Good beginnings, in film, in poetry, in fiction, are solid and memorable gold. Do you have favorites? Here are some of mine.

Stefan Zweig's intriguing classic story "The Invisible Colleciton"

On the occasion of his 175th birthday, two stories by the French Master Guy de Maupassant

A story about an amiable and resourceful small-town family by Thomas Beer, entitled simply "Tact."

Nobel Prize-winning Italian author Grazia Deledda's "The Open Door"

The second and concluding part of Ernest Thompson Seton's The Biography of a Grizzlhy

The first of two episodes: Ernest Thompson Seton, The Biography of a Grizzly

The first of two parts of Ernest Thompson Seton's splendid "Biography of a Grizzly"

Kathleen Norris's plainly told and moving story of a young widow and mother on the fringes of a tight-knit community.

He made a preposterous bet, but don't sell Professor Van Dusen short: the conclusion of "The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle.