This rather simple plot is a most compelling drama that bristles with suspense as it contains all the elements of a classic 19th-century mystery including, reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, and a tense courtroom scene. Set in the fictional frontier town of Dawson's Landing on the banks of the Mississippi River in the first half of the 19th century, the book turned from a farce to a tragedy in the course of Twain's writing...

First published in 1930, "Not Without Laughter" is the debut novel by Langston Hughes and a deeply personal, semi-autobiographical tale of an African-American family in rural Kansas. Langston Hughes, born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, spent much of his youth in Lawrence, Kansas and it is here that he set his first novel. "Not Without Laughter" tells the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a young man and focuses on his "awakening...

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." Overcoming extreme poverty, racism, and other adversities Carter Godwin...

Early in his career, Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) wrote a series of plays revolving around characters obsessed with the sea. This period culminated in the 1922 production of Anna Christie, a Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of social realism that was among the first of the author's plays to explore characters searching for their own identities. Centering on the reunion of a barge captain and his daughter after a twenty-year separation, the play derives...

In reprinting these orations the editor has endeavored to present them here as nearly as possible in their original form. No effort has been made to improve the English. Published in this form, then, these orations will be of value not only to persons studying the development of the Negro in his use of a modern idiom but also in the study of the history of the race. It is in this spirit that these messages are again given to the public.

Revisit the debut novel of one of the "New Negroes" of the Harlem Renaissance filled with Niggerati sensibilities. Disgruntled by the treatment of Black soldiers in the military, Jake Brown heads to Harlem-the Mecca of Black creativity-to rebuild his life anew. Upon arriving, he discovers that Harlem isn't exactly the paradise of racial uplift and unity that one might read about in books; but then again, it's a far cry from the volatile streets of...

Three Lives (1909) is a collection of novellas by Gertrude Stein. Characterized by its straightforward narrative style and disjointed prose, Three Lives proved a breakthrough for Stein, who had previously found it difficult bringing her works to publication. Each novella is set in Bridgepoint, a fictionalized version of Baltimore, where working class people of all races undergo the dignities and indignities of life in an industrialized nation. In...

Protective. Obsessive. And rough around the edges. James Foster knows the rules: you don't fall for your best friend's little sister. Nina is too young, too reckless, and too busy saving the world to be tied down by the commitment he craves. If he was smart, he'd stop wanting her. But she's the one thing on earth James just can't quit. Fierce. Principled. And impossible to resist. Political campaigner Nina Chapman is sick of one-time things. She...

The Marrow of Tradition (1901) is a historical novel by African American author, lawyer, and political activist Charles Chesnutt. Based on the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, in which a group of white supremacists rioted and overthrew the elected government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing hundreds of African Americans and displacing thousands more-The Marrow of Tradition follows two interconnected families on opposite sides of the violence. Set...

Although born with it, it seems as though it takes a lifetime to discover beauty within one's self. How does one even begin to define it? The simple appreciation of beauty is another feat in itself. It's always been there waiting to be unearthed. Flower In My Hair is like being born again...into beauty. Be Introduced or reacquainted with self love. BLESSEDselling Author E. N. Joy gifts her readers with her most personal and private thoughts. In the...