was also stubborn, irascible, and an egomaniac...

This recording contains two original documents. 1) Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, by James Mars . James Mars was born in Connecticut in 1790 and spent the better part of his youth a slave working for various owners—once fleeing to the woods with his family to avoid being relocated to the South. At age twenty-five he became a free man and moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he became a leader in the local African American community. His memoir is one of the more famous accounts of slave life in early New England...

A Free Trader rocket ship heads for the remote planet, Sargol, which is blessed with immense natural wealth and precious gemstones. The ship is manned by the heroic Dane Thorson and his crew of intrepid space traders. On Sargol, they enter into complicated negotiations with the inhabitants of this strange planet. These feline people, the Salariki, are reluctant to enter into a business partnership with the free traders till they discover that the ship carries a small amount of catnip on board which they'd obtained from another trading post...