Free Classics Books

Christopher Dyer

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:56:18 -0400

Christopher Dyer (1944-now)

Christopher Charles Dyer CBE FBA (born 1944) is Professor of Medieval History and director of the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester.

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[About Sugar Buying For Jobbers]

William Mackergo Taylor

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:47:59 -0400

William Mackergo Taylor

William Mackergo Taylor (1829 - 1895) was an American Congregational minister, born at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. He graduated at the University of Glasgow (1849), and at the divinity hall of the United Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh (1852). He was pastor of churches in Britain till 1872 (for 17 years one in Liverpool). He entered the United States where he became pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle (Congregational), in New York till 1893 when a paralytic stroke caused his retirement.

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[Scenes And Adventures In Affghanistan]

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Carlo Collodi

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:32:54 -0400

Carlo Collodi (1826-1890)

Carlo Lorenzini (November 24, 1826 - October 26, 1890), better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi, was an Italian children’s writer known for the world-renowned fairy tale novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio.

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[The Adventures Of Pinocchio]

Tagged: charles sheldon hjalmar sderberg william gilbert emile zola georg bchner ross rocklynne g manville fenn daniel goodsell a laidlaw zacharias topelius

Jake Farrow

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:03:03 -0400

Jake Farrow (1978-now)

Jake Farrow (born October 18, 1978) is a television writer and actor. He is most famous for the role of Gavin Mitchell on the TV series Drake & Josh.

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[Dick Marjorie And Fidge | The Jungle Baby | The Wallypug In London]

Amiel Gladstone

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:10:56 -0400

Amiel Gladstone (1972-now)

Amiel Gladstone (born 1972) is a Canadian playwright and director. A graduate of the University of Victoria, Gladstone is a founder of Theatre Skam, an alternative theatre company in Victoria, BC and is the former Artistic Associate at Caravan Farm Theatre and the Belfry Theatre. Gladstone’s plays have been produced across Canada, as well as in New York, Philadelphia, Colmar, France, and Bucharest, Romania.

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[On Books And The Housing Of Them]

Charles Frederick Briggs

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:28:13 -0400

Charles Frederick Briggs (1804-1877)

Charles Frederick Briggs (December 30, 1804 June 20, 1877), also called C. F. Briggs, was an American journalist, author and editor, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He was also known under the pseudonym “Harry Franco”, having written The Adventures of Harry Franco in 1839, which was followed by a series of works dealing more or less humorously with life in New York City.

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[The Adventures Of Harry Franco Volume 1 | The Adventures Of Harry Franco Volume 2]

Basilio Villarino

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:12:48 -0400

Basilio Villarino

Basilio Villarino was a captain of the Spanish Royal Navy who traveled around the southern tip of South America. Villarino published an 1837 book, Diario de la Navegacin Emprendida en 1781, Desde el Rio Negro, para Reconocer la Bahia de Todos los Santos, las Islas del Buen Suceso, y el Desague del Rio Colorado.

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[Diario De La Navegacion Empredida En 1781]

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Havelock Ellis

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:18:01 -0400

Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)

Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 - 8 July 1939) was a British sexologist, physician, and social reformer.

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[Essays In War Time | Impressions And Comments | Little Essays Of Love And Virtue]

Tagged: william hart elizabeth towne aaro hellaakoski charles kean benjamin franklin cocker franz grillparzer w blanchard jerrold frederico de roberto

Anna Louise Strong

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:37:46 -0400

Anna Louise Strong

Anna Louise Strong (November 24, 1885 March 29, 1970) was a twentieth-century American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

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[Children Of Revolution]

Alexander Taylor Innes

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:39:23 -0400

Alexander Taylor Innes (1833-1912)

A. Taylor Innes (18331912) was a lawyer, writer, biographer and church historian. He was born on 18 December 1833 at Tain, Ross and Cromarty. His father was Alexander Innes, an accountant and bank agent, and his mother, Martha Taylor. He was educated at the Royal Academy in Tain and from 1848 to 1852 at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA. Taylor Innes entered the legal profession although he originally intended to study theology and become a minister. His scruples about accepting the Westminster confession of faith prevented him from doing so although he remained within the Free Church communion. He contributed to articles on a religious theme to various journals, and his interest in the legal aspects of church creeds and traditions led to the publication of his pioneering work, The Law of Creeds in Scotland, in 1867. He corresponded with W. E. Gladstone on the subject of the disestablishment of the Scottish Church and visited him in May 1868. He also wrote a scholarly paper called “Gladstone in Transition” in which he defended Gladstone’s views, and for which he received the latter’s appreciation. In 1881, Taylor Innes was appointed Advocate Depute under Gladstone’s second government (18801885) and was reappointed under the subsequent Gladstone (189294) and Rosebery (189495) governments. In later life he withdrew from active legal practice to concentrate on ecclesiastical issues, where perhaps his historical significance lies. In 1880, he married Sophia, daughter of Alexander D. Fordyce, a landowner and Liberal MP. She died less than a year later. He died in Edinburgh on 31 January 1912 and was buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.

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[John Knox]

Saki

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:18:59 -0400

Saki (1870-1916)

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 13 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. “The Open Window” may be his most famous, with a closing line (“Romance at short notice was her speciality”) that has entered the lexicon. In addition to his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was the custom of the time, and then collected into several volumes) he also wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice, and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion of Britain. He was influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, and himself influenced A. A. Milne, Nol Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.

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[Beasts And Super Beasts | The Chronicles Of Clovis]

Tagged: frances brooke bret harte federico de roberto william blake henry hart milman edward ellis emile zola charles sprague alexander chatrian i lilias trotter

Elizabeth Elstob

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:08:45 -0400

Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756)

Elizabeth Elstob (16831756), the ‘Saxon Nymph,’ was born and brought up in the Quayside area of Newcastle upon Tyne, and, like Mary Astell of Newcastle, is nowadays regarded as one of the first English feminists. She was proficient in eight languages and became a pioneer in Anglo-Saxon studies, an unprecedented achievement for a woman in the period. In London she translated Madeleine de Scudery’s Essay upon Glory in 1708 and an English-Saxon Homily on the Nativity of St Gregory in 1709. Both works are dedicated to Queen Anne, who is praised in feminist prefaces. From 1702, Elizabeth was part of the circle of intelligent women around Mary Astell, who helped to find subscribers for her Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue, the first such work written in English. The preface: An Apology for the Study of Northern Antiquities took issue with the formidable Jonathan Swift and seems to have caused him to amend his views. Elizabeth’s brother William Elstob (16731715) was sent to Eton and Cambridge and entered the church. Like his sister, he was a scholar and edited Roger Ascham’s Letters in 1703. Elizabeth may have lived with him at Oxford from 1696, and certainly did so in London from 1702. After William’s death, Elizabeth eventually secured an apartment, where she lived ‘surrounded by the congenial elements of dirt and books’ until she died in 1756.

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[An Apology For The Study Of Northern Antiquities]

Ethel Lilian Voynich

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:44:54 -0400

Ethel Lilian Voynich (1864-1960)

Ethel Lilian Voynich, ne Boole (May 11, 1864July 27, 1960) was an English novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes. Her father was the famous mathematician George Boole. Her mother was feminist philosopher Mary Everest, niece of George Everest and an author for the early-20th-century periodical Crank. In 1893 she married Wilfrid Michael Voynich, revolutionary, antiquarian and bibliophile, the eponym of the Voynich manuscript.

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[The Gadfly]

Daniel Jerome Macgowan

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:42:07 -0400

Daniel Jerome Macgowan

Daniel is the central protagonist of the Book of Daniel. According to the biblical book, at a young age Daniel was carried off to Babylon where he became famous for interpreting dreams and rose to become one of the most important figures in the court.

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[Sociologia Chinesa Autoplastia]

Tagged: johann wolfgang von goethe charles sheldon albert benson christian frchtegott gellert jack williamson elseo reclus edmund burke edmund leamy

Jack Vance

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:43:32 -0400

Jack Vance (1916-now)

John Holbrook Vance (born August 28, 1916 in San Francisco, California) is an American fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen. Other pen names include Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse. Among his awards are: Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This is me, Jack Vance!; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1984 for life achievement and in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc; an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage; in 1992, he was Guest of Honor at the WorldCon in Orlando, Florida; and in 1997 he was named a SFWA Grand Master. A 2009 profile in the New York Times Magazine described Vance as “one of American literatures most distinctive and undervalued voices.”

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[Sjambak]

Caesar Baronius

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:20:15 -0400

Caesar Baronius (1538-1607)

Cesare Baronio (also known as Caesar Baronius; August 30, 1538 - June 30, 1607) was an Italian Cardinal and ecclesiastical historian. Baronio was born at Sora, and was educated at Veroli and Naples. At Rome he joined the Congregation of the Oratory in 1557 under St. Philip Neri and succeeded him as superior in 1593. Pope Clement VIII, whose confessor he was, made him cardinal in 1596 and librarian of the Vatican. At subsequent conclaves he was twice nearly elected pope, but on each occasion was opposed by Spain on account of his work on the “Monarchy of Sicily,” in which he supported the Papal claims against those of the Spanish government. Baronius is best known for his “Annales Ecclesiastici”, undertaken at the request of St Philip Neri as an answer to the anti-Catholic history, the “Magdeburg Centuries”. After nearly thirty years of lecturing at Santa Maria in Vallicella on the history of the Church and being trained by the Order as a great man for a great work, he began to write, and produced twelve folios (1588-1607). In the “Annales” he treats history in strict chronological order and keeps theology in the background. Another great historian, Lord Acton, called it “the greatest history of the Church ever written”. It was in the Annales that Baronius coined the term “Dark Age” (saeculum obscurum) to refer to the period between the end of the Carolingian Empire in 888 and the first inklings of the Gregorian Reform under Clement II in 1046. In spite of many errors, especially in Greek history, in which he had to depend upon secondhand information, the work of Baronius stands as an honest attempt to write history, marked with a sincere love of truth. Sarpi, in urging Casaubon to write a refutation of the “Annales,” warned him never to accuse or suspect Baronius of bad faith, for no one who knew him could accuse him of disloyalty to truth. Baronius made his own the words of St Augustine: “I shall love with a special love the man who most rigidly and severely corrects my errors. ” He also undertook a new edition of the “Roman martyrology” (1586), which he purified of many inaccuracies. He is also famous for saying, in the context of the controversies about the work of Copernicus and Galileo, “The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go. ” This remark, which Baronius probably made in conversation with Galileo, was cited by the latter in his “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina” (1615). Cardinal Baronius left a reputation for profound sanctity which led Pope Benedict XIV to proclaim him “Venerable” (January 12, 1745). In 2007, on the 400th anniversary of his death, the cause for his canonization, which had been stalled since 1745, was reopened by the Procurator General of the Oratory of St Philip Neri. The restorations which Baronius made to his titular Church of Sts Nereus and Achilleus and in the Church of St Gregory’s on the Caelian still attest to his zeal for decorous worship. But the “Annales” constitute the most conspicuous and enduring monument of his genius and devotion to the Church.

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[Il Sacro Macello Di Valtellina]

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Epes Sargent

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:18:17 -0400

Epes Sargent (1813-1880)

Epes Sargent (18131880) was an American editor, poet and playwright.

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[Fleetwood Or The Stain Of Birth A Novel Of American Life | The Woman Who Dared]

Richard Marsh

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:53:07 -0400

Richard Marsh

Richard Marsh (18571915) was the pseudonym of the British author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. He is best known for his supernatural thriller The Beetle: A Mystery, published in the same year as Bram Stoker’s Dracula was initially even more popular. The Beetle remained in print until 1960, and was subsequently resurrected in 2004 and 2007. Heldman was educated at Eton and Oxford University. He began to publish short stories, mostly adventure tales, as “Bernard Heldmann,” before adopting the name “Richard Marsh” in 1893. Several of the prolific Marsh’s novels were published posthumously. Marsh’s grandson Robert Aickman was a notable writer of short “strange stories”.

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[The Beetle]

Aleksis Kivi

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:45:14 -0400

Aleksis Kivi

Aleksis Kivi, born Alexis Stenvall, (10 October 1834 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seven Brothers. Although Kivi was among the very earliest authors of prose and lyrics in Finnish language, he is still considered one of the greatest of them all. Aleksis Kivi was born at Nurmijrvi, Finland, to a tailor’s family. In 1846 he left for school in Helsinki, and in 1859 he was accepted to the University of Helsinki, where he studied literature and developed an interest in the theater. His first play was Kullervo, based on a tragic tale from Kalevala. He also met the famous journalist and statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman. From 1863 onwards, Kivi devoted his time to writing. He wrote 12 plays and a collection of poetry. The novel Seven Brothers took him ten years to write. Literary critics, especially the prominent August Ahlqvist, disapproved of the book, at least nominally because of its “rudeness” - romanticism was in its forte at the time - but maybe also because it was written in the south-western dialect of Finnish, while Ahlqvist himself preferred north-eastern dialects of his homelands. The Fennomans also disapproved of its depiction of not-so-virtuous rural life that was far from their idealized point of view, and his excessive drinking may have alienated some. In 1865 Kivi won the State Prize for his still often performed comedy Nummisuutarit (The Cobblers on the Heath). However, the less than enthusiastic reception of his books was taking its toll and he was already drinking heavily. His main benefactor Charlotta Lnnqvist could not help him after the 1860s. Physical deterioration and the development of schizophrenia set in, and Kivi died in poverty at the age of 38. In 1995-1996, Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera about Kivi’s life and works. In 2002 director Jari Halonen’s movie The Life of Aleksis Kivi premiered in Finnish cinemas.

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Justin Richards

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:45:06 -0500

Justin Richards

Justin Richards is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has also written for television, contributing to Five’s soap opera Family Affairs. He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children.

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[Doctor Who The Sands Of Time]

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