By David L. Phillips
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Siddhartha: Life of the Buddha is an illustrated story for adults and children about the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and work for social justice. It includes illustrations from Pagan, Burma which are provided by Rev. Sitagu Sayadaw. The story is inspirational about the perfection of wisdom, translating spiritual practice into action aimed at healing the world.
by Frank R. Stockton
A dryad is a being in Greek mythology that is a nature spirit that often takes on a younger, feminine appearance. This story, The Lost Dryad, by Frank R. Stockton, tells the story of a dryad that has lost her way due to a serious storm.
Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902) was primarily known as a writer of juvenile fiction. Although he always was drawn to writing, his father, a Methodist minister, discouraged Stockton. He worked as a wood engraver, but after his father’s passing he more strongly focused on his writing. Instead of focusing on moralistic stories, Stockton used humor to point out injustices and general failures of society. Some of Stockton’s writings include The Lady or the Tiger? and Other Stories (1884), The Great War Syndicate (1889), and The Captain’s Toll-Gate (1903).
This edition is dedicated to Ginger Clarkson, gifted teacher and sometimes sage, tactful dispenser of ancient wisdom.
by Horatio Alger, introduction by Dr. Wallace Boston
The young Horatio Alger heroes often sold newspapers or delivered telegrams, a reminder of how technology has moved on. Alger’s tales created youthful heroes whose persistence and pluck triumphed over enormous odds, often having to educate themselves by a flickering candle and late at night. But they hoped for better things and in the Alger novels their diligence and hard work won the day and they ended up getting the educations they deserved and the success that their exemplary morality earned. The reader will find this prototypical Alger story both a good read and food for thought in an era when the technology has indeed moved on but the challenges have remained.
The introduction is provided by Dr. Wallace Boston, President of the American Public University System and a Horatio Alger enthusiast.
by Horatio Alger, introduction by Dr. Wallace Boston
The young Horatio Alger heroes often sold newspapers or delivered telegrams, a reminder of how technology has moved on. Alger’s tales created youthful heroes whose persistence and pluck triumphed over enormous odds, often having to educate themselves by a flickering candle and late at night. But they hoped for better things and in the Alger novels their diligence and hard work won the day and they ended up getting the educations they deserved and the success that their exemplary morality earned. The reader will find this prototypical Alger story both a good read and food for thought in an era when the technology has indeed moved on but the challenges have remained.
The introduction is provided by Dr. Wallace Boston, President of the American Public University System and a Horatio Alger enthusiast.
by
Francis Richard Stockton was born April 5, 1834, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. He was an esteemed writer, using the name, also called Frank Richard Stockton, until he died on April 20, 1902 in Washington, D.C. Born on April 5, 1834 into a Methodist family in Philadelphia, Stockton was deeply interested in writing. However, his father, a Methodist minister, essentially forbade Stockton from writing. It wasn’t until his father’s death when Stockton moved to make writing his career. Stockton had dabbled in writing while living in New Jersey with his wife, Mary Ann Edwards Tuttle, while also working as a wood engraver. In 1867, Stockton returned to Philadelphia and began writing for his brother’s newspaper.Stockton focused on writing for children. He was a very popular author, in part because he used humor to illustrate how to be a good person and to highlight negative characteristics, like greed. Some of his most famous works include “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, The Adventures of Captain Horn, and The Great War Syndicate.
by James Otis
The Navy Boys was a popular series which offered children adventure stories, often with a historical background. Author James Otis, was actually James Otis Kaler. He was born on March 19, 1848 in Winterport, Maine. He worked as a journalist, including covering the Civil War. He worked a variety of positions, including marketing for circuses. Ultimately, he became a well respected and prolific children’s author. It is believed he wrote over two hundred books, either under James Otis, or Walter Morris, Lt. James K. Orton, Harry Prentice, and Amy Prentice. His wife, Amy L. Scamman, wrote some of the works. In 1898, he moved back to Maine and served as a school superintendent. He died on December 11, 1912.
by H. Irving Hancock
Harrie Irving Hancock was born on January 16, 1868 in Massachusetts, passing away on March 12, 1922. Although he was a chemist, he is recognized more for his writing. He was a journalist for several years, working for the Boston Globe, and served as a war correspondent during the Spanish-American War. He specialized in juvenile writing, although he also wrote a bit about sports, and even a series of books about physical fitness. Typically, his stories featured adventures with male hero figures, sometimes set in the past, or often in military combat. He typically wrote under his name, though occasionally used a pseudonym. He is credited with writing dozens of books, along with numerous articles for newspapers and magazines.
Hancock was enamored with Japanese fighting styles, such as Jiu-Jitsu, and not only wrote about it, he practiced the sport. Unfortunately, he was also guilty of using racial stereotypes in his works, particularly against Germans and Chinese characters, as the subtitle of his work illustrates.
by Thomas Clark Hinkle
Thomas Clark Hinkle wrote many children’s books, such as Snowy Tail, A Champion Jack Rabbit, Doctor Rabbit and Brushtail Fox, and Doctor Rabbit and Grumpy Bear. In other works, he wrote How to Eat: A Cure for Nerves.
by Claude A. Labelle
In 1922, the A. L. Burt Company developed The Ranger Boy Series, which was aimed at boys between 12 and 16 years old. The Ranger Boys are three friends. Garfield Boone is consider the leader. He comes from wealth, as his father is involved in the lumber industry. Dick Wallace, another member of the trio, was raised by Boone’s father after his father left and his mother died. The trio is rounded out by Phil Durant, who is of French descent and fluent in French. The trio is part of the Maine Ranger service, and the book series details some of the issues that Rangers face, such as smuggling and rescue operations.
by Alfred Noyes
This cleverly illustrated volume by Alfred Noyes offers a literary selection of poetry that reference fairies in all their shapes and forms. Along with works by Noyes, The Magic Casement also features selections by William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling and G. K. Chesterton. Noyes allows the reader to traverse new, fantastic worlds filled with water lilies, humor, love and magic.
Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) was a prolific writer who was able to move successfully across several genres. Though he began in poetry, he also wrote screenplays, science fiction novels, ballads and short stories. He did a great deal of traveling and lecturing, spending time in his birth country of England as well as the United States, Canada, various points in South America, and eventually returning to the Isle of Wight where he spent his final years. He wrote numerous works, including The Loom of Y ears (1902), a biography, William Morris (1908), Some Aspects of Modern Poetry (1924), The Last Man (1940) and his autobiography, Two Worlds for Memory (1953).
This edition has large margins to allow for reader notations.
by Annie Fellows Johnston
Annie Fellows Johnston, born in 1863, grew up in McCutchanville, Indiana as Annie Julia Fellows. Her father, a Methodist minister, died when she was two. Her mother was a strong advocate of Annie’s education, and encouraged her to pursue her writing. Fellows attended the University of Iowa, returned home to teach for a few years, and then traveled domestically and across Europe. When she came back, she married her widowed cousin, William L. Johnston. He was also very supportive of her writing, and she used her career to support the three young children he left behind after he died in 1892. She traveled in the southwestern US, after his death, before settling down in Kentucky.
Much of Johnston’s travels are reflected in her writings. She was a popular author of children’s books, perhaps most notably, The Little Colonel series. In 1935, a Shirley Temple film, The Little Colonel, was derived from Johnston’s work.
by Edith Van Dyne
This work, although credited to Edith Van Dyne, was actually written by L. Frank Baum. Although his Wizard of Oz series is most well known, his ten book series of Aunt Jane’s Nieces was his second most popular series. In this book, two American girls go abroad to assist with medical efforts during World War I. Baum wanted to highlight the perils, and horrors, of war, in hopes for everlasting world peace.
Two versions of this book were released. The first was released in 1915 with a more neutral tone, but the second in 1918, during the midst of US involvement in WWI, was influenced by Baum having two of his sons fighting in the war. The second version was strongly for the Allies, and positioned the conflict as a moral one. The trajectory of the characters changes as well, and the story has a more positive ending.
This is a reprint of the original, with a few very minor imperfections in the text.
by Gertrude W. Morrison
The Girls of Central High was a seven book series published between 1914-19, of which this is considered a highlight. Gertrude W. Morrison did not exist. Rather, it was one of many pseudonyms used by The Stratemeyer Syndicate, the first book packager for children. Edward L. Stratemeyer was the publisher and author of over 1,300 of the children’s works. Many freelancers wrote for Edward L. Stratemeyer, including Mildred Benson, who wrote the popular Nancy Drew series.
The author of the Girls of Central High series was W. Bert Foster, whose full name was Walter Bertram Foster (1869-1929). He wrote several books for the Stratemeyer Syndicate including for the Clint Webb, Ralph of the Railroad, Campfire Girls and Radio Girls series. He also wrote for several magazines including: The Argosy, Western Story Magazine, Tiptop Semi-Monthly, The All-Story Magazine, The Popular Magazine and others. His other works include: The Lost Galleon of Dubloon Island (1901), With Washington at Valley Forge (1902), With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga (1903), In Alaskan Waters (1903), The Eve of War (1904), The Lost Expedition (1905), The Quest of the Silver Swan (1907), The Ocean Express; or, Clint Webb and the Sea Tramp (1913), The Frozen Ship; or, Clint Webb Among the Sealers (1913), Swept Out to Sea; or, Clint Webb Among the Whalers (1913), From Sea to Sea; or, Clint Webb’s Cruise on the Windjammer (1914), The Last Door (1921), Galloping Thunder (1927), Harwick of Hambone (1927), From Six to Six (1927) and Cactus Trails (1927).
by Robert Alexander Wason
Robert Alexander Wason was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1874. He attended high school, later marrying his wife, Emma Louie Brownell, in May 1911. Wason wrote numerous books, particularly for children, including The Wolves (1908) and The Happy Hawkins (1909). He was also known for working on vaudeville sketches, and a comedic opera. In addition to writing, he worked as a clerk in a general store for eight years. He also served a miner, in offices, and a farmer. He spent a lot of time exploring the west, and also served in the Army during the Spanish-American War. His wide variety of experiences were incorporated in his writings. He passed away in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey in 1955.
by Florence Montgomery
In 1843, Florence Montgomery was born into very comfortable surroundings in Chelsea, London. Her family was of wealth, status and novelists. Montgomery’s own desire to write was encouraged. Her speciality was writing books about children, both for and about. Montgomery was unique in that she stressed the power and goodness of children, not just to her audience of children, but adults as well. Her most popular work was Misunderstood, published in 1869. It was considered an influence to Lewis Carroll and Vladimir Nabokov. She also wrote a great deal of children’s stories, including A Very Simple Story (1866), her first. Montgomery died at the age of 80, from breast cancer. She lived her whole life in her family’s estate, along with her sisters.
by Professor Hoffman
Magic is, by nature, a rather secretive field. One of the first people to write in detail about various tricks, methods and devices used to perform magic was Professor Hoffmann. His articles were considered pioneering in the field, particularly among English speakers. He became known as an expert, although he had not much personal practice as a magician. Instead, he studied magic, both tricks and theory. This particular work is taken from parts of Modern Magic, which was a collection of articles he wrote on various aspects of magic that was collected and published in 1876. Professor Hoffmann’s real name was Angelo Lewis. He was born in London on July 23, 1839, and died in December of 1919. In addition to writing about magic, he also wrote stories for children, including the book Conjurer Dick, published in 1886.
by H. Mabel Hutchings
This collection of old recipes was aimed at those cooking for one, either for the self, or while caring for the infirm. The recipes are very quick to execute, often uncomplicated, and do not involve many ingredients. They shed light on the now forgotten tastes of times past. Recipes include numerous gruels, salads, sauces, custards, fruit soups, egg based dishes, sandwiches, and drinks. Some are straightforward accounts of well-known dishes, while others are unusual, including maple sandwiches, pineapple nutcream, and cherry soup.
by Caroline H. Dall
Caroline Healy Dall (1822-1912) was a Transcendentalist who fought tirelessly for women’s rights. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and benefited from her family’s encouragement and funding of her continued education. In 1844, she married a Unitarian minister, Charles Dall. The pair moved to Toronto, but then back to Boston so that Caroline could raise their children while Charles went to Calcutta, India for missionary activities. While Caroline was in Boston, she became very active in the local Women’s Rights movement, and organized the New England Women’s Rights Convention. She worked closely with fellow suffragist Paulina Davis, and on developing a complimentary journal, Una. While she wrote a great deal on a whole variety of topics, she emphasized women’s rights, and transcendentalism.
This particular work is semi-autobiographical, as Dall tells of her experiences growing up during the period of slavery in the United States. Through her stories, some of the horrors of slavery and deeply ingrained racism are revealed.
This new edition is dedicated to the women of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington.
by W. T. Larned, Illustrated by John Rae
This imaginative work is an adaption of stories collected by Henry R. Schoolcraft, an ethnologist, while he was researching in the Lake Superior region. He took liberties with the texts, so the original tribal credit and wording is lost. The result offers stories told through the narrator, Iagoo, who recalls stories from his grandfather. The book is beautifully illustrated and reflects popular design styles from the 1920s.
This edition is dedicated to Craig Wratten, in his way another recorder of the beautiful tapestries of the past.
by Henry B. Mason
Notable for his curiously upturned eyebrows, Uncle Henry offers his many nieces, nephews and other interested children beguiling stories of far-away lands, talking animals and other magical tales. Uncle Henry was a real and adopted uncle to many children, and wrote for all of them and as a bit of an escape fro
m his own life as a lawyer. It was more fun to write of legends than legal briefs. This illustrated collection of his stories is excellent for any child, big or small, looking to drift off¬ to a new world and improve their vocabulary. When Letters from Uncle Henry first appeared in 1926, reviewers found the book to be more understandable for youngsters than some of the far-fetched tales then in circulation, and more likely to win bedtime hearings. This edition is dedicated to Judy Rich Lauder, for use as a grandmother!
by William Elliot Griffis
William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928) served in the Union Army during the Civil War, then graduated from Rutgers University in 1869. He was a tutor for Taro Kusakabe, which opened up a world of opportunity for him in Japan. In 1870, he was invited to reorganize Japanese schools by Matsu
daira Yoshinaga. Between 1870-74, Griffis taught science, wrote English language primers, and was an intermediary between the United States and Japan. He returned to the United States to complete his studies at the Union Theological Seminary in 1877, eventually earning a Doctor of Divinity in 1884. While he was active in the parish ministry, in 1903, he decided to resign so that he could focus on writing. He wrote not only on Japan, but also on Europe, particularly the Netherlands. His books included titles on Asiatic History; China, Korea and Japan — and collections of fairy tales, such as Swiss Fairy Tales, Belgian Fairy Tales, Korean Fairy Tales, and of course, the much enjoyed The Fire-Fly’s Lovers and Other Fairy Tales of Old Japan. This edition is dedicated to Francisco Alacantra, a later day emissary of the New World to the land of the rising sun.
by Vance Barnum
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Joe Strong was a favorite hero and could ride any horse, juggle most anything, and climb buildings, all with a steel reserve. He was the child of unique parents: a mother that rode trick horses and a magician for his father. However, in Horatio Alger fashion, by age five, 
he was without either parent. So he grew up in a circus and Joe Strong, the Boy Wizard relates a time in his life as he dabbles in magic! This new edition is dedicated to Brent Morris, a real magician as well as real author.
Vance Barnum was one of the pseudonyms of Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930), who created an empire by employing a legion of ghost writers to produce more than 1300 adventure books. Ghost authors sometimes took names that played on the famous, such as “D.T. Henty” (George Alfred Henty); “P.T. Barnum Jr.”, “Richard Barnum”, “Vance Barnum” (P.T. Barnum); and “Theodore Edison” (Thomas A. Edison). He helped to develop several popular series, including Rover Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, Baseball Joe, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Joe Strong.
by L. Frank Baum
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When Kiki Aru discovers the magic word “PYRZQXGL” can transform him into anything he chooses (if you pronounce it correctly), he turns himself into a hawk and sets out for adventure. Former Nome King Ruggedo, an old enemy of Oz and Princess Ozma, joins him on his quest. Elsewhere, Dorothy, the Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger are searching the forest for the perfect birthday present for Ozma. Farther away, Trot, Cap’n Bill, and the Glass Cat visit a magic island, also in search of a gift for Ozma. The three groups come across each other in various misadventures from Munchkin Country to the Land of Ev to the Forest of Gugu. Heroes and villains alike are transformed into foxes, lambs, rabbits, geese, munchkins, magpies, hawks, honeybees, walnuts, hickory nuts, and even Li-Mon-Eags! Will they all return to their true forms? Will Ozma get her perfect birthday present? How do you pronounce “PYRZQXGL?” What is a Li-Mon-Eag? All the answers lie within…
The Magic of Oz: A Faithful Record of the Remarkable Adventures of Dorothy and Trot and the Wizard of Oz, Together with the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger and Cap’n Bill, in Their Successful Search for a Magical and Beautiful Birthday Present for Princess Ozma of Oz is the thirteenth and penultimate book in the original Land of Oz series and was published one month after Frank L. Baum’s death. Like most of the Oz books, it features illustrations by John R. Neill, which have been reproduced in this edition.
by Edward Stratemeyer, Illustrated by A. B. Shute
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A Young Volunteer in Cuba is a work of historical fiction for young readers written by Edward Stratemeyer. This work, along with his Fighting in Cuban Waters, depicted the Spanish-Ame
rican War.
Stratemeyer used a variety of pseudonyms because he found that the titles sold better when thought to be written by several authors. A prolific writer, he collaborated in writing over 1,300 books that sold more than 500 million copies. They included incredibly popular juvenile fiction series such as The Bobsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. To create so many titles, he developed the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging technique utilizing several long-running series featuring the same characters in a formulaic structure. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the first book packager to focus on children’s literature.
This new edition is dedicated to Judy Lauder.
by G. A. Henty
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George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was born at Trumpington near Cambridge and attended Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge University. He became a war correspondent and co
vered the Austro-Italian War, the 1868 British invasion of Ethiopia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti Wars, the Turco-Serbian War and rebellions in Spain. When he turned to writing fiction, his young protagonists became known as “Henty heroes” because they exemplified the cool, calm, intelligent qualities that he identified with the public school—in the British sense of private boarding school—lads who served the Empire. He authored more than 122 novels.
Henty has been accused of jingoism and racism, but defenders can find examples that contradict that image. For example, in With Clive in India, a sympathetically described Indian servant marries a white woman, and in Freedom’s Cause the hero bitterly attacks the English and the English monarchy. Yet those are exceptions. Quite simply, as a man of his times, in ideology he was an imperialist who believed in the values of the British Empire. Importantly, he was also a great storyteller, which is why his books have survived. The Henty Society in England holds meetings at places central to his life and maintains a lively web site at hentysociety.org
by Arthur M. Winfield
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Arthur M. Winfield was the pseudonym of Edward L. Stratemeyer, who was an incredibly prolific writer. He collaborated in writing over 1,300 books, selling more than 500 million copies. He was behind several incredibly popular juvenile fiction series such as The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series. To create so many titles, he developed the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a 
book-packaging technique. Utilizing a series of freelance writers, editors, proofreaders, and others, all working on long-running series using the same characters in a formulaic structure, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was able to produce millions of books. What helped the Stratemeyer Syndicate stand out was that it was the first book packager to focus on children’s literature.
The Schooldays of Fred Harley is part of the 1897 Bright and Bold Series, written by Edward Stratemeyer under the pseudonym of Arthur M. Winfield. Stratemeyer used a variety of pseudonyms because he found that the titles sold better when believed to be written by a variety of people. Works like The Schooldays of Fred Harley are representative of popular children’s literature during the first quarter of the 20th century because the works of the Stratemeyer Syndicate were overwhelmingly read.
by G. A. Henty
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George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was born at Trumpington near Cambridge and attended Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge University. He became a war correspondent and covered the Austro-Italian War, the 1868 British invasion of Ethiopia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti Wars, the Turco-Serbian War and rebellions in Spain. When he turned to writing fiction, his young protagonists became known as “Henty heroes” because they exemplified the cool, calm, intelligent 
qualities that he identified with the public school—in the British sense of private boarding school—lads who served the Empire. He authored more than 122 novels.
Henty has been accused of jingoism and racism, but defenders can find examples that contradict that image. For example, in With Clive in India, a sympathetically described Indian servant marries a white woman, and in Freedom’s Cause the hero bitterly attacks the English and the English monarchy. Yet those are exceptions. Quite simply, as a man of his times, in ideology he was an imperialist who believed in the values of the British Empire. Importantly, he was also a great storyteller, which is why his books have survived. The Henty Society in England holds meetings at places central to his life and maintains a lively web site at hentysociety.org
by G. A. Henty
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George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was born at Trumpington near Cambridge and attended Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge University. He became a war correspondent and covered the Austro-Italian War, the 1868 British invasion of Ethiopia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti Wars, the Turco-Serbian War and rebellions in Spain. When he turned to writing fiction, his young 
protagonists became known as “Henty heroes” because they exemplified the cool, calm, intelligent qualities that he identified with the public school-in the British sense of private boarding school-lads who served the Empire. He authored more than 122 novels.
Henty has been accused of jingoism and racism, but defenders can find examples that contradict that image. For example, in With Clive in India, a sympathetically described Indian servant marries a white woman, and in Freedom’s Cause the hero bitterly attacks the English and the English monarchy. Yet those are exceptions. Quite simply, as a man of his times, in ideology he was an imperialist who believed in the values of the British Empire. Importantly, he was also a great storyteller, which is why his books have survived. The Henty Society in England holds meetings at places central to his life and maintains a lively web site at hentysociety.org
By F. S. Brereton, Illustrated by Cyrus Cuneo
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Frederick Sadleir Brereton (1852-1957) was a prolific author of children’s books, writing over forty tales of heroism. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. Brereton wrote a variety of stories, such as With Rifle and Bayonet: A Story of the Boer War (1900) and Under t
he Star-Spangled Banner: A Tale of the Spanish-American War (1905), most of which focused on conflicts around the world. Indian and Scout is his imagining of the California Gold Rush.
The California Gold Rush really was a bonanza. Between 1849 and 1855 the miners gathered more than $400 million dollars; once adjusted, it is a sum today reaching into the trillions. It was a social phenomenon marked by the carnivalesque. In his work Roughing It (1872) Mark Twain’s protagonist remarks as his brother heads West, “Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, an antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero…And by and by he would become very rich, and return home by sea, and be able to talk as calmly about San Francisco and ocean, and ‘the isthmus’ as if it was nothing of any consequence to have seen those marvels face to face.”
Go they did to the Land of Golden Dreams, in the largest internal migration in American history, and the adventures and tragedies have created a large and memorable literature.
by Charles Macomb Flandrau
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When this book first appeared in 1897, the student newspaper the Harvard Crimson, was upset:
“With the exception of Haydock, all the characters are unmanly, snobbish, morbid or unhappy. That such characters exist in every college class is of course undeniable, but they are, after all, not typical of this University or, let us hope, of any other.
It is indeed admitted in the dedication that the book can lay no claim to being representative of Harvard, but this inconspicuous statement will be overlooked or soon forgotten by the average reader, and a distorted picture of life here will thus be circulated. If such a thing were possible, it would do no harm to confine the circulation of “Harvard Episodes” to Harvard undergraduates.
The book is, however, engrossing and exceedingly clever.
A distinct power of analysis and observation appears in every story, clear vision combining with fearless statement to produce conviction in the reader’s mind. We are indebted to the author for the best written book of fiction that has yet appeared on the subject of Harvard life, although narrow in its treatment.”
More than a century later, the characters may not seem unmanly, but the prose is still exceedingly clever.
by Wilmer M. Ely
with a new preface by Robert Rich Jr.
Wilmer M. Ely introduced whole generations of American youth to the adventures of the Chums and produced this classic story of Florida in the days of rum runners.
The young heroes have their boat stolen from them, and without any money they sign on with a commercial fisherman to pursue catch along the coast of Florida. Not everyone they meet is a sportsman, to put it mildly, and they confront some pretty rough criminals who are out to make as much trouble as possible. The boys acquire staunch allies in honest fisherman who help them beat back the crooks, but not without close calls and high adventure.
This new edition is introduced by Robert Rich Jr., a well-known authority on Florida fishing and its long history.
Take a look at the Original Cover.
Edited and Introduced by Wallace Boston
Horatio Alger created youthful heroes whose persistence and pluck triumphed over enormous odds, often having to educate themselves by a flickering candle and late at night. Readers could identify with the challenges of self-education in a society where only a few had advantages. Mark Mason is one of the most appealing of the Alger success stories, a classic of Americana.
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Edited and Introduced by Wallace Boston
The young Horatio Alger heroes often sold newspapers or delivered telegrams, a reminder of how technology has moved on. But they hoped for better things and in the Alger novels their diligence and hard work won the day and they ended up getting the educations they deserved and the success that their exemplary morality earned. The reader will find this prototypical Alger story both a good read and food for thought in an era when the technology has indeed moved on but the challenges have remained.
Edited and Introduced by Wallace Boston
The protagonists in Horatio Alger stories are often, if one may play on a metaphor, up a creek without a paddle. In this celebrated Alger novel, the young hero is comfortably ensconced at the Essex Classical Institute until misfortune makes his expensive education impossible. If the problem of financing an education resonates, it is because millions of Americans are frustrated in their ambitions because they now find that the price of education has soared far beyond their capacity to pay, with no prospect of an Alger quirk of fate to help.
Westphalia Press 