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The River and I is a memoir written by John G. Neihardt, an American poet and writer, best known for his epic poem "Black Elk Speaks." "The River and I" was first published in 1910. It is an autobiographical work that captures Neihardt's experiences and reflections during a canoe trip down the Missouri River.
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Consider by scholars as the single most influential book in naval strategy, Alfred Thayer Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783," is a history of naval warfare and sea power during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that would have a profound influence on the world in the early part of the twentieth century. After the publication of this work the policies outlined in it would soon be adopted by the major military powers...
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Excerpt: "If the average student of Western American History in our schools were asked to recall those names which loom large for him during the four decades from the purchase of the Louisiana Territory to the coming of the settlers, he would doubtless think of Lewis and Clark, Lieutenant Pike, Major Long, and General Frémont, with perhaps one or two others. That is to say, the average student of Western History is familiar with the names of official...
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Excerpt: "A one-room log cabin, with an indolently smoking chimney, squatted in sullen destitution a hundred yards away. Before the door a ramshackle wagon stood waiting for nothing with its load of snow. Down yonder in the brushy draw an all-but-roofless shed stared listlessly upon the dull February sky. With a man-denying look, the empty reservation landscape round about lay hushed and bluing in the cold. Raising the flap of the tepee, with its...
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Excerpt: "When the rule limiting speeches to an hour was adopted by Congress, which was before most of you were born, an eminent but somewhat discursive person spent more than that measure of time in convincing me that whoever really had anything to say could say it in less. I then and there acquired a conviction of this truth, which has only strengthened with years. Yet whoever undertakes to lecture must adapt his discourse to the law which requires...
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Excerpt: "In ransacking old court records, newspapers, diaries and letters for the historic foundation of the books which I have written on colonial history, I have found and noted much of interest that has not been used or referred to in any of those books. An accumulation of notes on old-time laws, punishments and penalties has evoked this volume. The subject is not a pleasant one, though it often has a humorous element; but a punishment that is...
7) Gondola Days
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Excerpt: "I have made no attempt in these pages to review the splendors of the past, or to probe the many vital questions which concern the present, of this wondrous City of the Sea. Neither have I ventured to discuss the marvels of her architecture, the wealth of her literature and art, nor the growing importance of her commerce and manufactures. I have contented myself rather with the Venice that you see in the sunlight of a summer's day-the Venice...
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Excerpt: "As far back as I can remember the sea had a strange fascination for me, and if, as is the custom with old people to ask a boy, however small, what he is going to be when he is a man, I invariably answered "a sailor of course." At school the lessons I liked best were geography, and the only books that interested me were those that told of travel in foreign lands. Born in Liverpool, that city by the sea, and living, for the first fourteen...
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Excerpt: "Christopher Columbus was born at more places and to a greater extent than any other eminent man known to history. He was born at frequent intervals from 1436 to 1446, and at Cogoletto, Genoa, Finale, Oneglia, Savona, Padrello, and Boggiasco. Learned historians have conclusively shown that he was born at each one of the places, and each historian has had him born at a different date from that fixed upon by a rival historian. To doubt their...
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Excerpt: "Next to its Ballads and Songs, the Stories of Scottish Literature are the most characteristic exponents of the national spirit. Allowing for the changes which time and the progress of civilization have effected in the national manners and character since the beginning of the present century-the era to which the Stories chiefly refer-they shall be found to delineate the social and domestic features of Scottish life as faithfully as the Ballads...
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Excerpt: "All save one of the papers here collected were written as lectures and read from a desk at Cambridge; the exception being that upon Trollope, contributed to The Nation and the Athenaeum and pleasantly provoked by a recent edition of the "Barsetshire" novels. To these it almost wholly confines itself. But a full estimate of Trollope as one of our greatest English novelists-and perhaps the raciest of them all-is long overdue, awaiting a complete...
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Excerpt: "It cannot be denied that an improved system of practical domestic cookery, and a better knowledge of its first principles, are still much needed in this country; where, from ignorance, or from mismanagement in their preparation, the daily waste of excellent provisions almost exceeds belief. This waste is in itself a very serious evil where so large a portion of the community often procure-as they do in England-with painful difficulty, and...
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Excerpt: ""We were a jolly pair, we two, and ladies at that; and we had decided to go, amid the protestations of the towns-people and the remarks of Madam Grundy that it was not proper, and that there were so many tramps it was not prudent for two ladies to take a trip with their horse and carriage along the North Shore. Nevertheless, we take our lives in our hands, and 'do the trip' in a large comfortable, roomy buggy," etc. A letter in the Boston...
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This is a fascinating biography of Mary Russell Mitford, a prolific writer and prominent figure in British literary circles during the 19th century. Roberts explores the complex social and cultural forces that shaped Mitford's life and work, including her gender, class, and status as a 'blue stocking.' The book provides a rich portrait of Mitford's world and is an engaging and informative read for anyone interested in 19th century literature and culture....
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Excerpt: "On the last morning of Queen Anne's life, a man, deep in thought, was slowly crossing Smithfield. The eyes of a clergyman passing in a carriage were bent upon him. The carriage stopped, the wayfarer looked up, and the two men knew each other. The one on foot was the dissenting preacher, whom Queen Anne used to call 'bold Bradbury.' The other was Bishop Burnet. 'On what were you so deeply thinking?' asked the bishop. 'On the men who died...
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Excerpt: "Through the neglect of nature study, the wits of the country child lose just the sharpening they most need, to say nothing of a stimulus and delight which can ill be spared by one whose mental life is apt to be monotonous. The wits of the city child may secure in other ways the sharpening so essential to success in life; yet the training afforded by a logical study of plants, and the pleasure which such a study, rightly directed, is sure...
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Excerpt: "To treat of the practice of fiction is to deal with the newest, most fluid and least formulated of the arts. The exploration of origins is always fascinating; but the attempt to relate the modern novel to the tale of Joseph and his Brethren is of purely historic interest. Modern fiction really began when the "action" of the novel was transferred from the street to the soul; and this step was probably first taken when Madame de La Fayette,...
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Excerpt: "By many friends, both in this country and in the Far East, the question has often been asked me: "Why do you not write a book about Japan?" Whatever answer to this question à propos of each particular occasion, may have been given, there have been two reasons which have made me decline the temptation hitherto. Of the innumerable books, having for their main subject, "The Land of the Rising Sun," which have appeared during the last forty...