Other books that might interest you

• 

  O Henry - A Short Story...

  O Henry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
   
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
   
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
   
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
   
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
   
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
   
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
   
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
   
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
   
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing. 
    
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910. 
  1 - O Henry - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction - Volume 1 
  2 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry 
  3 - A Harlem Tragedy by O Henry 
  4 - According to Their Lights by O Henry 
  5 - After Twenty Years by O Henry 
  6 - Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen by O Henry 
  7 - Transients in Arcadia by O Henry 
  8 - The Cop and the Anthem by O Henry 
  9 - The Caballero's Way by O Henry 
  10 - The Count and the Wedding Guest by O Henry 
  11 - The Dream by O Henry 
  12 - The Furnished Room by O Henry

  Show book

• 

  Bars and Shadows: The Prison...

  Ralph Chaplin

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ralph Chaplin and many other prominent members of the Industrial Workers of the World were imprisoned under the Espionage Act of 1917 as the United States entered World War I. As with Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, these activists were accused of undermining recruiting efforts and the draft - even of encouraging soldiers to desert. Though they never gained the universal popularity of his anthem "Solidarity Forever," the poems and songs in this volume - composed during his four years in prison - represent the defiant attitude of a true rebel in the face of persecution. - Summary by Ben Adams

  Show book

• 

  City of the Tribes

  Walter Macken

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  These stories, rich with the passion and drama which characterises all of Walter Macken's writing, were conceived by the author as a thematic collection, providing a stunning evocation of the life and people of Galway in the 1940s. They document a time and place, yet they also have a timeless appeal in their portrayal of the people of the city whom Macken knew and loved so well. Full of insight and humour, they do not romanticise the past; rather they celebrate the qualities of ordinary people in their struggles with poverty, with political conservatism and with the sea, ever-present elements in the life of the city of the tribes.
  Walter Macken has long been one of Ireland's most popular writers. A novelist who defined in fiction the world of the 'plain people' of the west of Ireland, he was a master of the short story.
  First published posthumously in 1997, these magnificent stories are now brought back to life in the Modern Irish Classics series.

  Show book

• 

  I'll Give You a Reason

  Annell López

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The vibrant stories in I’ll Give You a Reason explore race, identity, connection, and belonging in the Ironbound, an immigrant neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. A young widow goes on her first date since her husband’s death and finds herself hunting a bear in the woods with a near stranger. An unhappy wife compares her mother’s love spells and rituals to her own efforts to repair her strained marriage. A self-conscious college student discovers a porn star who shares her name and becomes obsessed with her doppelgänger’s freedom and comfort with her own body. Annell López’s indelible characters tread the waters of political unrest, sexuality, religion, body image, Blackness, colorism, and gentrification—searching for their identities and a sliver of joy and intimacy. Through each story, a nuanced portrait of the “American Dream” emerges, uplifting the voices of those on its margins.

  Show book

• 

  Sky is the Limit The (10 Classic...

  James Allen, Kahlil Gibran,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This Audiobook contains the following works arranged alphabetically by authors last namesThink and Grow Rich [Napoleon Hill ]The prophet [Khalil Gibran]Eight Pillars of Prosperity [James Allen]As a Man Thinketh [James Allen]An Iron Will [Orison Swett Marden]The Art of Money Getting [P.T. Barnum]The Game of Life and How to Play it [Florence Scovel Shinn]The Way to Wealth [Benjamin Franklin ]Acres of Diamonds [Russell Conwell]The Science of Getting Rich [Wallace D. Wattles]

  Show book

• 

  The Short Story Collection:...

  Jack London, Robert Louis...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  At the turn of the century, the short story form gained enormous popularity. As readers looked for diversion and entertainment, they found the attraction of a good tale irresistible-especially when the action was packed into a few pages instead of a hundred. Here are three timeless stories that will whisk you into exotic lands and unforgettable adventures. Against the frozen Alaskan landscape of To Build a Fire, a miner struggles to survive the splintering whiteness of sub-zero temperatures. Isle of Voices captures the Hawaii of old, where magic transports a young man to an island of powerful spirits. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi pits a mongoose against a cobra in the steamy beauty of an Indian garden. Recorded Books' award-winning narrators turn these three adventure stories into absorbing audio productions. Listen as their dramatic performances bring out the full richness of far-off lands and breathtaking challenges.

  Show book