Showing results by narrator "Marty Krz" in All Categories

Anna Katherine Green (1846-1935) was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and has been called “the mother of the detective novel”. Her style would influence other writers such as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Doctor, His Wife and the Clock is the sixth title in her mystery series and is more a novelette compared to her other books. The story features one of her reoccurring characters, Ebenezer Gryce, who is called in to find out who killed a well-loved and respected citizen in a small community where he had no enemies to speak of.

Dorothy and Uncle Henry go to California to visit family at Hugson's Ranch where Dorothy is introduced to her second cousin, Zeb. While Dorothy, Zeb, and Dorothy's cat, Eureka, are enjoying a horse-drawn buggy ride one afternoon, an earthquake hits, creating an enormous crack in the ground beneath their buggy. They all go tumbling into the crevice, down to the Land of the Mangaboos.

Young Cedric lives with his widowed mother in New York. His late father was a British earl who had been disowned by his father for marrying an American. As all of the earl of Dorincourt's sons have now died, he begrudgingly looks to Cedric as his sole heir. While the earl soon comes to love the endearing little Cedric, conflict arises when a strange woman appears on the scene and insists that her son is the true heir.

Ojo and Unc Nunkie live in the land of Oz in Munchkin Country. Their neighbor, Dr. Pipt, has been devotedly working on the Powder of Life for many years. This magical powder will turn inanimate objects into living things. While demonstrating its power on a stuffed doll made of patchwork, Dr. Pipt accidentally turns his wife and Unc Nunkie to stone. It is up to Ojo to collect the necessary ingredients to destroy the spell and turn them back.

In As You Like It, a wicked Duke expels his virtuous brother, the lawful ruler, from his domains. The banished Duke takes refuge with his followers in the Forest of Arden, where they live as free a life as did Robin Hood and his merry men.

A Munchkin named Bini Aru discovers a way to transform people and objects by speaking the magic word "pyrzqxgl." When Ozma proclaimed that no one was allowed to practice magic in Oz except for Glinda and The Wizard, Bini hid his notes in his laboratory. When his son Kiki finds these notes, he transforms himself into a hawk and sets off on an adventure. Landing in Ev, he runs into Ruggedo, the former Nome King who was exiled and now sees his opportunity for revenge through Kiki's power.

Poe in Prose is a collection of short stories from one of the original kings of horror, Edgar Allan Poe. One of America's first practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, Poe is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a well-known classic that never seems to lose its magic. Dorothy Gale and her trusty little dog Toto are swept away when a cyclone hits the family farm. Along with her new friends The Scarecrow, The Tin Woodman, and The Cowardly Lion, Dorothy follows the yellow brick road in search of The Emerald City to meet the Great Oz. He is a powerful wizard with the ability to send her back to her dear Aunt Em and Uncle Henry...but at what cost? The first book in the Oz series, this novel introduces us to the strange Land of Oz and its odd inhabitants.

As with many of Ostrovsky's plays, the target of the author's satire is the merchant class and the inevitable corruption associated with mercantile endeavors. In Ostrovsky's bitterly realistic world, all personal encounters end in transactions, some humourous and some tragic.

Wealthy heiress Catherine Sloper has always been plain and rather simple, though very sweet. She is drawn by the attentions of handsome gentleman Morris Townsend, the only man who ever even noticed her. But is he more interested in her fortune than Catherine herself? When they get engaged, despite protestations from her brilliant physician father, Catherine has to choose between her inheritance or love.

Stephen Arnold Douglas was one of two Democratic Party nominees for president in the 1860 presidential election, which was won by Republican Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln-Douglas debate, which occurred during the senatorial campaign, in Illinois, in 1858, focused on the contentious issue of slavery. The Republican party was in principle opposed to slavery while the Democratic party supported it.

Abraham Lincoln was probably the most iconic world leader of recent centuries and also one of the most researched. It is estimated that over 15,000 books have been written about him - significantly more than have been composed about more recent dominant figures of world history like Churchill and Hitler.

In a public debate held at the Manhattan Opera House, Clarence Darrow argued that not one of the 19 men under sentence of death at Sing Sing Prison would have been convicted if they could have afforded good attorneys. He was opposed by Judge Alfred J. Talley of General Sessions, who argued for the retention of the death penalty for murder. The debate commenced with an address by Lewis Lawes, who was the warden at Sing Sing.

The book Decisions, Decisions: Practical Guide to Managing Your Health and Finances is aimed at providing new graduates, couples, elderlies, new migrants, and more, a simple and effective tool to guide them through the process of acquiring life insurance, health insurance, of understanding how social security works, how to buy a house, how to appreciate the importance of education, and how to prepare for retirement. Take the time to educate yourself and learn the basic principles you will need to make sound decisions about your life.

Although his work has somewhat fallen into obscurity, Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886) is considered to be one of the greatest of Russian dramatists. He was one of the pioneers of a realistic style, which later found exponents in celebrated European dramatists like Ibsen and Strindberg. Of Ostrovsky's 47 plays, one of the best known is The Storm, the portrait of an idealistic young woman trapped in a world of crushing and venal orthodoxy. The Storm formed the basis of Janacek's opera, Katya Kabanova.

Dorothy Scarborough was an academic and author who had a particular interest in the supernatural. The following collection, first published in 1921, features stories that have a strong comical or satirical focus.

In the introduction to this selection of tales of the macabre, anthologist Arthur Reeve writes: "What is the fascination we feel for the mystery of the ghost story? Man is incurably fascinated by the mysterious. If all the ghost stories of the ages were blotted out, man would invent new ones. For, do we not all stand in awe of that which we cannot explain, of that which, if it is not in our own experience, is certainly recorded in the experience of others, of that of which we know and can know nothing?"

A famous author goes to the airport and finds himself seated beside an unknown woman who is reading his latest book. Unbeknownst to him, the woman has admired his work for years. This is her big chance! Should she speak to him? What will she say?

Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944) is considered by many to be the Canadian counterpart to the better known American humorists Mark Twain and S.J. Perelman. In the early 20th century he was one of the most widely read authors in the English speaking world. Jack Benny and Groucho Marx considered Leacock as one of the funniest writers they had ever read. The following sketches have been adapted from pieces in the miscellanies Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy and Further Foolishness, in which Leacock satirizes many of the social institutions of his time.

Leonid Andreyev was born in Orel, Russia, on August 21, 1871. He died on September 12, 1919, in Finland, an exile from his beloved chaos-ridden fatherland. The main characters of Andreyev's stories are "people who stand apart," solitary, lonely characters, moving among their fellow men with a baneful cloud hanging over them. The hapless Father Vassily is a well-meaning but ineffectual man, whose best intentions are remoselessly crushed by fate.