Best of
Biography

1926

You Can't Win


Jack Black - 1926
    Jack Black's autobiography was a bestseller and went through five printings in the late 1920's. It has led a mostly subterranean existence since then - best known as William S. Burrough's favorite book, one he admitted lifting big chunks of from memory for his first novel, Junky. But it's time we got wise to this book, which is in itself a remarkably wise book - and a ripping true saga. It's an amazing journey into the hobo underworld: freight hopping around the still wide open West at the turn of the 20th century, becoming a member of the "yegg" (criminal) brotherhood and a highwayman, learning the outlaw philosophy from Foot-and-a-half George and the Sanctimonious Kid, getting hooked on opium, passing through hobo jungles, hop joints and penitentiaries. This is a chunk of the American story entirely left out of the history books - it's a lot richer and stranger than the official version. This new edition also includes an Afterword that tells some of what became of Black after he wore out the outlaw life and washed up in San Francisco, wrote this book and reinvented himself.

Scipio Africanus: Greater than Napoleon


B.H. Liddell Hart - 1926
    As commander he never lost a battle. Yet it is his adversary, Hannibal, who has lived on in the public memory, due mostly to his daring march through the Alps with his elephants. At the Battle of the Ticinus, Hannibal’s initial encounter with Roman arms, young Scipio first tasted warfare, rescuing his dangerously wounded, encircled father, who was also the Roman commander. By nineteen Scipio was the equivalent of a staff colonel and in 210 B.C. he was placed in supreme command. In three years he destroyed Carthaginian power in Spain and, after being made consul, took his forces to Africa, where he conquered Carthage’s great ally, Syphax. Two years later he clashed with Hannibal himself, annihilating his army in the decisive Battle of Zama. For this triumph and his other exploits in the Punic Wars, Scipio was awarded the title Africanus.In his fascinating portrait of this extraordinary commander, B. H. Liddell Hart writes, ”The age of generalship does not age, and it is because Scipio’s battles are richer in stratagems and ruses—many still feasible today—than those of any other commander in history that they are an unfailing object lesson.” Not only military enthusiasts and historians but all those interested in outstanding men will find this magnificent study absorbing and gripping.

Scouting on Two Continents


Frederick Russell Burnham - 1926
     Born on a Dakota Sioux reservation he was taught the ways of the Native Americans from as soon as he could walk. At the tender age of fourteen, having had little formal education, he was supporting himself and learning from some of the last cowboys and frontiersmen of the Old West. These lessons would pay dividend in his later life, first as a tracker for the United States Army in the Apache Wars and later as a scout for the British Army in the Matebele Wars in Southern Africa. Frederick Burnham Russell was a remarkable figure who revolutionized the art of scouting in both the British and United States armies. Indeed his influence would lead his friend, Robert Baden-Powell, to begin the international Scouting Movement. In Scouting on Two Continents Burnham records the details of his brilliant life in fascinating detail and provides insight into the life of an unique adventurer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “Burnham in real life is more interesting than any of my heroes of romance.” Rider Haggard “Burnham is a most delightful companion ... amusing, interesting, and most instructive. Having seen service against the Red Indians he brings quite a new experience to bear on the Scouting work here. And while he talks away there’s not a thing escapes his quick roving eye, whether it is on the horizon or at his feet.” Robert Baden-Powell Frederick Burnham Russell has been described as the “Father of Scouting.” He fought in the Pleasant Valley War, Apache Wars, the First and Second Matabele Wars as well as the Second Boer War. His book Scouting on Two Continents was first published in 1926. He passed away in 1947.

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Vol 1


Carl Sandburg - 1926
    With 105 Illustrations from photographs, and many cartoons, sketches, maps, and letters. In Two Volumes, Volume One.

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years Part 2


Carl Sandburg - 1926
    2 of a 2 vol. set. The author planned composing this book for nearly thirty years. He desired to make a particular portrait of Lincoln, that being a sketch of the country lawyer and prairie politician who was intimate with the settlers of the Knox County neighborhood where the author grew up. Sandburg heard the conversations of men and women who had eaten with Lincoln, given him a bed overnight, heard his jokes and lingo, remembered his silences and his mobile face. Illustrated.

Abraham Lincoln: The War Years 3 Vol 5


Carl Sandburg - 1926
    With 426 Illustrations from photographs, and many cartoons, sketches, maps, and letters. In Four Volumes, Volume Three.

Borden of Yale


Geraldine Guinness Taylor - 1926
    A Men of Faith biography.

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years


Carl Sandburg - 1926
    It would sketch the country lawyer and prairie politician who was intimate with the settlers of the neighborhood where I grew up as a boy, and where I heard the talk of men and women who had eaten with Lincoln, given him a bed overnight, heard his jokes and lingo, remembered his silences and his mobile face."The folk-lore Lincoln, the elusive Lincoln is a challenge for any artist. He has enough lights and shadows and changing tints to call out portraits of him in his Illinois backgrounds and settings -- even if never President."

Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol 1


Hervey Allen - 1926
    We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats


W.B. Yeats - 1926
    Subtitle: Consisting of Reveries over Childhood and Youth; The Trembling of the Veil; and Dramatis Personae.

Mr. Jefferson


Albert Jay Nock - 1926
    Biography of the third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence. He was one of the most brilliant individuals in history. His interests were boundless, and his accomplishments were great and varied. He was a philosopher, educator, naturalist, politician, scientists, architect, inventor, pioneer in scientific farming, musician, and writer, and he was the foremost spokesman for democracy of his day.

In Quest Of The Perfect Book: Reminiscences & Reflections Of A Bookman


William Dana Orcutt - 1926
    

Men and Rubber: The Story of Business


Harvey S. Firestone - 1926
    Firestone, the founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, of his rise to fame and wealth, and the ideals behind his success. Firestone's philosophy is that a business which exists without a reason is due for an early death. If you ask yourself why you are in business and can find no answer other than "I want to make money," you will save money by getting out of business and going to work for someone, for you are in business without sufficient reason. The single reason for the existence of any business must be that it supplies a human need or want, and, if his experience is worth anything, a business which has this reason for its existence will be bound in the end to prosper if thought be put into it.