A fascinating account of the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. She writes of her struggles in being accepted to a medical school . She details her experiences while in the process of obtaining her degree, and her work both with patients and administratively, helping to found medical schools and hospitals for women. Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

Part of the Twelve English Statesmen series of books. Edward I, was one of the greatest of the medieval monarchs, driven either by a deep commitment to the well being of his people, or a fierce determination to enhance his own power, depending on your viewpoint. He began the unification of the United Kingdom, and left a string of impressive monuments, in the shape of the castles that line the countryside. - Summary by Cavaet

Joaquin Murrieta was a famous Californio bandit, known as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado". Joaquin Murrieta was the son of worthy parents, and nothing in his early youth betokened any traits of the monster which he afterwards became. . . . In the following pages every trace of his blood-stained footsteps is closely followed. Some of the facts are furnished by contemporary witnesses; most of them by official documents. He proceeded from step to step, wading deeper and deeper into crime, until quiet citizens were almost afraid to breathe his name aloud...

Despite not having attended conventional school for more than a few months during his childhood, Thomas Alva Edison received a good grounding in the essential subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic at home from his mother . Edison took the knowledge gained from these subjects and combined it with an insatiable curiosity, a fascination with all aspects of technology, an indomitable spirit and a passion to overcome any problem or seize any opportunity that circumstance might present him with to eventually become one of the finest inventors the world has ever seen...

Departing from the usual third person narratives of biographies, this account is told in the first person as the reminiscences of a now retired George Washington. Reflecting on his days as a youth, he relates his family history, education, and military life up to the age of about 26 when he was a colonel. Naturally the author takes much liberty in filling in the details of Washington’s life, but largely remains true to history and the spirit of the man. The result is an engaging story that flows naturally, entertaining as it informs. - Summary by Larry Wilson

During the last half of the second century B.C. Rome was undisputed mistress of the civilized western world. As the British historian, Augustus Henry Beesly writes, "a brilliant period of foreign conquest had succeeded the 300 years in which she had overcome her neighbors and made herself supreme in Italy. In 146 B.C. she had given the death-blow to her greatest rival, Carthage, and had annexed Greece." But Rome was on the brink of a one hundred year-long revolution. In this slim volume Beesley, recounts the careers of four of its first dynamic leaders: the idealistic Brothers Gracchi, who attempted land reforms, and the rough, resourceful soldier, Marius, who overhauled the army...

From the "Twelve English Statesmen," series of books. A brief history of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey who helped shape England's foreign policy through the early part of Henry VIII's reign, and beyond, along with his subsequent fall from grace when he failed to procure the King's divorce. - Summary by cavaet

Daniel Boone is celebrated in history and legend as one of the foremost pioneers who opened up the wilderness of Kentucky. Famed for his skills as a hunter, he was once captured and adopted by the Shawnee tribe from which he ultimately escaped. He was active in the militia and fought in several battles of the American Revolution. In later life he became a politician, being elected to Virginia state assembly, and land speculator, eventually settling in Missouri. This biography is written for youth in a lively and engaging style dramatizing many of the events of Boone’s adventures, from his youth to his final days. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Beaumarchais – Watchmaker, music teacher, politician, opportunist, publisher, secret agent for Louis XVI, yet fomenter of revolution in both France and America – and yet again imprisoned for being an enemy of the Revolution. . . Friend of Voltaire, libertarian, arms dealer, and dramatist whose famous Figaro trio of satirical plays reflects the dissolution of Medieval society and torturous emergence of a new democratic era. This biography by John Rivers was originally published in 1922.

Mark Twain illustrator Dan Beard recalled discussing McAllister’s book with Twain. “It was before Webster & Company failed that Ward McAllister’s book appeared, and when he sauntered into my studio one day, I said: ‘Mr. Clemens, have you read Ward McAllister’s book?’ ‘Yes; have you?’ he replied. ‘Indeed, I have. I have read it through several times, and intend to read it again. It is one of the most humorous books I ever read.’ ‘That’s so,’ said Mark, ‘that’s so...

This is a moving and deeply felt biography of abolitionist John Brown, which defends its subject against the popular notion of him as a delusional fanatic. The author, W.E.B. DuBois, was a renowned author, scholar, sociologist, socialist, and civil rights activist, and one of the founders of the N.A.A.C.P.. - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

A brief summary of the life of the opera king, Rossini. - Summary by Mozartjr

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elisabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before. Volume ten includes the biography of Mary Beatrice of Modena , from 1701 to her death in 1718, and Mary II , through 1688.

Frederick Wedmore presents short vignettes of influential artists of the 19th century who were noted for their mastery of etching: Seymour Haden, Jules Jacquemart, J. A. M. Whistler, and Alphonse Legros. - Summary by Larry Wilson

This is a sequel to Washington's first autobiographical book, Up From Slavery, which depicted his early life. He says "This book contains answers to the questions I have frequently been asked as to how I have worked out for myself the educational methods which we are now using at Tuskegee; and, finally, to illustrate, for the benefit of the members of my own race, some of the ways in which a people who are struggling upward may turn disadvantages into opportunities." "The fact that I was born a Negro,...

"William Jesse "Bill" McDonald in the 1880s served as a deputy sheriff in Wood County. After moving to Hardeman County, he served as deputy sheriff, special Ranger, and U. S. Deputy Marshal of the Northern District of Texas and the Southern District of Kansas.. . . .In 1891 McDonald was selected to replace S. A. McMurry as Captain of Company B, Frontier Battalion. He served as a Ranger captain until 1907. Capt. McDonald and his company took part in a number of celebrated cases including the Fitzsimmons-Maher prize fight, the Wichita Falls bank robbery, the Reese-Townsend feud, and the Brownsville Raid of 1906...

Following the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, the reigns of Henry VII and VIII were autocratic and centralized to an unprecedented degree. This slim volume by the British historian and educator, Charles Moberly, provides many interesting details about the reigns of these two monarchs. But the author also offers a clear picture of the European context in which they acted: the Reformation struggle, the rivalry between the King Francis I and Emperor Charles V, the influence of the Popes, and the struggle for Italy.

Few men have lived in modern times whose life history is so suggestive as that of Abraham Lincoln. Not that he should have stepped from a log-cabin to the national capitol, though that fact, of itself, might challenge our liveliest interest; but that, out of the very discouraging circumstances which surrounded his years to manhood, he should have come forth with a well-stored mind, a large and humanitarian soul, and perceptions which led him unerringly forward to his high destiny — that is a result so remarkable as to render the story of his life one of the highest significance...

Excerpt: "Now that one hundred years have elapsed since the "long-drawn agony" of Saint Helena we think that the time has come for a more impartial estimate. Facts are clearer, motives are better known, much new evidence is available. Let us then endeavor to depict Napoleon as he was, and "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." - Walter Geer

This is a biography of the Wright Brothers as told by the American humorist and newspaperman Fred Kelly, a personal friend of the Wrights. It is described in reviews as "fascinating and highly readable." - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

This lively book follows the adventures of mountain man Joe Meek, from his joining the Rocky Mountain Fur Company trapping expedition in the year 1829 at the young age of 18, through his retirement from public life after serving as Marshall of Oregon Territory. Meek had close connections with many famous people of the era, such as Kit Carson, William and Milton Sublette, Jedediah Smith, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Dr. John McLaughlin, Oregon’s Governor Lane, and President James Polk. The author’s information came directly from interviews with Joe himself...

Elizabeth Banks was an American journalist and author. She grew up in Wisconsin, then lived in England the last forty years of her life. She became a regular contributor to English publications such as The Daily News, Punch, St James' Gazette, and London Illustrated. She created a sensation by recording her observations on the plight of the lower classes, which she researched posing as a housemaid, street sweeper, and Covent Garden flower girl. Her later journalistic writings promoted women's right to vote and denounced prison conditions for jailed suffragettes...

David Hume justly takes rank as the most distinguished member of that brilliant circle of literary men whose names gave such a lustre to the second half of the eighteenth century in Scotland. His speculations were the most profound, and, with the possible exception of Adam Smith in a particular department, his influence was the widest and most deeply felt, of any. But even his warmest friends could scarcely have predicted the influence he was destined to exercise, or the important results that were to spring from his thoughts...

Edward III reigned for fifty years, from 1327 to 1377. William Warburton writes that "the backbone of the story of his reign and times is the great Continental war...He was a genuine Englishman in his rough and ready, and often incoherent policy; in his contempt for foreigners and his audacious confidence in himself and his countrymen; in his love of manly exertion; his personal pride and popular sympathies, and his freedom from lasting enmity and vindictiveness...It is in vain for cold reason to...

A biography about David Brainerd, one of the first missionaries to the Native Americans, using excerpts from his diary and journals. This work is an abridged version of the work by Jonathan Edwards, of the same name. - Summary by KHand

Charles Simeon had come up to King’s college from Eton, a wild undergraduate, famous for his love of horses and extravagance in dress; but one day he discovered that the rules of the college compelled him to receive the Communion on the following Sunday. He had lived in an utterly careless home, but he knew enough of religion to realise that attendance at the Lord’s Table was a serious thing, which should not be undertaken without some preparation. Not quite knowing what to do, he went to a bookseller’s shop, and bought a copy of Bishop Wilson on the Lord’s Supper, and learned from it for the first time the meaning of the Atonement...

Written in the aftermath of Word War I, Viscountess Snowden recounts her travels in post war Europe in, as she describes it, "an attempt to do what one person might do, or at least attempt, to restore good feeling between the nations and the normal course of life as quickly as possible." An outspoken pacifist, socialist, and feminist who nonetheless strongly denounced the Bolsheviks, Snowden was a controversial and polarizing figure. whose views and observations offer a unique perspective on Europe in the '20s. - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

An overview of the life of Shri Dnyaneshwar and his devoted family. Dnyaneshwar was a 13th-century Indian poet and yogin. He commentated the Bhagavad Gita in a timeless manner while in his teens, and wrote an original book of verse. He was an inspirational speaker with many followers. - Summary by Czandra

William Henry, Prince of Orange and Nassau, Dutch William to the English, was born in a state threatened by the military ambitions of Louis XIV. “Reared from his very cradle amid the animosities of contending factions,” Traill writes, “the young Prince learned early those four lessons of statecraft,—to conceal his designs, to watch his opportunities, to choose his instruments, and to bide his time.” The Dutch Republic, distrustful of monarchs, reluctantly chose him as stadtholder to lead their armies, and then, after the overthrow of James II in 1688, he became with his consort, Mary, England’s king.

Blackwood wrote this autobiography in his fifties, describing his first thirty years as an almost penniless British adventurer in Canada and New York, trying his hand at all sorts of investments, getting swindled again and again, sleeping on park benches, living in the woods, and sharing a one room tenement with friends who betrayed him and others who helped him through sickness and injury, reporting on aberrant personalities he met, their strange circumstances, and witnessing the criminal workings of Tammany Hall during his stint as a reporter for the Sun...

Writers is Volume 4 of Library of Little Masterpieces of Autobiography in Six Volumes as published in 1913, and includes writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry George. The series includes letters, passages from autobiographies, and pages from diaries written by each of these. - Summary by J. M. Smallheer

The autobiography of John Joseph McGraw, another one of the "greats" of baseball. McGraw, along with Casey Stengel, has managed the most league pennants, with ten. He also holds the NL record for seasons managed, with 31 . He is third among major league managers in wins with 2,763, behind Connie Mack and Tony La Russa, though, at .586, McGraw's winning percentage as a manager is about .050 higher than La Russa's and .100 higher than Mack's. This book tells, in his own words, the hows and whys of his remarkable career, from player to manager. - Summary by cavaet