Publisher: Krill Press
William Murray Graydon (1864-1946) was extremely prolific American writer for the juvenile market, Graydon moved to England around 1898, where he continued to write for the British story papers.
With this highly praised collection of short fiction, Lorna Goodison demonstrates why she may be one of literature's best-kept secrets. In the Pushcart Prize-winning title story, humble Dottie thinks her luck has turned when she meets Frenchie, the best-looking, if not most reliable, man in the whole of Jamaica. In "The Helpweight," an accomplished woman must bear the burden of an old flame's renewed affections when he returns from a life abroad with his Irish bride in tow. And in "Henry," a young boy turned out of his house to make way for his mother's lover sells roses on the street to survive. On a whim, he bites off a bloom, which he can feel burning inside his mouth like a red pepper light, hoping it will take root and beautify his own life. Poetically rendered, these and over a dozen other evocative stories create a world in which pride can nourish a soul or be its ruin and where people are in turn uplifted and undone by love.Show book
Mosses from an Old Manse is a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846. The collection includes several previously-published short stories and is named in honor of The Old Manse where Hawthorne and his wife lived for the first three years of their marriage. A second edition was published in 1854, which added "Feathertop," "Passages from a Relinquished Work, and "Sketches from Memory."Many of the tales collected in "Mosses from an Old Manse" are allegories and, typical of Hawthorne, focus on the negative side of human nature. Hawthorne's friend Herman Melville noted this aspect in his review "Hawthorne and His Mosses": "This black conceit pervades him through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight, transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you; but there is the blackness of darkness beyond; and even his bright gildings but fringe and play upon the edges of thunder-clouds." William Henry Channing reviewed the collection in The Harbinger and noted that its author "had been baptized in the deep waters of Tragedy" and his work was dark with only brief moments of "serene brightness" which was never brighter than "dusky twilight". (Summary by Wikipedia)Show book
This work contains the collected short stories of H.P Lovecraft: The Festival, He, Cool Air, In the Vault, Pickman's Model, The Nameless City, The Alchemist, The Very Old Folk, Rats in the Walls, From Beyond, The Hound, The Strange High House in the Mist, The Unnamable - Hypnos, The Quest of Iranon, The Temple, The Moon Bog, The Evil Clergyman, The Horror at Martin's Beach, The Silver Key, The Transition of Juan Romero, The Other Gods, The Outsider.Show book
Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction.'The Moth' is the strange tale of two rivalling entomologists, each determined to demolish the other's life's work. When one of them dies, the other struggles to cope in the absence of his rival. And then he discovers an entirely new species of moth - a moth very reminiscent of his dead rival - and which pursues him wherever he goes.Show book
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24th 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family. His early years in Buffalo, New York showed him to be a boy of high intelligence and drive with a thirst for literature. In 1908, his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, and the family returned to Minnesota. Here Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy, in St. Paul, until 1911. At 13 he was published in the school newspaper, it was, of all things, a detective story. In 1911, aged 15, he was sent to the prestigious Newman School, in Hackensack, New Jersey. And, after graduating in 1913, he decided to continue at Princeton University. Here he firmly dedicated himself to writing. Unfortunately his writing pursuits came at the expense of his coursework. In 1917 he dropped out to join the U.S. Army. However this service to his country came with the very real fear that he might perish in the trenches of Western Europe with his literary dreams not yet begun. So he spent the weeks before reporting for duty at work on a novel entitled The Romantic Egotist. Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, in Alabama. It was there that Fitzgerald met the love of his life; Zelda Sayre, the "golden girl," of Montgomery youth society. The war ended before Fitzgerald could be deployed, and he moved to New York City hoping to start a career in advertising that would be lucrative enough to convince Zelda to marry him. Unable to convince her that his means were enough to support her she broke off the engagement. Fitzgerald returned to his parents in St. Paul, to revise The Romantic Egoist, now recast as This Side of Paradise. His revised novel was accepted by Scribner's and published in 1920 becoming an instant success. It launched Fitzgerald's career as a writer and provided a steady income suitable for Zelda's ambitions. The engagement resumed and they married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald, their only child, was born on October 26, 1921. Inspired by the parties he had attended visiting Long Island's north shore Fitzgerald began planning the greatest of his novels, The Great Gatsby, in 1923, wanting to produce "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." Published in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; only 20,000 in its first year. Today, it is considered a literary classic and one of a small circle vying for the title "Great American Novel". Fitzgerald continued to supplement his income by writing short stories for magazines and to sell his stories and novels to Hollywood. He called this "whoring". In February 1932, Zelda was hospitalized with schizophrenia. Fitzgerald rented a house nearby and worked on his latest book, Tender Is the Night, and finally published it in 1934. Fitzgerald's heavy and excessive drinking had now developed into alcoholism and with recurring financial difficulties, the emotional toll of Zelda's mental illness, this meant several difficult years. In 1937, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood. His income improved and he began to work in the film industry. He found movies beneath his talents, but was once again in perilous financial straits, and so spent the second half of the 1930s in Hollywood, working on a triangle of short stories, scripts for MGM, and his final novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon. In 1939, MGM ended the contract, and Fitzgerald became a writer for hire. Still an alcoholic, he now became estranged from Zelda and developed a relationship with Sheilah Graham, the Hollywood gossip columnist. They quickly became lovers. In this last period of his life his alcoholism had left him physically wrecked. After suffering a heart attack, in Schwab's Drug Store, he was ordered to avoiShow book
Mike Bragg is a man you can trust. He'll fix your car up right. He might even drive it home himself, just to make sure it's running exactly the way he thinks it should before you get it back. But when he accidentally runs over a small brown rabbit on his way home from work one day, Mike chalks up the incident as just another insignificant rodent casualty. "Too many of them hoppers anyway,” he reasons. And maybe he's right because that very afternoon dozens of them begin to crowd outside the door of Mike's humble abode. Watching. Waiting. Plotting? HOPPERS is a short tale of dark comic horror from the mind of Isaac Thorne, a nice man who simply wants to provide you with a few fun frights. Fast-paced and packed with edge-of-your-seat moments, HOPPERS is a story that might make you wary about what darts out in front of your speeding car on a given afternoon. Better to put that smartphone down and keep your eyes on the road than try to survive the roadkill vendetta of the HOPPERS.Show book
