Publisher: John Henry Goldfrap
"Isn't it a dandy picture—the real thing—just as I've always imagined it. Herc!" Ned Strong wheeled from the gaudily colored lithograph he had been admiring, and turned to a red-headed youth of about his own age—almost eighteen—who stood beside him in the postoffice and general store at Lambs' Corners, a remote village in the Catskill mountains.
Alone in his garrett on Christmas Eve, an artist uncovers a beautiful but disturbing portrait with strange powers.The Old Portrait is taken from the Victorian Anthologies series featuring short stories by classic writers of the spooky, the scary and the supernatural. Guaranteed to give you the shivers, each collection includes familiar and loved creepy tales as well as those less well-known.Show book
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most darkly humorous and unsettling tales. Set in a remote French madhouse, the story follows an unnamed narrator who visits an asylum to observe a new and revolutionary treatment method. However, what begins as a curious exploration quickly turns into a nightmarish experience as the narrator uncovers the bizarre and terrifying reality behind the so-called "soothing system." Poe masterfully blends suspense, irony, and grotesque imagery, creating a story that is both chilling and satirical. The tale explores themes of madness, deception, and the thin line between sanity and insanity, challenging the reader to question what is real and what is illusion. The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether is a brilliant example of Poe’s ability to blend horror with social commentary, making it a timeless piece of gothic literature.Show book
The Future of the American Negro was written to put more definite and permanent form the ideas regarding the condition of the negro. Booker T. Washington, a prominent African American leader, educator, and author, articulates the importance of Industrial education. He emphasized the importance of the development of the Negro in hand and heart training, which would provide the solid foundation necessary to attain the highest form of citizenship.This volume is the outgrowth of a series of articles written to enlighten people on the doctrine of industrial education that would address the mistakes of the reconstruction period. Booker T. Washington expresses arguments through sound reason in an impassioned plea to resolve the problems of increased crime, ignorance, discrimination, and debilitating debt crippling the black race. He substantiates his case with inspiring examples of former students of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute who overcame adversity to achieve their dreams.Show book
Lance Gordon's running out of time. He's killed the man who murdered his father, and now he has a price on his head. Lance wants to live in peace, but he'll have to go through hell to get there. He heads for the one place no lawman will go — into the territory ruled by the feared king of the cattle rustlers. Taking on the Baron is his last chance — as Lance vows to redeem himself... or die trying.Show book
The final collection of fiction and essays by the most celebrated science fiction author of all time—including the Hugo Award–winning story “Gold.” Isaac Asimov is widely considered both the inventor of science fiction as well as the genre’s greatest practitioner. This wide-ranging collection is the final and crowning achievement of his fifty-year career as a writer. It includes an introduction by the renowned science fiction author Orson Scott Card. The first section contains stories that range from the humorous to the profound, at the heart of which is the title story, “Gold,” a moving and revealing drama about a writer who gambles everything on a chance at immortality: a gamble Asimov himself made—and won. The second section contains the grand master’s ruminations on the SF genre itself. And the final section is comprised of Asimov’s thoughts on the craft and writing of science fiction.Show book
Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa.Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent.Show book
