"Mark Phillips" is, or are, two writers: Randall Garrett and Laurence M. Janifer. Their joint pen-name, derived from their middle names (Philip and Mark), was coined soon after their original meeting, at a science-fiction convention. Both men were drunk at the time, which explains a good deal, and only one has ever sobered up. A matter for constant contention between the collaborators is which one.
Originally published as That Sweet Little Old Lady, Brain Twister follows the adventures of FBI agent Kenneth J. Malone as he attempts to unravel the machinations of a telepathic spy. His first problem: how do you find a telepath to catch the first telepath?
The novella was nominated for the Hugo Award in 1960. (Summary from the text and Catharine Eastman)

Genre(s): Humorous Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Espionage, Political & Thrillers

Language: English

Keyword(s): humor (654), science fiction (442), spy (25)

Booker T. Washington was one of the first nationally recognized African American leaders after the Civil War. He was born to a slave woman in Virginia, who then took him as a young boy to West Virginia after the emancipation. Booker became a leader in education heading the Tuskegee Institute for more than 30 years and working with other universities. He advocated a moderate approach to elevating the African Americans through education and business, but worked behind the scenes to change discriminatory laws and practices, and became an adviser to the White House. He authored 14 books, and many articles and speeches, including his autobiography, Up from Slavery. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Genre(s): Biography & Autobiography

Language: English

Keyword(s): slavery (149), emancipation (30), black history (27), african american (20), civil rights (16), segregation (11), national negro business league (2), tuskegee institute (1), wayland seminary (1), hampton university (1), atlanta compromise (1), west virginia colored institute (1), up from slavery (1)

The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln

Helen Nicolay (1866 - 1954)

The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln is a biography with many anecdotes that takes one deeper into the thoughts, personality, and beliefs of the man that was Lincoln. While the title indicates the book is about Lincoln’s life as a boy, the book is a full, if somewhat shortened biography. It is very well written and was a joy to record. One might ask, "Who was Helen Nicolay?" Her father, John George Nicolay, was Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and doubtless much of the material comes from his complete biography of Abraham Lincoln. ( Summary by Tom Weiss)

Genre(s): Biography & Autobiography, Biography

Language: English

Keyword(s): Abraham Lincoln (49)

A Boy's Will is Robert Frost's first full volume of poetry. Issued when Frost was approaching forty, it established his reputation and created a revolution in American poetry. With this publication, Frost became an established poet. He later became the major American poet of the twentieth century.

A Boy's Will is characteristic of Frost's ability to conjure photographically clear physical images while ruminating on the complexities of the human condition, its frailties and strengths, and its temporal state, like that of his beloved New England landscape. (Summary by Becky Miller)

Genre(s): Poetry

Language: English

Keyword(s): literature (1959), poetry (1824)

These 12 stories give a personal portrait of twelve famous soldiers from the past two centuries. Each story explores the early life of the soldier —to trace his career up from boyhood through the formative years. Such data serves to explain the great soldier of later years. Summary compiled from the preface of the book. (Summary by philchenevert)

Genre(s): Biography

Language: English

Keyword(s): literature (1959), adventure (1061), history (910), biography (356), war stories (46), teen/young adult (20)

Boyhood is the second in Tolstoy's trilogy of three autobiographical novels, including Childhood and Youth, published in a literary journal during the 1850s. (Introduction by Bill Boerst)

Genre(s): Fictional Biographies & Memoirs

Language: English

Keyword(s): autobiography (94), youth (68), childhood (59), Russian Literature (47), Tolstoy (26), trilogy (9), autobiographical novel (3)

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, as a friend and fellow author has written of him, was “youth incarnate,” and there is probably nothing that he wrote of which a boy would not some day come to feel the appeal. But there are certain of his stories that go with especial directness to a boy’s heart and sympathies and make for him quite unforgettable literature. A few of these were made some years ago into a volume, “Stories for Boys,” and found a large and enthusiastic special public in addition to Davis’s general readers; and the present collection from stories more recently published is issued with the same motive. This book takes its title from “The Boy Scout,” the first of its tales; and it includes “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “Blood Will Tell,” the immortal “Gallegher,” and “The Bar Sinister,” Davis’s famous dog story. It is a fresh volume added to what Augustus Thomas calls “safe stuff to give to a young fellow who likes to take off his hat and dilate his nostrils and feel the wind in his face.” (Summary by Publisher's Note in book)

Genre(s): Children's Fiction, Action & Adventure, Short works

Language: English

Keyword(s): fiction (1613), short stories (730), dogs (56), spy (25), Cuba (20), Boy Scout (4), newspaper reporting (1)

Four children: Henry, Jess Violet and Bennie. They are living alone in a stranded boxcar. They find items they need from the dump and a stray dog whom they name Watch. Henry earns money by working for a man named Dr. McAllister and his mother, Mrs. McAllister. But, while they are living their daily lives, little do they know that the McAllisters are watching their every move. (Summary by francesb)

Genre(s): Action & Adventure, Family

Language: English

Keyword(s): Mystery (800), orphans (30), train (21), boxcar (5), grandfather (3)

Old Man Coyote craftily leads Bowser the hound away from home, and Bowser gets lost. Will Bowser find his way back to Farmer Brown's? Will Reddy Fox finally catch himself a chicken, now that Bowser is no longer guarding the henhouse? This is one of many delightful books by the naturalist Thornton W. Burgess, who wrote children's stories featuring the animals of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)

Genre(s): Children's Fiction, Animals & Nature

Language: English

Keyword(s): literature (1959), children (1119), animals (410), dogs (56), foxhounds (1)

Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893)
Translated by Albert M. Cohn McMaster (1888 - 1946)

Boule de Suif (1880) is a short story by the late-19th century French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is arguably his most famous short story, and is the title story for his collection on the Franco-Prussian War, entitled "Boule de Suif et Autres Contes de la Guerre" ("Boule de Suif and Other Stories of the War"). John Ford said that his film Stagecoach was in many ways a western rewrite of Boule de Suif. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Genre(s): General Fiction

Language: English

Keyword(s): maupassant (3)