Showing results by author "Mentor New York" in All Categories

In this essay, the author directs our attention on the African continent and describes how the exploitation and colonization of Africa by European powers contributed to the then-ongoing World War. Without a just and measured settlement of African concerns, the promise is for continued warfare among nations even after the peace to be negotiated at the close of the European conflict. - Summary by KevinS

A collection of shorter works written during the early decades of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often known in that time as Mormons. Three key works from the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. discussing his history, his theology, and his politics bookend the anthology as it moves from a discussion of the Prophet's validity by Orson Pratt, to some foundational doctrine by Morgan and Wilson, to apologetics by Smith and Pratt, Whitney, and Talmage, and finally a discussion of governance, both in the church and in secular society, from Taylor, Pratt, and Smith. - Summary by James ...

They had been captured, but by whom? And why where they allowed to build anything they wanted to escape? The space cruiser was powerful and built to fight anything in the galaxy, but somehow, in the empty rift between galaxies, they had been rendered helpless and brought to this prison. Even stranger was that their captors had not harmed any of them at all, used no weapons and allowed them to use all equipment brought from their ship inside the prison. And did not utter a sound. Stranger and stranger. Where were they, and how could they escape? And where could they go if they did? Follow these...

Aunt Jane's Nieces On The Ranch sees the reappearance of Louise and Arthur Weldon after the birth of their first child, Jane. The family lives in California and hire a nurse, a local Mexican woman, much to Uncle John's disapproval. Racial tension is explored as a New York woman is brought in to care for the child. Meanwhile, the Mexican nurse, Inez, is certain the ranch is haunted. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

For your listening pleasure, here are three stories by the ingenious Keith Laumer from the glorious days of Science Fiction in the early 1960s: A Bad Day for Vermin, The King of the City and Doorstep. They were all published in various Science Fiction magazines then flourishing in the United States at that time. I won't spoil your fun of listening to them by giving detailed story outlines, but be assured that there are aliens of various disgusting and/or beautiful shapes involved in several and a sad view of our future life when the US government collapses. (phil chenevert )

Not for the squeamish or for children, these folk-tales are from the Ainu, the somewhat mysterious indigenous people of Japan, thousands of whom still live in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Ranging over all of the usual themes of folklore, from creation to marriage to war, these stories have a pungent, ribald frankness concerning all aspects of human life that offended their scholarly collector Basil Hall Chamberlain (his apologies to the reader are themselves entertaining) but that make them fresh, provocative, and amusing to the twenty-first century reader. Attention to the Ainu ...

The author provides a fascinating look at the emerging science of bacteriology at the start of the twentieth century including early progress in understanding and preventing diseases such as tuberculosis and diphtheria. The book also includes chapters on the spread of disease through close contact with infected persons as well as from contaminated drinking water and milk. Water purification methods as well as the stability of various disease-causing organisms to extremes of heat and cold is discussed. The final chapter includes a very interesting discussion of the development of anti-venoms ...

This entertaining book of adventure, love and war was a Bestseller in 1900 and 1901. The heroine Alice Roussillon is a brave young woman who grew up in a small town on the Wabash River in Indiana during the revolutionary war. The characters are all distinctive and compelling. It gives a great insight into the frontier life of that era and includes true historical accounts and personages such as the wicked Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clarke who was responsible for expelling the British from Fort Sackville in Vincennes in 1779. From the foreword: " "Accept, then, this ...

Anna Cora Mowatt was the author of the first Broadway comedy hit written by a woman. Her 1845 play “Fashion” is still performed today. She was also the first woman to professionally perform solo public readings of literature in the U.S. In pre-Civil War America, she was a popular novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and correspondent. Autobiography of an Actress tells the dramatic story of her life and her struggles to overcome the anti-theatrical prejudices of her day. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor

Aucassin and Nicolette is a medieval romance written in a combination of prose and verse called a “song-story.” Created probably in the early 13th century by an unknown French author, the work deals with the love between the son of a count and a Saracen slave girl who has been converted to Christianity and adopted by a viscount. Since Aucassin’s father is strongly opposed to their marriage, the two lovers must endure imprisonment, flight, separation in foreign lands, and many other ordeals before their ardent love and fierce determination finally bring them back together. Aucassin is the...

Simple and unpretentious as a statement by Francis d’Assisi, yet full of a gentle modern sophistication and humour, this little work will bring delight and refreshment to all who seek flight from the heavy-laden hour. It is, moreover, one of the most subtle and penetrating studies of the psychology of the dog that has ever been written—tender yet unsentimental, realistic and full of the detail of masterly observation and description, yet in its final form and precipitation a work of exquisite literary art. - Summary from the Foreword by Herman George Scheffauer

Ellen Newbold La Motte (1873–1961) was an American nurse, journalist and author. … and in 1915 volunteered as one of the first American war nurses to go to Europe and treat soldiers in World War I. In Belgium she served in a French field hospital, keeping a bitter diary detailing the horrors that she witnessed daily. “I am a professor of American studies and recently spent several years researching the life of Ellen N. La Motte, a long-forgotten nurse and public health crusader. In particular, I focused on her war writing. Soon after World War I began, she volunteered as a nurse in a ...

This long essay is a work of mock philology, one of several appendices to Twain’s travel novel, A Tramp Abroad. In it, Twain explains, complains about, and shows how one might improve upon various aspects of the (awful) German language. His examples of precisely how the German language is awful include the famed “separable verb” – which allows one to put the first part of a given verb at the beginning – and its second part at the end – of a given clause or sentence (which may, indeed, be very long). He also makes fun of the extreme length of certain compound nouns (which are ...

Harry Wethermill, the brilliant young scientist, a graduate of Oxford and Munich, has made a fortune from his inventions, and is taking a vacation at Aix-les-Bains. There he meets, and immediately falls in love with, the young and beautiful Celia Harland, who serves as companion to the aging but warm-hearted Madam Dauvray of Paris. All this is observed by Julius Ricardo, a retired financier from the City of London, who spends every August at Aix, expecting there to find a pleasant and peaceful life. Imagine his consternation when he learns that Mme. Dauvray has been brutally murdered, and ...

Set in the early 22nd century: Dr. Daniel Feldman, stripped of rank and status and named pariah for violating Medical Lobby rules, stows away on a spaceship and flees to Mars Colony. There, while essentially practicing medicine without a license, he stumbles upon a plague organism indigenous to Mars, that threatens the whole colony and potentially the human race. Performing research to identify a cure, (also in gross violation of Medical Lobby rules) he must risk his life to buck the entrenched bureaucracy, bent on sweeping the whole matter under the rug in the name of political expediency. - ...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the "literary nonsense" genre, and its narrative course and structure have been enormously influential, especially in the fantasy genre.(summary from Wikipedia)

The Autobiography of a Slander exposes the consequences of reckless words or, even worse, intentionally disparaging words. In this moral tale, told from the point of view of "the slander", Edna Lyall (pseudonym used by Ada Ellen Bayley) reveals her ideals and goals in life and relationships. (Summary by Rhonda Federman)

Jasper Derry was on a mission. He had left the northern wilderness a few years earlier when he had worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, but in doing so he had also left some unfinished business behind. Now he is on his quest to complete those affairs. We travel with Jasper and his two companions through the rugged, desolate region, and while doing so, we learn a great deal of just how wild and untamed the wilderness was in the mid-19th century. This is an adventure, a series of learning experiences, and a lesson in bonding to ensure survival away in the wilderness. - Summary by Roger Melin

The Protestant Sir John Chester and the Catholic Geoffrey Haredale have been feuding for years. In "Romeo and Juliet" fashion, Chester's son and Haredale's niece wish to marry, but their relatives oppose the union. A tale of love and intrigue set against the historical events of 1780, when an anti-Catholic mob caused more damage to London than had ever been seen before. And the simple young man Barnaby who becomes caught up in events he does not quite understand. (Brad Filippone)

The Manchester Athenaeum was founded in 1837 as a society for the "advancement and diffusion of knowledge". This short collection of poems was published to raise money for the society's annual bazaar. The collection included contributions from 'marquee' poets of the time, including Charles Swain and Agnes Strickland, and Thomas Hood provided an entertaining preface on poetry as food for the mind. It also found space for several of the local school of poets, who were determined to show the world that Manchester was not just a centre of industry and trade. In addition to poems by Ner Gardiner, ...