As the owner of a 19th century home, I often think about those lives lived here before us and what they must have been like. As our homes are so much a part of us, do this who have gone before us leave traces of their lives and loves behind. Here is a very short, yet poignant tale of just such an old house.

It seems that the author experienced the feeling of something lurk at the edge of human senses, feelings, powerful emotions. This unique story is straddles prose and poetry as does much of Virginia Woolf’s work.

Woolf’s unique writing talents came naturally from her well read parents. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen (he was knighted for his literary services), was the creator of the Oxford Dictionary of Biography.

Late 19th and early 20th century science fiction writers were fascinated with the wild and relatively unknown regions of the world from which they imagined all manner of invaders from insects to lizards, even giant apes.

H.G. Wells was a master of using out irrational fears of the unknown to craft masterful stories that still resonate today. In today’s story, the true tales of giant Amazonian ants is magnified into a tale much like a terrestrial “War of the Worlds.”

Herbert George Wells was one of the preeminent science fiction writers of his day and his tales, including this one, have been the basis of dozens of movies. 1977’s “Empire of the Ants,” very loosely based on the short story, has the distinction of being one of the very worst.

Professional baseball in United States dates back more than 150 years. It has been considered the great American sport since the 19th century. Popular sports attract rabid fans as was the case even back in 1910 when Zane Grey wrote Old Well Well.

Known for his Western novels, Zane Gray was one of the most popular authors of the 20th century. Gray was also a huge baseball fan and published a number of stories about the sport. One of the first American authors to become a millionaire, more than 100 movies were made from his popular tales.

Not all dragons are fire breathing monsters bent on destruction.

Early in the US Civil War, families, particularly those in the western part of Virginia (now the state of West Virginia), were torn apart over conflicting loyalties. This story is a fictional account of one young soldier who chose to fight for his country rather than his state.

Ambrose served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He became the most famous Civil War storyteller of all time. This story was first published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1889. Years later, Bierce vanished while travel with rebel troops during the Mexican Revolutionary War in 1913.

If you haven’t yet, you should also listen to Bierce’s most famous story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” also on Litreading.

There is nothing like a corporate bureaucracy to raise someone's ire.

There is something special about the Old West. Life is the western United States for much of the 19th century was akin to living in another country, which makes sense as it was cobbled together from many diverse societies. Our next story takes place in the Great Southwest and involves a potential love triangle gone very wrong.

During his short life, Frank Norris had an outsized impact on American Literature. A painter turned author, Norris travelled globally as a news correspondent writing several short stories and novels. His finest work, The Octopus was intended as the first book of a trilogy on which he was working when he died during appendicitis surgery at the age of 34.

Without individual compassion, the good, old days were rarely good for orphaned or disabled children.

A young man seeks help from a stranger on a park bench. Does he deserve it?

Saki (or H.H. Munro) is considered to be one of the greatest short story masters of all-time for his biting humor and spot on satire as evidenced by the unique story in the form of a playlet.

Saki (the pen name of H.H. Munro) was a prolific and witty short storyist of the early 20th century. A 1910 review of his worked stated that “Saki has one of the lightest and most entertaining touches of the humorists of the day.” He died from a sniper’s bullet in France during WWI.