Mary is a gas-station attendant with an epileptic son who can barely make ends meet, when she makes them meet at all. She has dreams of a forbidden love but can’t focus on those dreams when she can’t even buy her son’s medicine. She has a real knack for staying calm under pressure, and steadfastly does what she needs to in order to keep food on their table and a roof over their heads. One day she has an encounter with a woman who claims she can change Mary’s life in an instant.Afte...

The language of Poetry is an art that most of us attempt at some point in our lives. Although its commonplace exposure has been somewhat marginalised in today’s often fast-paced lives we all recognise good verse that can empathise with our thoughts or open us up to experience new things in new ways, to better understand and to enjoy the many strands of our lives.But finding a starting point can be overwhelming, even off-putting, so in this series we offer up our Top 10 classic poet...

Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another. Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition ...

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection b...

James Russell Lowell was born on 22nd February 1819 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Lowell graduated from Harvard in 1838, and thence on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School.His literary life began in 1841 with his first published collection of poetry. Three years later he married Maria White and they had several children although, sadly, only one was to survive childhood.A consuming issue at the time was the abolition of slavery. Lowell was a staunch supporter ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio.When his father’s business failed the family was forced to move on a regular basis before finally settling in Clyde, Ohio.Anderson, one of 7 children, left school at 14 to take a nu

The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is Georgia F Stewart.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Alfred Francis Kreymborg was born on the 10th December 1883, in New York City's East Side.Despite attending New York public schools, he was largely self-educated teaching himself both the piano and mandolin. He was also an excellent chess player.As a poet he was an early American proponent of both free verse and prose poetry. His individual style was evident in his published volumes and he was critically acclaimed. Kreymborg was also very influential in the publishing world...

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation.From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own.America prides itself on liberty, on justice for all and, if you are a wealthy white man, that is essentially true. Sadly, many other segments of society find it difficult to feel or become part of this en...

As a general rule we are a trusting lot. You say something and, whilst I might disagree, I believe you are acting in good faith. Of course this may be just the beginning of a ruse. If I trust you I might let down my guard, I might seek to share and to create a bond between us. But, if you can’t be trusted, if you have an ulterior motive I might lose out.In the hands of authors such as Maxim Gorky, Ella D’Arcy, Rudyard Kipling, Ivan Turgenev and may others reality may not be what it...