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Faces and Places is a collection of articles on nineteenth century travel, events and personalities by the British journalist Henry Lucy, who wrote for the Daily News, a London newspaper. His open letter To Those About to Become Journalists rings as true today as when it was written.

The first article, Fred Burnaby, includes a lively account of a balloon trip, while Night and Day on the Cars in Canada and Easter on Les Avants relate Lucy's experiences of rail travel at that time. Other travel tales (A Night on a Mountain, Mosquitoes and Monaco, and Oysters and Arcachon) provide an insight into the Victorian Englishman's attitude to Europe.

Three of the pieces, Peggotty and Ham, A Cinque Port and Christmas Eve at Watts's, concern the county of Kent, where Lucy had a country house. Christmas Eve at Watts's contains an interesting exposé of Dickens' short story The Seven Poor Travellers.

Other articles are of historical interest: A Wreck in the North Sea is an account of the wreck of the ship Deutschland in 1875; A Historic Crowd describes the massive popular interest in the 1871 trial of the Tichborne Claimant; The Battle of ...

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Humor, Essay/Short nonfiction

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When an alien spacecraft crashes in Missouri a team of army investigators is dispatched. Among the debris they find a Martian infant and decide to raise him in their lab. Is he too strange to form a relationship with humans? Maybe, but he does have cute eye-stalks. – Stamped Caution was first published in the August 1953 issue of Galaxy magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)...

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Science fiction

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Natty Bumppo goes by many names: La Longue Carabine, Hawk Eye, Leatherstocking, and in this tale, The Pathfinder. Guide, scout, hunter, and when put to it, soldier, he also fills a lot of roles in pre-Revolution upstate New York. An old friend, Sergeant Dunham of the 55th Regiment of Foot, asks him to guide his daughter through the wilderness to the fort at Oswego where Dunham serves. With the French engaging native Indian allies against the British and the Yankee colonists, such a journey is far from safe. Dunham has a plan in mind - to see his daughter Mable married off to the most redoubtable frontiersman and marksman in the territory, who is Pathfinder himself. But as an attractive and marriageable young lady, she draws other suitors. Then a military expedition contrives to put Sgt. Dunham, Mable, Pathfinder, and two other wooers into an isolated and dangerous garrison. Here treachery raises the stakes, and with the soldiers of the detachment shot down or captured, all of them must show mettle for any of them to escape with their scalps....

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Historical Fiction

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Troilus and Criseyde is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war in the Siege of Troy. It was composed using rime royale and probably completed during the mid 1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem it is certainly more self-contained than the better known but ultimately uncompleted Canterbury Tales. Criseyde, the daughter of the seer Calchas, lives alone in Troy after her father abandons the Trojans to help the Greeks. Eventually she catches the eye of Troilus, a man who had previously scoffed at love, and becomes the object of his overwhelming desire. With the help of Criseyde’s uncle Pandarus he wins her love but soon loses it when the Greeks and the Trojans conduct an exchange of prisoners. Calchas, who knows of Troy’s imminent destruction, persuades the Greeks to exchange Antenor for his daughter and thus saves her from the doomed city. Criseyde promises Troilus that she’ll return to him after ten days but once she’s back in the care of her father she realizes the impossibility o...

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Poetry, History, Tragedy

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It is the early days of The Great War. As the curtain rises, Sara Lee is sitting by the fire in her aunt and uncle’s home, knitting a baby afghan. Her beau’s name is Harvey. He has his eye on a little house that is just perfect for two and he will soon propose to Sara Lee. But in this play, the mise en scène is about to change. A fairyland transformation will take place and Sara Lee will step into a new and different story, where she is the princess in a forest of adventure. There is a prince, too, whose name is Henri. He is as strange as the forest itself. And then just as suddenly, the scene changes back and Sara Lee is once again sitting alone by the fire, knitting socks for the soldiers this time, and with a memory and a new stirring in her heart. This is the story of Sara Lee’s amazing interlude. (Summary by MaryAnn)...

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Romance, War stories, Historical Fiction, Literature

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Rufus Estes was born a slave in 1857 in Tennessee, and experienced first hand the turmoil of the Civil War. He began working in a Nashville restaurant at the age of 16, and in 1883 took up employment as a Pullman cook. In 1897, he was hired as principal chef for the private railway car of U.S. Steel magnates (the fin-de-siecle equivalent of today's Lear Jets for corporate travel). There he served succulent fare for the rich and famous at the turn of the 20th century. (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Cookery, Advice, Instruction

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Excerpt: Preface By Way Of Criticism. These studies are collected from the monthly press. One appeared in the New Quarterly, one in MacMillan?s, and the rest in the Cornhill Magazine. To the Cornhill I owe a double debt of thanks; first, that I was received there in the very best society, and under the eye of the very best of editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me to republish so considerable an amount of copy....

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Contents PREFACE BY WAY OF CRITICISM. ........................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I ? VICTOR HUGO?S ROMANCES ........................................................................ 15 CHAPTER II ? SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS.......................................................... 34 CHAPTER III ? WALT WHITMAN............................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER IV ? HENRY DAVID THOREAU: HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS........... 84 CHAPTER V ? YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO..................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER VI ? FRANCOIS VILLON, STUDENT, POET, AND HOUSEBREAKER.........117 CHAPTER VII ? CHARLES OF ORLEANS ............................................................................ 141 CHAPTER VIII ? SAMUEL PEPYS .......................................................................................... 170 CHAPTER IX ? JOHN KNOX AND HIS RELATIONS TO WOMEN .................................. 190...

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One Man. Ten days. No talking. One Centre. 102 meditators. No eye-contact. One Course. 105 hours of meditation. No gestures. One Law. One Truth. One Universe. This story isn't about me, it's about you. It may read as if it's about me, but if you've ever sought the Truth, then it's about you too. Surrender; it's the only way to win the war, the one being fought within, deep down in the trenches of your mind. Wherever that may be . . . Can I do it? And if so, what then?...

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Although heavily influenced by traditional Hindu scriptures, The Soma Tantra is a completely original retelling of an ancient story about a war against the moon. As a piece of literature it has few parallels since it sprawls across many genre boundaries including Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mythology, Epic Poem and Spiritual Text. Yet despite an overtly serious tone, The Soma Tantra is also filled with a light-hearted campiness running throughout its pages....

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A humongous metallic cylinder floated far above the site of the battle. It would have appeared as a bright star to those below except that their attention was drawn elsewhere. This state of distraction afforded Upaya Panther-Mask a bird’s-eye view of the ongoing havoc. He stood at the brink of a hatch on the vessel’s side, scanning that distant panorama through sensory augmentations ingrained in his helm. The fulmination that had dissipated a little earlier would have blinded him too were it not for said helm shading his eyes from any glare. “What do you see?” Priestess Kaitabh inquired next to him. “Berunni’s Danavas have found their way from the shadows and engaged the Devata’s infantry, which means that my Daityas shouldn’t be far behind.” “Excellent,” crooned the Raksha, “allocating our ground forces on the dark side of the moon was a superb idea wily prince.” “Not quite as superb as these vimanas. Your mages are exceptionally gifted to extract such artifice from the collective unconscious of Bhuloka. I always assumed that there was nothing left worth retrieving in the spatial-temporal sphere.” Kaitabh only gri...

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I – Three Planes of Existence II – Mythic Overview: The Denizens of Antarloka III – Prologue: The Nectar of Immortality Act One – Soma Chandra’s Hubris [ 1 ] A Gathering of Gods [ 2 ] Mutual Grievances [ 3 ] Heaven’s Orphans [ 4 ] Besieged ­- Interstice - Act Two – To Hell and Back [ 5 ] Avenues of Deceit [ 6 ] Curious Occurrences [ 7 ] Rescued by Old Enemies [ 8 ] Predestined Warpaths ­- Interstice - Act Three – Tremendous Upheavals [ 9 ] Surya Sets [ 10 ] A Duel Between Renegades [ 11 ] Fall of the Devatas [ 12 ] Deus Ex Machina Appendix: Glossary of Sanskrit Terms ...

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In this volume, a wide array of scholars turn a critical eye toward NASA’s first 50 years.

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In the late 21st century on Earth, new technology allowed man to create machines merged with the body of their fallen comrades of war. These ?manchines? fought and won the war for the West. Discarded, the manchines learned of their worth and fought back for their own freedom, destroying half of the population of mankind. Now, Saron Bravewind rules the main Earth city of Orland built from ruin after the ban of technology that once was man?s downfall. With his heart set on discovering life beyond the stars, he finally gets his chance when tragedy strikes as his daughter falls into an incurable illness. Saron mans a flight into space with a faith in finding a higher life to help his daughter. What he finds will change the fate of the future mankind. (http://www.raelori.com)...

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The love of personal decoration appears very early in the history of the human race. When the fierce struggle for existence and the pursuit of food and shelter allowed time for the consideration of family, the keen hunters must have learned many a lesson from the beasts of the field and forest,—not less from the birds of the air, of the processes of Nature which Mr. Darwin has called sexual selection. That any savage ever reasons out these processes cannot be believed, but the sharp eye trained in daily hunts could not be blind to the patent fact that so many birds have plumage evidently intended for attractive decoration, and that it answers this purpose. Savage man at first put on the adornments in which he saw the male of so many birds and beasts was resplendent, and not until many ages after was the woman allowed to appropriate to her own use what in early tribal life was the exclusive property of the male....

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The lion's mane, the tiger's skin, the eagle's feather were man's earliest adornment, and it is not improbable that woman in humble emulation of her lord made for herself clusters and bands of flowers or fruits, while the dwellers on the ocean shores soon took the sea-shells cast on the sandy beach. The warrior of the far North has the eagle and hawk from which to borrow, and the ancient war dress of a Mandan chief was decorated with spoil of these and other birds; but in the warmer regions of the earth, where Nature puts forth all her powers, and birds and insects vie in coloring with the most brilliant flowers, uncivilized man has wantoned in the prodigality and fashioned for himself a gorgeous decoration taken from the captives of his bow, net, or blow-gun....

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A new edition of the sonnets of William Shakespeare complete and unabridged. ISBN: 978-1-932023-43-5. https://www.facebook.com/williamralpheditions

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138: When My Love Swears That She Is Made of Truth When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutored youth, Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O love’s best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told. Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be....

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By Way of Introduction 1: From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase 2: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow 3: Look in Thy Glass and Tell the Face Thou Viewest 4: Unthrifty Loveliness Why Dost Thou Spend 5: Those Hours That with Gentle Work Did Frame 6: Then Let Not Winter's Ragged Hand Deface 7: Lo in the Orient When the Gracious Light 8: Music to Hear Why Hear'st Thou Music Sadly 9: Is It For Fear to Wet a Widow's Eye 10: For Shame Deny That Thou Bear'st Love to Any 11: As Fast As Thou Shalt Wane So Fast Thou Growest 12: When I Do Count the Clock That Tells the Time 13: O That You Were Yourself But Love You Are 14: Not from the Stars Do I My Judgment Pluck 15: When I Consider Every Thing That Grows 16: But Wherefore Do Not You a Mightier Way 17: Who Will Believe My Verse in Time to Come 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day 19: Devouring Time Blunt Thou the Lion's Paws 20: A Woman's Face with Nature's Own Hand Painted 21: So Is It Not with Me As with That Muse 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old 23: As an Unperfect Actor on the Stage 24: Mine Eye Hath Play'd the Painter and hath Stelled 2...

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A complete collection of the poems of William Blake. Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, engraver, and painter. Early in his life, his unique and deceptively simple poems marked the beginning of Romanticism, particularly those from his volumes Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794). Later work evolved into long mythological pieces informed by visions Blake claimed to have throughout his life. This volume collects all his poetic output, including those unfinished fragments in manuscript form....

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The Tyger Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?   In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes! On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?   And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?   What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp?   When the stars threw down their spears And water’d heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?   Tyger, Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?...

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Introduction POETICAL SKETCHES To Spring To Summer To Autumn To Winter To the Evening Star To Morning Fair Elenor Song (How sweet I roam'd...) Song (My silks and fine array...) Song (Love and harmony combine...) Song (I love the jocund dance...) Song (Memory, hither come...) Mad Song Song (Fresh from the dewy hill...) Song (When early morn walks forth...) To the Muses Gwin, King of Norway An Imitation of Spenser Blind Man’s Buff King Edward the Third Prologue, Intended for a Dramatic Piece of King Edward the Fourth Prologue to King John A War Song to Englishmen The Couch of Death Contemplation Samson Song 1st by a Young Shepherd Song 2nd by a Young Shepherd Song by an Old Shepherd AN ISLAND IN THE MOON SONG OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE Songs of Innocence: Introduction The Shepherd The Ecchoing Green The Lamb The Little Black Boy The Blossom The Chimney Sweeper The Little Boy Lost The Little Boy Found Laughing Song A Cradle Song The Divine Image Holy Thursday Night Spring Nurse’s Song Infant Joy A Dream On Anothers Sorrow Songs of Experience: Introduction Earth’s Answer The Clod & ...

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This sci-fi smorgasbord serves up 9 retro tales inspired by the pulp magazines of the 1920s - 1940s. It drops you into the deco chiseled cities of alternate Americana, airlifts you to exotic locales, then rockets you to the farthest reaches of yesterday’s tomorrows! Witness the otherworldly genesis of Wild Marjoram in a Chicagoland speakeasy as the violence of the all-female Killdeer Gang reaches vigilante-inspired fever pitch in "The Birth." Flying taxis fight for space over New York as Johnny Grant, Private Eye, sifts streets rife with murder and corruption in "The Maltese Spectrum." It's class-warfare in Citadel City as Pandora Driver and her Car of Tomorrow cruise the shadowy streets in search of one good cop in "Ready Fire Aim." Resources dwindle as aqua farming Region 5 Spaceport Terminus pushes maximum population density, and the balance between man and machine collapses in "Bloom." The fractured politics of the fractured 1920s Aether Age leaves a sheriff struggling to find the truth in "The More Things Change." Would Ace Rango rather be locked in battle with snarling space lizards or a temperamental, little...

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One Man. Ten days. No talking. One Centre. 102 meditators. No eye-contact. One Course. 105 hours of meditation. No gestures. One Law. One Truth. One Universe. This story isn't about me, it's about you. It may read as if it's about me, but if you've ever sought the Truth, then it's about you too. Surrender; it's the only way to win the war, the one being fought within, deep down in the trenches of your mind. Wherever that may be . . . Can I do it? And if so, what then? ...

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Ben-Hur is a story of two very different heroes. Judah Ben-Hur, a prince of Jerusalem, is involved in an accident to the Roman procurator which is taken to be intentional. He is seized and sent to the fleet as a galley-slave, while his family is imprisoned and the family goods confiscated. When Ben-Hur saves the fleet captain from drowning after his ship is sunk in a fight with pirates, that officer adopts him as son and heir. With Roman training, Ben-Hur distinguishes himself in the arena and the palistrae and appears to be on the way to high military command.With the help of a faithful family retainer and a generous Arab sheik, Ben-Hur is enabled to take part in a widely touted chariot race, where one of the other charioteers is the boyhood friend who connived to punish him for the accident and split his estate. That rival is crippled, financially and bodily, in a no-holds-barred race (memorable from the 1959 movie with Charlton Heston).Ben-Hur turns his attention to the prophesied King of the Jews, when through the sheik he meets Balthasar, one of the Three Wise Men, and hears of the child born years ago. Will Ben-Hur be the gene...

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Historical Fiction, Adventure

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There are few campaigns that, either in point of the immense scale upon which it was undertaken, the completeness of its failure, or the enormous loss of life entailed, appeal to the imagination in so great a degree as that of Napoleon against Russia. Fortunately, we have in the narratives of Sir Robert Wilson, British commissioner with the Russian army, and of Count Segur, who was upon Napoleon's staff, minute descriptions of the events as seen by eye-witnesses, and besides these the campaign has been treated fully by various military writers. I have as usual avoided going into details of horrors and of acts of cruelty and ferocity on both sides, surpassing anything in modern warfare, and have given a mere outline of the operations, with a full account of the stern fight at Smolensk and the terrible struggle at Borodino. I would warn those of my readers who may turn to any of the military works for a further history of the campaign, that the spelling of Russian places and names varies so greatly in the accounts of different writers, that sometimes it is difficult to believe that the same person or town is meant, and even in the nar...

Excerpt Details
Historical Fiction, War stories

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DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi 1 PREPARING TO TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Types of Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Briefing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Teaching Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Audience Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Audience Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Selecting the Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Narrowing the Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Choosing a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 General Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Specific Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Gathering Material . . . . . . . . . . ....

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The following collection of archival and oral historical records was researched and compiled by Kumu Pono Associates LLC, at the request of Ms. Ulalia Woodside, Land Legacy Resources Manager (Land Assets Division), of Kamehameha Schools. The research focused on two primary sources of information—historical literature, and summary of oral historical interviews with kupuna and kama?aina, known to be familiar with the history of Keauhou, and neighboring lands in the Districts of Ka?u, Puna, and Hilo, on the island of Hawai?i. The oral historical component of the study is based upon two historical interviews and a summary of an interview program conducted specifically for Hawai?i Volcanoes National Park between 1997 to 2000 (Langlas and Waipa, ms. 1997; and Langlas, 2003). The research brings a wide range (though not exhaustive) of historical references into one manuscript, with written accounts dating from the 1820s and oral historical accounts recalling traditions and personal experiences dating from the 1870s....

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Introduction. 1 -- Background. 1 -- Approach To Conducting The Study. 3 -- Historical Documentary Resources. 3 -- A Cultural-Historical Synthesis Of Keauhou And Neighboring Lands. 6 -- Native Traditions And Historical Narratives Of Keauhou And Vicinity. 9 -- Storied Place Names Of Keauhou. 9 -- 1. Na Moolelo (Native Traditions And Historical Accounts). 12 -- "He Meie I Kilauea". 12 -- He Wahi Puolo Lwi. 14 -- "Volcanic Manifestations—Pele". 16 -- Stone For Koi (Adze) Collected At Kilauea. 19 -- Battle Between Pele And Kamapuaa-The Naming Of Halemaumau. 19 -- Why The ohelo Is Sacred To Pele. 26 -- The Explosive Eruption Of Kilauea In 1790. 31 -- Kapiolanis Visit To Kilauea - Breaking The Kapu Of Pele (1823). 32 -- First Visit By Kamehameha Iii To Kilauea (1828). 33 -- Chiefess Bemice Pauahi Bishop's Visit To Kilauea In 1845. 33 -- Historical Accounts Of Kilauea And Attachment To Cultural Landscapes. 34 -- He Kanikau. 34 -- The Eruptions, Earthquakes And Tidal Waves Of 1868. 35 -- "Na Papahi Lei E Kini Kohu Ai"-Lei Of Lehua And Painiu Noted At Kilauea. 39 -- "Na Wahi Pana O Ko Kakou Lua Pele Kaulana" Storied Places Of Our Famous Volca...

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Charles King (1844 – 1933) was a United States soldier and a distinguished writer. He was the son of Civil War general Rufus King and great grandson of Rufus King, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from West point in 1866 and served in the Army during the Indian Wars under George Crook. He was wounded in the arm forcing his retirement from the regular army. During this time he became acquainted with Buffalo Bill Cody. King would later write scripts for several of Cody's silent films. King's writings, relating to American Indians, cover a complex range of opinion within his novels. His sympathy for their cause of defending their homelands, and being forced to adopt a new lifestyle, did not stop him from graphically portraying them as savage and barbaric peoples. However, King also used his writings to harshly criticize U.S. government policies that resulted in Indian treaties not being honored and that permitted rampant corruption among government-appointed reservation agents. As a lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry, King was a participant on the American western frontier, who personally fought in battles...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Genre: Paranormal romance and fantasy adventure *** BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_w-eZwPJbA *** Never marry a stranger...even if he is a drop-dead gorgeous immortal king. Never pretend to be a princess. And most importantly...never slip on an ancient wedding ring you know nothing about. Sarah Larker returns to a cave where her sister disappeared ten years earlier. She walks through a portal and is mistaken for a runaway princess on the run by a dangerous immortal king in medieval times. Her plan is bold as well as daring—become this princess, wed the king, and slip on an ancient wedding ring that will unlock the portal back home. Then find her sister and run as fast as she can out of Dodge. But taking on the identity of Princess Gloria comes along with dangerous consequences; and slipping on the ruby ring comes with an even higher price....

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Chapter 1 A soft growl echoed in the darkness. Sarah snatched the thermal imaging camera from the row of equipment by the fire. Turning in a slow circle, she scanned the dark trees beyond. Nothing moved. Just as she was taking a few tentative steps through the ferns and thick brush, a branch snapped, making her jump. Another growl pierced the silence. She clutched her chest, as if that might calm her racing heart. Five years as a Bigfoot researcher, and she was still not used to the occasional howl. Then again, no animal she had ever encountered before had made such an ominous and menacing sound. She stopped for a moment and listened, her heart thumping hard in her eardrums. “Show yourself!” Her voice echoed from the trees with a courage she couldn’t feel. A shiver slid down her spine as she pulled her radio off her belt. “Base camp to Adam. Computer screen’s flashing like crazy. Something broke the perimeter line.” The radio crackled and a voice answered. “Adam to base camp. What zone?” “Zone 3. All cameras up and running, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I’m getting sounds over here—some movement too. I’m gonna...

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The World Public Library Association is the world’s largest aggregator of eBooks. Founded in 1996, the World Public Library Association is a global coordinated effort to preserve and disseminate historical books, classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other heritage works in a number of languages and countries around the world. World Public Library is a IRC 501(c)(4) Organization, organized Not for profit, but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare. Our mission is to serve and aid the public, students, and educators, by providing the world's most complete collection of electronic books, documents, and articles online, as well as offer a variety of services and resources that support and strengthen the instructional programs of education, elementary through post-baccalaureate studies. Access to the complete holdings of the World Public Library is open to the general public for personal use, members receive an eLibrary Card allowing them unlimited accessto our complete holdings....

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Franklin D. Roosevelt - “The public library is a nation’s act of believing in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgement in creating their own future.” The traditional library is changing, fast. Paper books,and the multi-level structures that house them, are becoming a thing of the past while digital books, eBooks, pave the way for a new future of instant, worldwide accessibility to knowledge. The World Public Library is at the forefront of this movement. I. History A. Purpose of the Library 1. Origins Hi, I’m Mia with the World Public Library and I would like to invite you on a journey through the library’s past present and future. Along the way we will explore what has made the library such a unique and important place historically and what the World Public Library is doing today to make the library more useful and vital than ever before. It’s impossible to think about the progress mankind has made without calculating the role that the library has played. Any city that has had a great impact on learning has had a great library behind it, fu...

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Dome of Death is a slightly shocking and occasionally thought provoking romantic thriller about two young men who’d love to be as cool as James Bond in the face of extreme danger, but discover reality is not like fiction. When Max, the director of an Art Gallery in Queensland, falls to his death, Peter, the exhibiting artist who is also Max's ex-lover, unwillingly accepts the widow’s pleas to take over the job. After rescuing a strange young man from a raging sea, Peter’s suspicions about the accident and an investigation into what he thinks is an art swindle, puts him in great danger. He is raped and left for dead, but escapes, only to discover that he and his new friend Jon are wanted for murder. What follows is a hair-raising chase to clear their names. Murder, torture, cyclones, tidal surges, and snuff porn shows are but a few of the complications to be navigated in their search for justice, happiness and love....

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Chapter One Exposing oneself in public is not for the faint-hearted. En masse and expertly illuminated the paintings gave viewers rather more insight into the private spaces of my mind than I’d bargained for. The fact that the gallery’s patrons were also baring their souls with every critical utterance and every painting bought was scant consolation – especially as no one was buying! After an hour of eavesdropping among the usual crush of wine-sipping social scramblers, I wished I hadn’t. Stepping back, I collided with an elderly, shapeless little woman loosely wrapped in a sari decorated with mirrors. ‘Young man!’ she demanded as though I’d been caught spraying graffiti, ‘Are you the artist?’ How to respond? People who call themselves artists remind me of Napoleon seizing the jewelled cap, crowning himself and living to rue the day. Such accolades are for others to bestow. If, as frequently happens, a painter’s efforts delight no one but himself, then the labour has been little but therapy. Only those whose works impose order on the chaos of existence and reinvigorate flagging spirits by giving the viewer a glimpse of a le...

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Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six ChapterSeven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-Four...

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WELCOME TO THE RETRO FUTURE When I started the Dieselpunks website years ago, the word “dieselpunk” was still a curiosity. Sure, it was loaded with familiar tropes like Pulp Adventure, Film Noir, and Weird Horror, but the artists were mashing these concepts together with something different, something a little more contemporary. At that time, the steampunks were just starting to climb their way from the underground and gain traction as a legitimate style, but there was something to be said about this little-known corner of dieselpunk, or "low-brow pop surrealism" as it was known back then. Like the French film scholars who codified Film Noir as a genre years after the movies were in the theaters, I could see a similar thread binding the dieselpunk work together. Whether they realized it or not, these artists were creating work with eerily similar concepts. They were creating a future fueled by the spirit of the Jazz Age. In their world, they wanted to see if old Sam Spade could work in an era of smartphones, or if Dillinger could make a clean getaway in a cherry red hovercar. These artists were writing cyberpunk stories...

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THE 1920s. MID-WESTERN COMMONWEALTH, CHICAGO. “Well if it ain’t that then what was it?” “It was all those damn fool bankers in New York.” “Bankers?” “Yeah, bankers. They’re the ones who caused everything that’s happened. A huge pack of New York bankers got greedy. And the country was the one to cop it in the teeth when it all headed south.” “Nah. It weren’t that.” “It was too. And everyone knows it. Bankers got greedy, they sold Louisiana back to the French and that’s why the Grand Dream of the United States of America is now just a footnote in history.” Mickey thought about this for some time before shaking his head. “Nah, that ain’t it. That don’t explain half the crazy things that have happened.” Mack growled. “Jus’ listen.” He began checking points off on his fingers. “New York sold Louisiana to the French. Which made everyone else really mad. Which made Chicago form the Mid-West militia. Which meant New York had to stop pretending and actually get serious about The Prohibition act. This made the North West secede to Canadia, which made California blame New York and change their name, which made Texas w...

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Welcome to the Retro Future That Sort of World: A Tale of the Aether Age Pandora Driver: Who are the People in Your Neighborhood The Troubleshooter: What the Wise Man Says The World of Mañana: A Friend of Spirits Last Call...

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Etymologically, aphorism + floral = aph(L)orism, which is a short reflection written on a floral design, or a short poetry accompanied by an artistic background. They are colorful contemplations. Maximus in minimis (Lat.) means very much in very little [max in min], or condensed thought, or ideating essence. They are actually maxims, adages, sayings mostly in one line (uni-stich) with a title, as a metaphoric statement, a breathing momentum that oils our soul....

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Nonchalantly : The wind with its mantle steps lightly. Skin Condition : The Sun has spots too. At what time? When it rains, God cries. Atmosphere : Blue, as the sky dirtied by clouds. Bright : A balcony full of Sun. Natural disaster : The swans look drunk on the fetid lake. Surprisingly : The crow is a beautiful black. Elegant woman : A bird high on her legs. Most powerful chess piece : You are a queen but only in the dark. Medicinal plant : You’re a flower but amongst weeds. Force that attracts food : The stomach’s gravitation pulls me to food....

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Passion.......................................................................23 Worthless.....................................................................23 Tired of you....................................................................23 Tittle-tattle....................................................................23 Talk is cheep...................................................................24 Give the man what he doesn’t have.................................................24 Novel for (non) writers...........................................................24 Desolate......................................................................24 Did I have the pleasure...........................................................24 Sloppy work....................................................................25 Despicable.....................................................................25 Wanted.......................................................................25 Talking in vain..................................................................25 Use caplets.....................................................

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Space Force Grunts is a Science Fiction novel playing several generations into the future. After the human race has invented hyperspace flight, thousands of planets are colonised. Those new societies maintain their independence until the human race encounters an alien civilisation that also masters space flight and hyperspace travel. Being so very different from the human race, those aliens are at first not even recognised as an eminent civilisation commanding over impressive, seemingly sheer unlimited means and a proficient use of advanced technologies. When the mistake is discovered, it is too late already for avoiding a clash of civilisations and a violent conflict has already started. The worlds settled by the human race gradually unite ever more under the leadership of a political movement. Conscription is introduced to provide for the military forces’ need for soldiers. People with sufficient means can purchase freedom from conscription and escape the draft. The funds obtained by the administration via that purchase of freedom are used to supply the military with materials means like weapons and to pay the soldiers who get dra...

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Base 18 on Planet DN-DU-144/5 was a place that could only be found on detailed military maps. This planet was circling a sun situated at the border between our Local Bubble of stars in the Milky Way and the much bigger Loop 1 Bubble, another assembly of suns and planets. DN-DU-144/5 was the fifth planet in outward direction, when counted from the local star as centre. Base 18 now consisted of a dozen bunkers, a few deep wells and a couple of cisterns appendant to them, a makeshift front-line spa, and most importantly a maintenance station for fighter robots and combat drones. Base 18 on planet DN-DU-144/5 was in principle a bleak place. Though at that moment it was officially day-time at the location of base 18, there was actually just a little twilight. The far sun, going by the less-than-poetic name of DN-DU-144, illuminated only the abundant clouds enfolding the planet decently. Little light ever made it through to the surface. ‘I just love it’ Master Sergeant Koon had sarcastically said when arriving at this place, together with all the other soldiers of the 5th company. They had taken this base over from a unit that had suffe...

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Not Applicable

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Space Force Grunts (Second, Revised Edition) tells the story of soldiers conscripted to defend the Human Alliance, a civilisation that has spread over thousands of worlds after the invention of hyperspace flight. They are fighting an enemy they don't understand in a war they did not choose. Space Grunts is told mainly from the perspective of the rank and file of the Human Alliance ground forces, who face an eminent foe, commanding over far superior means. Space Force Grunts tells about the feelings and thoughts of these soldiers, reports their talks and the trials and tribulations they have to go through, as well as the little pranks they play to each other and their superiors. - See more at: http://gutenberg.us/wplbn0003468521-space-force-grunts--a-science-fiction-novel-by-potsch-ingo.aspx?#sthash.GxmYw9Wd.dpuf...

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Base 18 on Planet DN-DU-144/5 was a place that could only be found on detailed military maps. This planet was circling a sun situated at the border between our Local Bubble of stars in the Milky Way and the much bigger Loop 1 Bubble, another assembly of suns and planets. DN-DU-144/5 was the fifth planet in outward direction, when counted from the local star as centre. Base 18 now consisted of a dozen bunkers, a few deep wells and a couple of cisterns appendant to them, a makeshift front-line spa, and most importantly a maintenance station for fighter robots and combat drones. Base 18 on planet DN-DU-144/5 was in principle a bleak place. Though at that moment it was officially day-time at the location of base 18, there was actually just a little twilight. The far sun, going by the less-than-poetic name of DN-DU-144, illuminated only the abundant clouds enfolding the planet decently. Little light ever made it through to the surface. ‘I just love it’ Master Sergeant Koon had sarcastically said when arriving at this place, together with all the other soldiers of the 5th company. They had taken this base over from a unit that had suffe...