Imlay’s delightful epistolary adventure of 1793, set on the American frontier, was one of the first American novels. The trials of an emigrant family in the Ohio River Valley of Kentucky contrast the decadence of Europe with the utopian promise of the American West. Its sensational love plots also dramatize the novel’s surprising feminist allegiances.

H.G. WELLSLIFE OF CHARLES DICKENSLIFE OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEENATHANIEL HAWTHORNEFREDERICK DOUGLASSROBERT LOUIS STEVENSONHONORE DE BALZACABRAHAM LINCOLNALFRED TENNYSONHOMER AND HIS AGESAINT AUGUSTINTHE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRAABELARD AND HELOISEQUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTERMARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND LORD BOTHWELLQUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHIK...

A selection of Benjamin Franklin’s writings, with an introduction and commentary by renowned author Walter Isaacson.Selected and annotated by the author of the acclaimed Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, this collection of Franklin’s writings shows why he was the bestselling author of his day and remains America’s favorite founder and wit. Includes an introductory essay exploring Franklin’s life and impact as a writer, and each piece is accompanied by a...

This authoritative Bantam Classic edition presents readers with a wide-ranging selection of Benjamin Franklin’s most important writings, illuminating the complex and appealing character of this quintessential American who rose to fame as a publisher, inventor, educator, bon vivant, and statesman.Here are selections from Franklin’s newspaper articles, from the sage wisdom of Poor Richard’s Almanac, from his entertaining letters, from his scientific essays, from his politica...

Biography of the pioneer of women's rights and mother of Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein). According to Wikipedia: "Mary Wollstonecraft 27 April 1759 10 September 1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and feminist. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that...

'If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.' William Godwin, the author's future husband, was not alone in admiring Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Wollstonecraft's most popular book during her lifetime. Not easy to categorize, it is both an arresting travel book and a moving exploration of her personal and political selves. Wollstonecraft set out for Scandi...

English writer, philosopher and pioneering advocate of women's rights, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution and a children's book. In her landmark feminist text, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appeared to be only because they lacked education. She called for men and women to be treated equally, paving the way for the emergence of the f...

Printer and publisher, author and educator, scientist and inventor, statesman and philanthropist, Benjamin Franklin was the very embodiment of the American type of self-made man. In 1771, at the age of 65, he sat down to write his autobiography, "having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity." The result is a classic of A...

This authoritative Bantam Classic edition presents readers with a wide-ranging selection of Benjamin Franklin’s most important writings, illuminating the complex and appealing character of this quintessential American who rose to fame as a publisher, inventor, educator, bon vivant, and statesman.Here are selections from Franklin’s newspaper articles, from the sage wisdom of Poor Richard’s Almanac, from his entertaining letters, from his scientific essays, from his politica...

It takes a very inclusive anthology to encompass the protean personality and range of interests of Benjamin Franklin, but The Portable Benjamin Franklin succeeds as no collection has. In addition to the complete Autobiography, the volume contains about 100 of Franklin’s major writings—essays, journalism, letters, political tracts, scientific observations, proposals for the improvement of civic and personal life, literary bagatelles, and private musings. The selections are reprinte...

“Successful Methods of Public Speaking” is a 1920 guide to public speaking by American writer Grenville Kleiser. It contains a wealth of useful information and tips for the orator, as well as analyses of notable speeches, a look at the history, and much more that will be of considerable utility to those with an interest in learning or honing existing public speaking skills. Grenville Kleiser (1868–1953) was a North American author best remembered for his many inspirational and motivational...

This fascinating collection presents a rare look at women writers' first-hand perspectives on early American history. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries many women authors began to write historical analysis, thereby taking on an essential role in defining the new American Republicanism. Like their male counterparts, these writers worried over the definition and practice of both public and private virtue, human equality, and the principles of rationalism. In contrast to m...