Michael McCurdy

Henry David Thoreau was an author and naturalist whose book WALDEN still inspires readers today. In it Thoreau documented his experience living in a cabin on Walden Pond, reflecting on the beauty of nature and Mother Earth. Much of his writing, including WALDEN, propelled the environmental movement that exists today. Over one hundred and fifty years later, Michael McCurdy pays tribute to this influential figure and the historic place that inspired...

Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, the expedition ship, the Endurance, was finally crushed and Shackleton and his men made the very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

An old man insists on playing his fiddle without stopping, as his house collapses around him and his neighbors complain.

There Is Confusion (1924) is a novel by Jessie Redmon Fauset. Published to resounding acclaim from such critics as Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory, There Is Confusion was largely forgotten by the 1930s as the Great Depression and the Second World War shifted national attention away from the writers and artists whose vision defined the Harlem Renaissance. Rediscovered by scholars in the late twentieth century, There Is Confusion is seen as a feminist...

A collection of tall tales about such American folk heroes as Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, Pecos Bill, John Henry, and Paul Bunyan.

Profiles each of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, giving historical information about the colonies they represented. Includes the text of the Declaration and its history.

A Wise Tale about What Is Enough from the Author of the #1 Bestseller Women Who Run With the Wolves There is a gift so simple that it requires no ribbons for wrapping, yet which is so miraculous, it has the power to transform our lives. This is The Gift of Story, a tale of love and wisdom from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, eminent psychoanalyst and author. When an old woman flees to a hut in a lonely forest, begins Dr. Estés, she seeks safety from...

Nineteenth-century American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. Four narrators collaborate here on a collection of some of Poe's best known stories, including “The Tell Tale Heart,” “Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “Hop Frog,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Masque of the Red Death,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “Fall of the House of Usher,”...

The story of the ten-year-old boy who becomes captain of a ship After his mother's death, young David Glasgow Farragut is forced to leave home to live with Captain Porter and his wife. During the War of 1812, Captain Porter is posted to the Essex, and he chooses to bring David with him to fight the British Navy. At ten years old, David is the youngest midshipman ever assigned to a warship in the US Navy. On board, Farragut must not only learn about...