First serialized in 1908, “Martin Eden” is Jack London’s classic and tragic tale of its title character and his struggle to become a writer. Martin Eden is an idealistic and self-educated young man who struggles to overcome poverty and a lack of opportunities in a quest to become an educated and successful artist. He hopes to find acceptance in the world of the wealthy and refined, though he finds it hard to shake off his coarse working-class background. Eden falls in love with Ruth Morse, but he feels that he is not good enough to win ...

In response to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s call for the United States to have its own unique poetic voice, Walt Whitman rose to the challenge to create what would ultimately be his most profound work. Taking its title from the colloquial term “grass”, meaning a work of minor value, Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is anything but that. Over his lifetime Whitman would continue to expand and revise his most famous work up until his death in 1892. The first edition contained just twelve poems, significantly smaller compared to the final ...

Believed to have been written between 1610 and 1611, "The Tempest" is likely the last play written solely by Shakespeare. The story concerns the Magician Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, who have been stranded on an island by Prospero's jealous brother Antonio. The plot of "The Tempest" itself is however of less importance than in Shakespeare's other works. Supernatural elements are introduced with great freedom, and the dramatist's interest was clearly not in the reproduction of lifelike events. The presentation of character ...

First published in 1922, “Jacob’s Room” is Virginia Woolf’s third novel and a surprising and innovative departure from her other work. It is the life story of the character Jacob Flanders, from his childhood in pre-war England, through his time at Cambridge, and following him into his adulthood and travels abroad. The novel is told entirely from other character’s viewpoints, most often from the women in Jacob’s life, and focuses on their memories and feelings. Considered to be a highly experimental novel, “Jacob’s ...

First published in 1854, “The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta” is the thrilling Gold Rush tale of a wild outlaw by Cherokee author John Rollin Ridge. Originally written under his Cherokee name Yellow Bird, Ridge’s embellished story of real-life Mexican bandit Joaquín Murieta was instantly popular and soon translated into several languages. Ridge tells the story of Joaquín as a young and idealistic man who moves to California from Mexico with his family in search of gold and is quickly shown the cruel and violently ...

Born on June 28, 1712, in Geneva, the French philosopher, novelist and essayist Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most prominent and definitive minds of the Enlightenment. Self-taught, Rousseau dabbled in many fields, keeping journals of his interests in science, mathematics, music, astronomy, botany, music, literature, and philosophy. He achieved sudden success and subsequent fame with his "A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences", a work that cemented his pivotal place in the history of The Enlightenment and philosophy as a whole. "The Reveries of the Solitary ...

“Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life” was Herman Melville’s first novel and the work he was best known for during his own lifetime. Originally published in 1846, “Typee” was an immediate success and made Melville suddenly into a popular American author. The novel was partially based on Melville’s own experiences as a beachcomber in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands in 1842. He combined actual details from his own one-month stay in the island paradise and embellished these events with thoughts from his imagination and inspiration ...

First published in 1922, “Captain Blood” is an entertaining tale of pirates by Rafael Sabatini, the Italian-English author of adventure and romance novels. “Captain Blood” tells the story of Dr. Peter Blood, an Irish physician who had traded his past life as a sailor and a soldier for a quiet life tending to his garden and patients in Somerset, England. Dr. Blood attends to the wounds of rebels injured in the Battle of Sedgemoor during the Monmouth Rebellion and is soon arrested for treason. While he did not actually participate in ...

Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932) presented an essay at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 that would change the study of American History forever. This essay would ultimately be published with twelve supporting articles to form "The Frontier in American History". Turner was an innovator in that he was one of the first to call attention to the Frontier as an integral part of the study of The United States of America. Turner himself grew up on the Frontier, living in Wisconsin for the better part of his life. As a child, he lived along the Wisconsin River ...

First published in 1900, “The Strenuous Life” is a collection of essays and speeches by American President Theodore Roosevelt.  The title comes from his famous 1899 speech, also called “The Strenuous Life”, which is included in this collection. In this well-known address, Roosevelt argues that the application of great effort in all our work and the striving to overcome hardship were ideal characteristics to be embraced by Americans for the betterment of the nation. The remaining essays and speeches continue in this theme and ...