I was born in Barnſtable, in New-England, October 2, 1757, of credible Parents, whom I ſerved as an obedient Son, I hope, until the commencement of the late war called me from my home, and led me to exchange the occupation of a Huſbandman, to which I was bred for the more dangerous employment of a Soldier. In this capacity I served my Country 3 campaigns, and know not that my behaviour was censured by my officers. After having returned for a time to the Farming-Buſineſs, I concluded to try...

Benjamin Franklin compiled these pearls of wisdom on wealth and personal finance from Poor Richard's Almanack. Today is 250th anniversary since the book fist appeared as a pamphlet in 1758. Some proverbs from Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth: "There are no gains, without pains" "One today is worth two tomorrows" "Time is money" "A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things" "Get what you can, and what you get hold" "Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the ...

Benjamin Franklin was concerned with making the sometimes bitter pill of truth about the human condition easier to swallow. In The Way to Wealth, Franklin refines his maxims and homilies in order to make them more subtle and sophisticated. As a successful author, inventor, scientist, statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of America, he exemplifies the emerging American nation. A man who was very proud of his working roots, in 1758, the year he ceased writing for the Almanack, he printe...

George Washington's Rules of Civility is a short list of 110 principles or maxims by which, supposedly, proper decent people must abide. While some of these maxims may seem dated others are still quite apt for today. A quick read, George Washington's Rules of Civility is an insightful look at the manners and customs of an age gone by.

According to Wikipedia: "Ebenezer Cooke (ca. 1665 ca. 1732), a London-born poet, wrote what some scholars consider the first American satire: “The Sotweed Factor, or A Voyage to Maryland, A Satyr” (1708). He has been fictionalized by John Barth as the comically innocent protagonist of The Sot-Weed Factor, a novel in which a series of fantastic misadventures leads Cooke to write his poem. As Barth explained, The SotWeed Factor began with the title and, of course, Ebenezer Cooke's original p...

Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, clawing or biting it from the living animal, just as they do in Abyssinia to this day. This period is not obscurely hinted at by their great Confucius in the second chapter of his Mundane Mutations, where he designates a kind of golden age by the term Cho–fang, literally the Cooks' holiday. The manuscript goes on to say, that the art ...

Herman Melville was one of the greatest writers during the American Renaissance. Melville’s unique style helped produce classics in many different genres. This edition of Hawthorne and His Mosses includes a table of contents.

"Sheds light on the slave trade, American slave life and the British abolitionist movement." -Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), June 8, 2014"Some Memories of the Life of Job" is one of the earliest and most intriguing slave narratives, published in 1734.Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (1701—1773), also known as Job ben Solomon, was a famous Muslim who was a victim of the Atlantic slave trade. Born in Bundu, Senegal (West Africa), Job's memoirs were published ...

A king got lost in the woods and unfortunately he stumbled upon a witch who was willing to show him the way only if he married her daughter. After he agreed, the poor king's misfortunes followed one after another. The king was worried that the new queen may do something to his seven children so he hid them in another castle. However the evil step-mother found out and she managed to get rid of the six boys. She turned them to swans. Their poor little sister was determined to save them. The ...

In "The Sot-weed Factor: or, A Voyage to Maryland. A Satyr," Ebenezer Cooke offers a rich and satirical exploration of 17th-century colonial life in Maryland through the lens of a hapless, yet humorous protagonist. Cooke's verse reflects the poetic traditions of Restoration England, interweaving sharp satire and vivid depictions of the landscape and local customs. His use of the mock-epic style not only entertains but also critiques the excesses and follies of colonial desire and ambition,...

Dickens is a name that dominates the landscape of English novelists. His works are masterpieces and he is held everywhere in the highest regard. In his fairly short life of 58 years he accomplished an extraordinary number of classic novels, especially in light of his humble and poor beginnings. Here we collect together his slim number of poems. Concise it may be but from the mind of the master it most certainly reveals a facet of great interest. The poems are also available as an audiobook...

In "A Bell's Biography," Nathaniel Hawthorne crafts a poignant and introspective narrative that explores the interplay between personal aspiration and the societal constraints of the early 19th century. Through the lens of a simple but profound object'—a bell'—Hawthorne delves into themes of identity, ambition, and the oftentimes unrecognized impact of small, quotidian lives on the grand tapestry of history. His rich, allegorical prose, combined with vivid imagery, encapsulates the Romanti...