The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is not merely an example of self elevation under the most adverse circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims of the American anti-slavery movement.

In "Among the great masters of the drama; scenes in the lives of famous actors; thirty-two reproductions of famous pictures with text", Walter Rowlands introduces us to the most famous playwrights and actors that might be seen on the London stages in the 19th century. Many of the playwrights mentioned are very famous until today, like Shakespeare and Molière, some are today less well-known. Especially interesting are the short biographies of the stars of the stage, which may in some cases remind you of contemporary actors. - Summary by Carolin

Sir Walter Ralegh , English soldier, explorer, courtier, writer, and poet was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era. Louise Creighton's short biography follows him from the wars in Spain to the jungles of Guiana. Ralegh sparkles in a court riddled with intrigue and constrained by attendance on the brilliant, imperious Elizabeth and on her successor, that rigid mediocrity, James. During his long confinement in the Tower of London, Ralegh conducted chemical experiments and wrote a ''History of the World...

Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were friends for 44 years. Their personal and professional relationship is considered by many to be one of the most important in American literature. Howells published his famous "My Mark Twain" in the same year Clemens died, 1910. A few years earlier, Clemens wrote this "remembrance" and "appreciation" of the man who stuck with him through the ups and downs of his long literary journey.

Henry IV, King of France and Navarre was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon. He was raised in the Protestant faith, barely escaped death in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and led the Protestant forces against the Catholic armies in the French Wars of Religion. Declaring that "Paris was well worth a mass," he abjured the Calvinist faith, which brought an end to the pitiless strife that was destroying France. "Good King Henry" is remembered for his courage in battle, his geniality, and his great concern for the welfare of his subjects. A survivor of multiple assassination attempts, he succumbed to the knife of François Ravaillac in 1610.

Excerpt from Preface: Their patriotic sacrifices were made with an enthusiasm that showed the earnest spirit ready on every occasion to appear in generous acts. Some gave their own property, and went from house to house to solicit contributions for the army. Colors were embroidered by fair hands, and presented with the charge never to desert them; and arms and ammunition were provided by the same liberal zeal. They formed themselves into associations renouncing the use of teas, and other imported luxuries, and engaging to card, spin, and weave their own clothing.

In this second volume of his work on English rational theology in the seventeenth century, Tulloch describes the lives and works of the group of theologians known as the Cambridge Platonists. - Summary by Barry Ganong

This short, engaging volume summarizes the life of a priest who, intending to spark a lively academic debate by nailing 95 theses on a church door, unwittingly sets the continent aflame with the 1517 Reformation of the Catholic Church. - Summary by Elyse J. Wood

This volume celebrates stories of great heroes from the pages of history from Moses and David through Clara Barton and Henry Longfellow. It is divided into nine sections: Mighty Men of Long Ago, Heroes of the Middle Ages, Four Leaders in the Old World, Discoverers and Explorers, Colonists and Pioneers, Patriots of the Revolution, Winners of the West, Famous Inventors, and The Greatest Americans, It is written from a distinct Western and American point of view, but each chapter is a short summary of these people deemed “heroes...

Ralph Keeler failed as a novelist, but this autobiography reflects a life well-lived with humor and adventure. Keeler was in the same literary circle as satirist Bret Harte, novelist Charles Warren Stoddard, editor Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and essayist William Dean Howells. He so impressed Mark Twain that Twain wrote an essay about him called "Ralph Keeler". In 1873, on his way to Cuba, he reportedly was thrown overboard by a Spanish loyalist who objected to his backing of the revolutionary, anti-Spanish movement. - Summary by John Greenman

Joseph of Copertino was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar who is honored as a Christian mystic and saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstatic visions that left him gaping.  Joseph began to experience ecstatic visions as a child, which were to continue throughout his life, and made him the object of scorn. He applied to the Conventual Franciscan friars, but was rejected due to his lack of education. He then pleaded with them to serve in their stables...

This is a 'lightning biography' which serves as an introduction to the field of Napoleonic history. Its purpose is to enable the ordinary reader or would-be student safely to take the first few steps in Napoleonic literature. This is not a short history, but a short biography - the one contains the other, but in a different key.

A biography of Saint Joan of Arc, geared towards children, but also can easily be enjoyed by adults.

Mae Watkins, a University of Michigan student, unexpectedly falls in love with a Chinese international law student in the midst of World War I. Despite the socially unacceptable pairing the couple decide to tie the knot and forge ahead with an unsure future. Mae demonstrates her unique ability to observe and describe a foreign culture after their move to Shanghai. She documents in detail her perceptions of Chinese fashion and food in addition to her knowledge of such controversial customs as foot binding and widow suicide...

Louise Creighton was a British author and women's rights activist. The wife of the Anglican bishop of London, she was the mother of seven children. In this short book, Creighton gives us chapters on such well-known women as Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, and Queen Victoria. But we also learn about St. Hilda, the 7th century royal princess who became an influential abbess, the prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, and Isabella Bird, who thrilled Victorian readers with accounts of her lone travels on horseback to remote and perilous places. - Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.

Brief sketches of the lives and music of 12 well-known musicians. - Summary by KevinS

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints : with reflections for every day in the year : compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other approved sources : to which are added lives of the American saints : placed on the calendar for the United States by special petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore - Summary from the book itself

As one of the first two bishops of the Methodist church in America and one of the most well-known circuit riders during the spread of Methodism, Francis Asbury kept a journal of his travels and activities. His journal begins with his prayerful decision to come to America in 1771 and continues to December of 1815, a few months before his death. In the meantime, we travel with Rev. Asbury across the ocean, over mountains, through rivers, and up and down the whole length of the fledgling United States of America. Summary by Devorah Allen

Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving lives contain twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired, single lives. Plutarch was not concerned with writing histories, as such, but in exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men. The first pair of lives the Epaminondas-Scipio Africanus no longer exists, and many of the remaining lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae and/or have been tampered with by later writers...

James P. Beckworth, born in Virginia at the dawn of our Nation, moved with his family to eastern Missouri settling a few miles below what is now St. Charles. Still young, James began his education in the character of the Indian nations where he gained first hand knowledge of the Indian tactics and at times, their brutality. At the young age of 19, he became a member of the famed company known as Ashley's hundred. Working along side some our countries most revered adventurers. Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and of course, General Ashley himself...

From time immemorial, women have served as wives, mothers and domestic organizers. But in the nineteenth century, the lives of women were changing, allowing those with drive to serve in other capacities. In this volume, we briefly examine the lives of eleven such women, ranging from 'Our Lady of the Red Cross', Clara Barton to 'A Champion of the Cause', Anna Howard Shaw and 'The White Mother of Darkest Africa', Mary Slessor. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

William Cowper Brann earned the nickname “The Iconoclast” by fearlessly attacking established beliefs and institutions which he thought to be pompous and self-serving. He settled in the wild and wooly West Texas town of Waco in the late 1800s as a newspaper man - first as a writer and then as owner of newspaper he named “The Iconoclast”. During this period, Catholics and Protestants were duking it out over the soul of Texas and there was even further sectarian strife among Protestants. Brann wrote prolifically and aired his Politically Incorrect views with vigor and colorful language...

This short biography of Martin Luther, by Gustav Just, who taught at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran School, St. Louis, is a standard resource for students, young and old. The first five chapters give a swift moving, succinct overview of church history up to Luther’s time, and the final two chapters deal with the church after Luther’s death. Martin Luther is presented in a favorable, but objective light and his influence appreciated as the primary leader of the Reformation. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua was a former slave, native of West Africa. He was sold as a slave in 1845 and worked in Brazil as a captive; however, when the ship where he was enslaved crew was at the harbor in New York in 1847, he fled. He studied at the New York Central College in McGrawville for almost three years. In 1854, he moved to Canada; he narrated his autobiography to the abolitionist Samuel Downing Moore in Detroit, who published it. His narrative is the only known document about the slave trade written by a former Brazilian slave. - Summary by Leni

Charles James Fox was a prominent British Whig member of Parliament and the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger. A staunch opponent of George III, he supported the American colonists throughout the War of Independence. He was a leading parliamentary advocate of religious tolerance, individual liberty, and the anti-slavery cause. A notorious gambler and womanizer, Fox fell in love with and married Elizabeth Armistead, the former mistress of the Prince of Wales, and found happiness and tranquility in their home, St...

The Real Oscar Wilde is the third book about the Irish poet and playwright by his earliest and most prolific biographer. Since writing his earlier The Life of Oscar Wilde , Sherard had read Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas's Oscar Wilde and Myself and the unexpurgated manuscript of Wilde's De Profundis. - Summary by Rob Marland

Among all the numerous life stories written by Ferdinand Schmidt for the delectation and education of German youth, none surpasses that of Washington. The author has condensed his material, drawn from the most authoritative sources, in a masterly manner, and presents it in a very attractive form. He has accompanied it by moralization which is pertinent, but never becomes tedious. It is questionable, indeed, whether any story of Washington’s life written for young people excels Schmidt’s in accuracy, conciseness, and general interest...

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , was the oldest surviving son of Sir Winston Churchill, an impoverished country gentleman. After the restoration of Charles II, John's sister, Arabella, became the mistress of the King's brother, James, Duke of York. The family fortunes were made and Churchill's military career launched. In the winter of 1677-78, Churchill married Sarah Jennings, the intimate friend of the future Queen Anne. Ruthlessly changing sides during the Glorious Revolution, he deserted his patron James and joined the army of William of Orange...

This volume is a simple narrative suited to children's understanding of the thrilling times when English Catholics suffered for the Faith in the troubled days of the sixteenth century, when Tyburn tree was a concrete fact, and when ardent love hurled the defiance, "Come rack! Come rope!" Martyrs lay and cleric are here commemorated. The Carthusians, Houghton, Lawrence, Webster; the Jesuits, Campion, Sherwin, Southwell; the secular priests, Hart, Lacey, Ingleby; the countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole; the Chancellor of England Blessed Thomas More, Philip Earl of Arundel, and Margaret Clitherow, harborer of priests...

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

A Little Book of St. Francis and His Brethren presents with superlative charm the great simplicities and eternal verities in the life of St Francis. The author EM Wilmot Buxton is already well known for valuable work in making vivid the lives God's heroes. The Little Book will be found delightful by both children and adults.

"In the year 1907, the Woman’s Home Companion commissioned me to go to Russia to write the story of the early days, courtship and marriage of her whom the world knows to-day as the 'Tsaritsa,' The following year, the same periodical sent me to Italy to write a similar account of the life of Queen Elena; and in 1910 I was once more sent abroad, this time to Spain, to learn all about Queen Victoria Eugenie....'Your task is difficult,'remarked a friend to whom I had just explained that I was writing the lives of the Empress of Russia, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Italy...