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  Allan's Wife and Other Tales

  H. Rider Haggard

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  Allan's Wife and Other Tales is a collection of Allan Quatermain stories by H. Rider Haggard, first published in London by Spencer Blackett in December 1889. The title story was new, with its first publication intended for the collection, but two unauthorized editions appeared earlier in New York, based on pirated galley proofs. The other three stories first appeared in an anthology and periodicals in 1885, 1887, and 1886. The significance of the collection was recognized by its republication (as Allan's Wife, With Hunter Quartermain's Story, a Tale of Three Lions, and Long Odds) by the Newcastle Publishing Company as the twenty-fourth volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in October, 1980. Contents Allan's Wife - the story of Quartermain's early life, and his marriage to childhood sweetheart, Stella, mother of his son Harry. Hunter Quatermain's Story A Tale of Three Lions Long Odds.... Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE, Kt ( 22 June 1856 - 14 May 1925), known as H. Rider Haggard, was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the Lost World literary genre.He was also involved in agricultural reform throughout the British Empire. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. Early years: Henry Rider Haggard, generally known as H. Rider Haggard or Rider Haggard, was born at Bradenham, Norfolk, the eighth of ten children, to Sir William Meybohm Rider Haggard, a barrister, and Ella Doveton, an author and poet. His father was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to British parents. Haggard was initially sent to Garsington Rectory in Oxfordshire to study under Reverend H. J. Graham, but unlike his elder brothers who graduated from various private schools, he attended Ipswich Grammar School. This was because his father, who perhaps regarded him as somebody who was not going to amount to much, could no longer afford to maintain his expensive private education. After failing his army entrance exam, he was sent to a private crammer in London to prepare for the entrance exam for the British Foreign Office, for which he never sat. During his two years in London he came into contact with people interested in the study of psychical phenomena. In 1875, Haggard's father sent him to what is now South Africa to take up an unpaid position as assistant to the secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Natal.[8] In 1876 he was transferred to the staff of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Special Commissioner for the Transvaal. It was in this role that Haggard was present in Pretoria in April 1877 for the official announcement of the British annexation of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal. Indeed, Haggard raised the Union flag and read out much of the proclamation following the loss of voice of the official originally entrusted with the duty. South Africa, 1875-1882: At about that time, Haggard fell in love with Mary Elizabeth "Lilly" Jackson, whom he intended to marry once he obtained paid employment in Africa. In 1878 he became Registrar of the High Court in the Transvaal, and wrote to his father informing him that he intended to return to England and marry her. His father forbade it until Haggard had made a career for himself, and by 1879 Jackson had married Frank Archer, a well-to-do banker. When Haggard eventually returned to England, he married a friend of his sister, Marianna Louisa Margitson (1859-1943) in 1880, and the couple travelled to Africa together. They had a son named Jack (who died of measles at age 10) and three daughters, Angela, Dorothy and Lilias. Lilias Rider Haggard became an author, edited The Rabbit Skin Cap and I Walked By Night, and wrote a biography of her father entitled The Cloak That I Left (published in 1951).

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  The Mark of the Beast - From...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.   
  As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5.  The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.  
  At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing.  It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.  
  In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months.  These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday.  
  He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. 
  Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.  
  Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892.  The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed.  They returned to Vermont and settled.  Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’.  
  A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest.  At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay.  ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later.  
  In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.   
  When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription.  His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart.  This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. 
  Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer.  He was 70.  His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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  Aesop's Fables - New Translation

  Aesop

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  "Aesop's Fables have been cherished for generations, imparting timeless wisdom through delightful animal tales. Let me share a couple of these fables with you:    The Tortoise and the Hare:  In this classic fable, a speedy hare challenges a slow-moving tortoise to a race. Overconfident, the hare takes a nap during the race, while the persistent tortoise keeps plodding along. To everyone's surprise, the tortoise wins the race, teaching us that steady effort often triumphs over reckless speed.  The Boy Who Cried Wolf:  A young shepherd boy amuses himself by falsely shouting, "Wolf!" to trick the villagers. When a real wolf appears and threatens the sheep, the boy cries for help, but the villagers no longer believe him. The moral? Honesty and integrity matter, and false alarms erode trust.  Remember, these fables hold valuable lessons that resonate across cultures and time."

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  Tales from Edgar Allan Poe -...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement.  Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre.  He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Here is a second collection of some of his best stories:  "Masque of the Red Death", "Three Sundays In A Week", "The Sphinx", and "Hop-Frog".
  Don't miss the other volumes in the Tales from Edgar Allan Poe collection.
  ©2011 Listen & Live Audio, Inc. (P)2011 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

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  Ring Around the Sun

  Isaac Asimov

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  "Ring Around the Sun" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1940 issue of Future Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov. "Ring Around the Sun" was the fifth story Asimov wrote, and also the fifth to be published.

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  The Freelands - The Land Question

  John Galsworthy

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  Four Freeland brothers — a squire, a bureaucrat, a banker and a Tolstoyan — quarrel over England while farm laborers are evicted from their cottages and a girl of their own family takes the laborers' side. Galsworthy wrote it in 1915, at the height of his fame and his doubts; the land question is real, the family is his own class, and nobody comes out well. Fifty-eight plates of painting from 1840 to 1926, including work by William Orpen and Spencer Gore, extend the novel's portrait of a country dividing against itself.

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