The Day's Work
Rudyard Kipling
Maison d'édition: Bu Classics Books
Synopsis
The intersection of professional duty and human emotion takes center stage in these stories celebrating the quiet heroism of those who build and maintain the modern world.
Maison d'édition: Bu Classics Books
The intersection of professional duty and human emotion takes center stage in these stories celebrating the quiet heroism of those who build and maintain the modern world.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri on the 30th November 1835 and is far better known by his pen name of Mark Twain. An American writer and humorist of the first order he is perhaps best known for his novels ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and its sequel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ which are often described with that mythic line The Great American Novel. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri which would later provide the backdrop to these great novels. Apprenticed to a printer he also became a typesetter and then a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. Later, heading west with his brother Orion to make his fortune, he failed at gold mining and instead turned to journalism and thence his true calling as a writer of humorous stories where his wit and humor sparkled from every paragraph, his craft evident with every page and punctured target. A staunch supporter of copyright protections this helped him keep much of the wealth his writing created, though much money was also lost on investments that he pursued in his love for science and technology as well as investing in his own inventions. Twain was born during a visit by Halley’s comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it as well. He died the day after its subsequent return on 21st April 1910, at his house, Stormfield, located in Redding, Connecticut.Voir livre
There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating. From their pens to your your ears. 01 - 3 Stories - Success At What Cost 02 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy 03 - Cohen of Trinity by Amy Levy 04 - A Sucessful Rehearsal by Anthony HopeVoir livre
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.Voir livre
A Clown for Orphans & Other Short Stories gathers seven quiet, redemptive tales—ordinary lives brushed by the surprising nearness of God. These aren’t stories that shout. They move at the pace of real life: steady, unhurried, carrying both wounds and hope. There’s a clown who gives more than he thought he had for the sake of another’s healing. A teenage girl with a jar of coins whose small act sets something sacred in motion. A hard man who learns mercy is not weakness, but the only way left open to him. I write with honesty and faith, where questions are welcome and grace shows itself in unexpected ways. This audiobook is narrated by Patrick Oliver Griswold, with additional character voices provided by professional actors.Voir livre
This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Lovecraft's story regarding a tram conductor whose head transforms into tentacles, recorded in a letter dated November 25, 1927, to Donald Wandrei. The story is currently considered inauthentic, as it is partially not authored by Lovecraft. The content of two letters, one containing 'The Very Old Folk' and the other with this 'work,' Wandrei sold to the publisher of the magazine 'Scienti-Snaps' (later renamed 'Bizarre'), J. Chapman Miske. He published both texts as stories written by Lovecraft, with the addition of two paragraphs to 'The Thing in the Moonlight': one at the beginning and one at the end.Voir livre
Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent. At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868. Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path. Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children. In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt. Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother. Sadly, her mother died within the year. Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings. By the early 1890’s her short stories were published nationally. With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about. Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth. Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904. She was 54. For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print. It was only in early 1970’s, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at. She is now safely revered as one of America’s great authors.Voir livre