| | 2 | Author: | Twain, Mark: related material: Ade, George | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Mark Twain and the Old Time Subscription Book  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | MARK TWAIN should be doubly blessed for
saving the center table from utter dullness. Do you remember that
center table of the seventies? The marbled top showed glossy in the
subdued light that filtered through the lace curtains, and it was clammy
cold even on hot days. The heavy mahogany legs were chiseled into
writhing curves from which depended stern geometrical designs or
possibly bunches of grapes. The Bible had the place of honor and was
flanked by subscription books. In those days the house never became
cluttered with the ephemeral six best sellers. The new books came a
year apart, and each was meant for the center table, and it had to be so
thick and heavy and emblazoned with gold that it could keep company with
the bulky and high-priced Bible. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 5 | Author: | Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | An Apology for Crudity | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | For a long time I have believed that crudity is an inevitable
quality in the production of a really significant present-day
American literature. How indeed is one to escape the obvious fact
that there is as yet no native subtlety of thought or living among us?
And if we are a crude and childlike people how can our literature
hope to escape the influence of that fact? Why indeed should we
want it to escape? | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 6 | Author: | Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The New Englander | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | HER name was Elsie Leander and her girlhood was spent on her
father's farm in Vermont. For several generations the
Leanders had all lived on the same farm and had all married thin
women, and so she was thin. The farm lay in the shadow of a
mountain and the soil was not very rich. From the beginning and
for several generations there had been a great many sons and few
daughters in the family. The sons had gone west or to New York
City and the daughters had stayed at home and thought such
thoughts as come to New England women who see the sons of their
father's neighbours slipping, away, one by one, into the West. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 8 | Author: | Anonymous | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Facts. By a Woman | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Debating the question of ways and means, . . . I was prompted instinctively to pick up a city
newspaper . . . my visionary mind was mechanically drawn down through its newsy page to a
single item of distinctive meaning, so electrifying and magically warming my freezing life-current,
that I was instantly thrown into complete respiration and retroaction. It was a simple
announcement, an advertisement only, of A. Roman & Co., who wanted agents to canvass "Tom
Sawyer," Mark Twain's new book. I had been led to it by a mysterious guidance . . . . | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 10 | Author: | Bicknell, Percy F. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Pugnacious Style | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | It is the nature of man to love a good hater; at any rate, a
considerable part of mankind pays him the tribute of admiration for
the vigor and constancy of his animosity. In like manner the
reading world enjoys the aggressive energy and the keen stabs, or
sledge-hammer blows, of him who writes with the intent of
annihilating a foe or exploding a false doctrine; and this in spite of
the fact that little of worth in the cause of truth and justice has ever
been effected by passionate vehemence of style, no wrong-headed
person has ever been bullied into reasonableness, and no enemy has
ever been crushed by mere force of vituperation. As is illustrated
every week and every day in the heated discussions that in these
fevered times claim so much space in our newspapers and
magazines, and even in our books, the controversialist falls easily
into the error of hurting his cause by undue warmth of manner, and
repels by intemperance of speech where he might win by
moderation and restraint. If it be true, as experience inclines one to
believe, that nobody was ever convinced by argument who was not
already more than half persuaded, it is doubly true that no
prejudiced person was ever induced by vituperation to renounce his
prejudice and alter his opinions. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 11 | Author: | Bradford, Gamaliel | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | An Odd Sort of Popular Book | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | MULTIPLICITY of editions does not
make a book a classic. Otherwise Worcester's
Dictionary and Mrs. Lincoln's
Cook-Book might almost rival Shakespeare.
Nevertheless, when a work
which has little but its literary quality to
recommend it achieves sudden and permanent
popularity, it is safe to assume
that there is something about it which will
repay curious consideration. As to the
popularity of The Anatomy of Melancholy
there can be no dispute. "Scarce any
book of philology in our land hath, in
so short a time, passed through so many
editions," says old Fuller; though why
"philology"? The first of these editions
appeared in 1621. It was followed
by four others during the few years preceding
the author's death in 1640. Three
more editions were published at different
times in the seventeenth century. The
eighteenth century was apparently contented
to read Burton in the folios; but
the book was reprinted in the year 1800,
and since then it has been issued in various
forms at least as many as forty times,
though never as yet with what might be
called thorough editing. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 12 | Author: | Brown, Alice | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Bachelor's Fancy | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | CYNTHIA GALE sat by the window in
the long shed chamber, her hands at momentary
ease. She was a slight, sweet
creature. with a delicate skin, and hair
etherealized by ashen coverts. Her eyes
were dark, and beauty throbbed into
them with drifting thoughts. Cynthia
was tired. She had been at work at
the loom since the first light of day, and
now she had given up to the languor of
completed effort, her head thrown back,
her arms along the arms of the chair,
in an attitude of calm. Her hair had
slipped from its coil, and fallen on
either side of her face in gentle disarray.
She was very lovely. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 15 | Author: | Chekhov, Anton | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Mire | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | GRACEFULLY swaying in the saddle, a young man wearing the snow-white
tunic of an officer rode into the great yard of the vodka distillery
belonging to the heirs of M. E. Rothstein. The sun smiled carelessly on
the lieutenant's little stars, on the white trunks of the birch-trees,
on the heaps of broken glass scattered here and there in the yard. The
radiant, vigorous beauty of a summer day lay over everything, and
nothing hindered the snappy young green leaves from dancing gaily and
winking at the clear blue sky. Even the dirty and soot-begrimed
appearance of the bricksheds and the stifling fumes of the distillery
did not spoil the general good impression. The lieutenant sprang gaily
out of the saddle, handed over his horse to a man who ran up, and
stroking with his finger his delicate black moustaches, went in at the
front door. On the top step of the old but light and softly carpeted
staircase he was met by a maidservant with a haughty, not very youthful
face. The lieutenant gave her his card without speaking. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 18 | Author: | Doyle, Arthur Conan | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Living English Poets: A. Conan Doyle | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Dr. A. Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He went to
school at Stonyhurst in Lancashire, then studied in Germany, and finally
completed his medical education at the University of Edinburgh. He
has been an extensive traveler, visiting Africa, the Arctic seas, and many
parts of Europe. His first story was accepted when he was nineteen
years old, and his first book, A Study in Scarlet, was sold outright for
*25. Then came Micah Clarke, The Sign of the Four, The White
Company—and so his reputation as one of the most popular English
novelists was firmly established. It is said that Dr. Doyle's detective
stories were what first brought him to the attention of Americans. That
they rank with the best ever written is generally recognized. Although
chiefly known as a story-teller, Dr. Doyle has been an occasional
contributor of verse to the leading English and American magazines for
years. A collection of verse was published in England several years ago
and republished in this country, in 1898, by Doubleday, McClure &
Co., under the title Songs of Action. Many of his poems have never
appeared in book form. The vivid imagination, clearness of expression,
and intense interest that distinguish his prose are marked characteristics
of his verse. The selections reprinted here are chiefly from the
American edition of Songs of Action. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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