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  The Open Window - From their...

  Saki Saki

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  Hector Hugh Munro, more familiarly known by his pen-name ‘Saki’ was born in what was then Akyab in British Burma on 18th December 1870. His father was an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police, and his mother the daughter of a Rear Admiral. 
  When he was 2 his mother died and he and his siblings were sent back to England to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts in a strict, puritanical household near Barnstaple, Devon. Educated by governesses Saki used many of these women as character models for his later writing. 
  At 17 his father retried and returned to England and then embarked on a series of European travels with Saki and his siblings. 
  After a short stint working in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police Saki decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Initially he wrote as a journalist for a number of newspapers and magazines before attempting an historical study, ‘The Rise of the Russian Empire’, whose real value lay in directing him to writing short stories instead, the first of which, ‘Dogged’, he published in 1899. 
  From here it was a short stab of the pen to writing political satire before in 1902 he became the foreign correspondent for The Morning Post, first in the Balkans, then Russia, Paris and back to London in 1908, where 'the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him.'  
  Collections of his short stories full of witty, mischievous and often macabre stories that satirized Edwardian society and two novels now appeared in the years up to the Great War.  At its’ outbreak he was 43 but managed to join as an ordinary trooper. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured.  
  On 14th November 1916 Hector Hugh Munro was sheltering in crater during the Battle of the Ancre, when he was shot and killed by a German sniper. According to several sources, his last words were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"

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  Miss Santa Claus

  Annie Fellows Johnston

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  We all know that Santa Claus has a large family in which to help him in the delivery of presents, peace, and good cheer. So what would you do if you were Miss Santa Claus and met two children on Christmas Eve traveling to a strange town to be reunited with their father and new stepmother? Why, naturally you would tell them the story of Princess Ina and a powerful charm they could use to turn their feared stepmother into a real mother. Follow the children as they learn to pick starflowers of obedience and kindness to make a mantle of love and become a real family. 
   
  A delightful Christmas book for children of all ages!

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  Cordelia the Crude - From their...

  Wallace Thurman

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  The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centu-ries 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 Wallace Thurman.

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  Mystification

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Baron Ritzner Von Jung was of a noble Hungarian family, every member of which (at least as far back into antiquity as any certain records extend) was more or less remarkable for talent of some description — the majority for that species of grotesquerie in conception of which Tieck, a scion of the house, has given some vivid, although by no means the most vivid exemplifications. My acquaintance with Ritzner commenced at the magnificent Chateau Jung, into which a train of droll adventures, not to be made public, threw me during the summer months of the year 18—. Here it was I obtained a place in his regard, and here, with somewhat more difficulty, a partial insight into his mental conformation.

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  Weir of Hermiston

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  First published posthumously in 1896, Weir of Hermiston is widely regarded as one of Robert Louis Stevenson's most powerful and mature novels, a dark and compelling exploration of authority, justice, and human conflict.
  
  Set in early 19th-century Scotland, the novel centers on the intense and tragic relationship between Archie Weir and his father, Adam Weir, the formidable Lord Hermiston. As a harsh and unyielding judge, Lord Hermiston embodies the rigid moral and legal authority of his time, ruling from the bench with uncompromising severity. Archie, sensitive and idealistic, struggles to reconcile his sense of justice and compassion with his father's cold absolutism.
  
  Seeking refuge from this oppressive relationship, Archie retreats to the countryside, where he becomes entangled in a passionate and dangerous romance that draws him into a web of jealousy, betrayal, and violence. As personal loyalties clash with moral duty, the novel builds toward an inevitable and haunting tragedy.
  
  Stevenson's prose in Weir of Hermiston is rich, atmospheric, and psychologically profound. Through vividly drawn characters and a stark Scottish landscape, he examines the destructive consequences of inflexible authority and the emotional cost of moral rigidity. Although left unfinished at Stevenson's death, the novel remains remarkably complete in its emotional power and thematic depth.
  
  Weir of Hermiston stands as a masterwork of classic literature—somber, intense, and deeply human. It is an essential read for those who appreciate literary fiction that confronts the complexities of justice, family, and the darker corners of the human heart.

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  A Jury of Her Peers

  Susan Glaspell

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  In a quiet farmhouse, the ordinary folds into the unseen. A Jury of Her Peers turns a simple domestic scene into a mirror of justice, conscience, and the unspoken weight of women's lives. With spare, careful strokes, Susan Glaspell reveals how silence can testify and how understanding sometimes takes root where authority fails.
  A landmark short story of early feminist fiction, it remains haunting not for what is said — but for what is noticed.

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