Best of
Classics

1971

The Complete Stories


Flannery O'Connor - 1971
    There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O'Connor put together in her short lifetime - Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. O'Connor published her first story, "The Geranium," in 1946, while she was working on her master's degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, "Judgement Day" - sent to her publisher shortly before her death - is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of "The Geranium." Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O'Connor's longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux.Contents:The geranium -- The barber -- Wildcat -- The crop -- The turkey -- The train -- The peeler -- The heart of the park -- A stoke of good fortune -- Enoch and the gorilla -- A good man is hard to find -- A late encounter with the enemy -- The life you save may be your own -- The river -- A circle in the fire -- The displaced person -- A temple of the Holy Ghost -- The artificial nigger -- Good country people -- You can't be any poorer than dead -- Greenleaf -- A view of the woods -- The enduring chill -- The comforts of home -- Everything that rises must converge -- The partridge festival -- The lame shall enter first -- Why do the heathen rage? -- Revelation -- Parker's back -- Judgement Day.

The Little House Collection


Laura Ingalls Wilder - 1971
    They offer a unique glimpse into life on the American frontier, and tell the heartwarming, unforgettable story of a loving family.Little House in the Big WoodsMeet the Ingalls family—Laura, Ma, Pa, Mary, and baby Carrie, who all live in a cozy log cabin in the big woods of Wisconsin in the 1870s. Though many of their neighbors are wolves and panthers and bears, the woods feel like home, thanks to Ma’s homemade cheese and butter and the joyful sounds of Pa’s fiddle.Farmer BoyAs Laura Ingalls is growing up in a little house in Kansas, Almanzo Wilder lives on a big farm in New York. He and his brothers and sisters work hard from dawn to supper to help keep their family farm running. Almanzo wishes for just one thing—his very own horse—but he must prove that he is ready for such a big responsibility.Little House on the PrairieWhen Pa decides to sell the log house in the woods, the family packs up and moves from Wisconsin to Kansas, where Pa builds them their little house on the prairie! Living on the farm is different from living in the woods, but Laura and her family are kept busy and are happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.On the Banks of Plum CreekThe Ingalls family lives in a sod house beside Plum Creek in Minnesota until Pa builds them a new house made of sawed lumber. The money for the lumber will come from their first wheat crop. But then, just before the wheat is ready to harvest, a strange glittering cloud fills the sky, blocking out the sun. Millions of grasshoppers cover the field and everything on the farm, and by the end of a week, there is no wheat crop left.By the Shores of Silver LakePa Ingalls heads west to the unsettled wilderness of the Dakota Territory. When Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and baby Grace join him, they become the first settlers in the town of De Smet. Pa starts work on the first building of the brand new town, located on the shores of Silver Lake. The Long WinterThe first terrible storm comes to the barren prairie in October. Then it snows almost without stopping until April. With snow piled as high as the rooftops, it’s impossible for trains to deliver supplies, and the townspeople, including Laura and her family, are starving. Young Almanzo Wilder, who has settled in the town, risks his life to save the town.Little Town on the PrairieDe Smet is rejuvenated with the beginning of spring. But in addition to the parties, socials, and “literaries,” work must continue. Laura spends many hours sewing shirts to help Ma and Pa get enough money to send Mary to a college for the blind. But in the evenings, Laura makes time for a new caller, Almanzo Wilder.These Happy Golden YearsLaura must continue to earn money to keep Mary in her college for the blind, so she gets a job as a teacher. It’s not easy, and for the first time she’s living away from home. But it gets a little better every Friday, when Almanzo picks Laura up to take her back home for the weekend. Though Laura is still young, she and Almanzo are officially courting, and she knows that this is a time for new beginnings.The First Four YearsLaura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder have just been married! They move to a small prairie homestead to start their lives together. But each year brings new challenges—storms, sickness, fire, and unpaid debts. These first four years call for courage, strength, and a great deal of determination. And through it all, Laura and Almanzo still have their love, which only grows when baby Rose arrives.

The Sleeping Beauty


Trina Schart Hyman - 1971
    How could everyone in a castle - even the flies on the walls - sleep for a century and then wake up? This magical, beautifully illustrated tale begins when the king excludes the most difficult fairy of the kingdom from a feast celebrating the birth of his beautiful daughter Briar Rose. Furious, the fairy storms in and curses the baby, pronouncing that on her fifteenth birthday she will be pricked by a distaff (from a spinning wheel) and fall down dead. The youngest fairy softens the curse to a century-long sleep. Despite the fact that the king burns all the spinning wheels in the kingdom, 15-year-old Briar Rose finds herself in the tower where the evil fairy and her fate await her. The drama of the spell unfurls as she and the other inhabitants of the castle fall instantly asleep, from courtiers to kitchen maids. Thorny briars - moodily captured by Trina Schart Hyman's masterful paintbrush - grow up around the castle. Hyman depicts those who died attempting to break through the maze of thorns to reach the legendary sleeping beauty in a nightmarish illustration. But goodness and true love prevail when the perfect prince does finally find his way through the thick vines.Hyman won a Caldecott Medal for her work in Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, and her version of The Sleeping Beauty makes us believe in the magic of the spell. The scenes inside the castle are alive with color and movement and rich with details that children will devour eagerly. Moods and expressions are rendered exquisitely, especially those of the wild, red-haired beauty Briar Rose. This wonderful read-aloud classic is one of Hyman's best.

Angle of Repose


Wallace Stegner - 1971
    But his research reveals even more about his own life than he's willing to admit. What emerges is an enthralling portrait of four generations in the life of an American family.Wallace Stegner's Pultizer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery—personal, historical, and geographical.

The Exorcist


William Peter Blatty - 1971
    In this stunning 40th Anniversary Edition, a desperate mother and two priests fight to free the soul of a little girl from a supernatural entity of pure malevolence.

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman


Ernest J. Gaines - 1971
    She is one of the most unforgettable heroines in American fiction, a woman whose life has come to symbolize the struggle for freedom, dignity, and justice. Ernest J. Gaines’s now-classic novel—written as an autobiography—spans one hundred years of Miss Jane’s remarkable life, from her childhood as a slave on a Louisiana plantation to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. It is a story of courage and survival, history, bigotry, and hope—as seen through the eyes of a woman who lived through it all. A historical tour de force, a triumph of fiction, Miss Jane’s eloquent narrative brings to life an important story of race in America—and stands as a landmark work for our time.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH


Robert C. O'Brien - 1971
    Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma.

The Christmas Books, Volume 1: A Christmas Carol/The Chimes


Charles Dickens - 1971
    "The Christmas Carol" was the result. "The Chimes" is a topical satire set on New Year's Eve.

Shadows in Paradise


Erich Maria Remarque - 1971
    Now living in New York City among old friends, far from Europe's chilling atrocities, Ross soon meets Natasha, a beautiful model and fellow migre, a warm heart to help him forget his cold memories.Yet even as the war draws to its violent close, Ross cannot find peace. Demons still pursue him. Whether they are ghosts from the past or the guilt of surviving, he does not know. For he is only beginning to understand that freedom is far from easy--and that paradise, however perfect, has a price. . . .

Selected Short Stories


Guy de Maupassant - 1971
    A fair selection of the master's short story output. Roger Colet has written the introduction for the Penguin Classic edition..

Selected Letters


Emily Dickinson - 1971
    It provides crucial texts for the appreciation of America literature, women's experience in the ninteenth century, and literature in general.

I Served the King of England


Bohumil Hrabal - 1971
    Ditie is called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie. It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition, building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in history.

Crossing the Water


Sylvia Plath - 1971
    Published posthumously in 1971, they add a startling counterpoint to Ariel, the volume that made her reputation. Readers will recognise some of her most celebrated poems – ‘Childless Woman’, ‘Mirror’, ‘Insomniac’ – while discovering those still overlooked, including her radio play Three Women. These two extraordinary volumes find their place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.

Paper Moon


Joe David Brown - 1971
    Set in the darkest days of the Great Depression, this is the timeless story of an 11-year-old orphan’s rollicking journey through the Deep South with a con man who just might be her father. Brimming with humor, pathos, and an irresistible narrative energy, this is American storytelling at its finest. Paper Moon is tough, vibrant, and ripe for rediscovery.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas


Hunter S. Thompson - 1971
    It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

Maurice


E.M. Forster - 1971
    In order to be true to himself, he goes against the grain of society’s often unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics.Forster understood that his homage to same-sex love, if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only after his death (along with his stories about homosexuality later collected in The Life to Come).Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely read and praised. It has been, and continues to be, adapted for major stage productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.

The Brothers Karamazov by F. M. Dostoevskij


Jan van der Eng - 1971
    

The Portable Arthur Miller


Arthur Miller - 1971
    This essential collection also includes the complete texts of After the Fall, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Broken Glass, winner of the Olivier Award for Best Play of 1995, as well as excerpts from Miller's memoir Timebends. An essay by Harold Clurman and Christopher Bigsby's introduction discuss Miller's standing as one of the greatest American playwrights of all time and his importance to twentieth-century literature.Contents:Biographical notesIntroduction to the Original Edition by Harold ClurmanIntroduction to the Revised Edition by Christopher BigsbyTimebends (excerpt from the autobiography) (1987)The Golden Years (excerpt from a play) (1939-1940)Death of a Salesman (1949)The Crucible (1953)After the Fall (1964)The American Clock (1980)The Last Yankee (1993)Broken Glass (1994)

Treasures from the Book of Mormon


W. Cleon Skousen - 1971
    In-depth Book of Mormon Study Guide.

Scenes of Life at the Capital


Philip Whalen - 1971
    

The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi, Vol 5, Persian Text


Rumi - 1971
    Its author was born in 1207 at Balkh in Central Asia but, as a child accompanied his father and family to settle in Qonya in Anatolia. After he had followed his father as a preacher, Rumi's mystical bent became more pronounced, particularly after the beginnning of his relationship with the dervish Shams al-Dn of Tabriz which led to non-conformist behaviour and an outpouring of lyric poetry. Rumi had his own circle of followers, the origin of the Mevlevi sufi order, whose whirling dance is said to be inspired by their Shaikh's own ecstasies.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont


Elizabeth Taylor - 1971
    Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies—boredom and the Grim Reaper. Then one day Mrs. Palfrey strikes up an unexpected friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer, and learns that even the old can fall in love.

A Room With A View / Howard's End / Maurice


E.M. Forster - 1971
    Omnibus of three novels.

The Mind Of Light


Sri Aurobindo - 1971
    The text includes an added section on The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo as a general overview, as well as an extensive annotated bibliograph and introduction by Dr. Robert McDermott.

Radical Man: The Process Of Psycho Social Development


Charles Hampden-Turner - 1971
    

Lytton Strachey and the Bloomsbury Group: His Work, Their Influence


Michael Holroyd - 1971
    biography

Anniversaries, Volume 1: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, August 1967–April 1968


Uwe Johnson - 1971
    

Shakespeare: A Book of Quotations


William Shakespeare - 1971
    Conveniently arranged by topic, the source of each quote is fully identified for subjects ranging from love and marriage to truth, beauty, death, music, and more.

The Art of Happiness: Selected Writings of André Maurois


André Maurois - 1971
    

Cicero


D.R. Shackleton Bailey - 1971
    A study/biography of the life and work of Cicero, based mainly on extracts from professor Bailey's translation of Cicero's letters; a volume in the Classical Life and Letters series, general editor Hugh Lloyd-Jones.

The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn


John Seelye - 1971
    He is   also more perceptive about black people than the original."   -- Hughes Rudd, CBS News "Seelye has stitched together   a whale of a book. Without reference to Twain's own version, it is almost impossible   to see the seams where 1970 joins 1884."   -- Geoffrey Wolff, Newsweek

Down The Line


Bayard Rustin - 1971
    

The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria


Hero of Alexandria - 1971
    10-70 AD) was an ancient Greek mathematician and engineer who lived in the Roman province of Egypt; He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Greek scientific tradition. Hero published a famous description of a simple steam engine called an aeolipile. Among his most famous inventions were a windwheel, a cuckoo clock and a vending machine. Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, having been burned by anti-pagan Christians sometime in the late 4th to 5th century but what remains of his work gives a fascinating insight into how advanced ancient Greco-Roman civilization was technically.

CliffsNotes on Twain's Huckleberry Finn


James Lamar Roberts - 1971
    

The Spoils of Poynton and Other Stories


Henry James - 1971
    The spoils of Poynton --The turn of the screw --The Aspern papers --Daisy Miller --Washington Square.

Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece


Edward E. Barthell - 1971
    

Masters of the Short Story


Abraham H. Lass - 1971
    

A Socialist's Faith (American History & Culture in the 20th Century)


Norman Mattoon Thomas - 1971
    

The death of Iván Ilých, and other stories


Leo Tolstoy - 1971
    The death of Ivan Ilych --Master and man --A talk among leisured people --Walk in the light while there is light --Memoirs of a madman --Hadji Murád --Fëdor Kuzmich.

The Best of Thoreau's Journals


Henry David Thoreau - 1971
    Yet all the qualities of his writing are found here—purity, lucidity, and a kind of plain elegance. Especially rewarding to read in our times because of the iron grasp Thoreau shows of the principles we increasingly neglect, these selections remind us that man was made to be free.

A Choice of Wordsworth's Verse


William Wordsworth - 1971
    hearing often-times the still, sad music of humanity. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the most influential of the Romantic poets. He grew up in the Lake District, and was educated at Cambridge. His friendship with S. T. Coleridge led to their joint project, Lyrical Ballads, which was published in 1798. At the same time, Wordsworth began work on what was to become The Prelude, which was first published three months after his death, in 1850. He became poet laureate in 1843.

John Kane, Painter


Leon Anthony Arkus - 1971
    Includes Sky Hooks, autobiographical account as told to Pittsburgh Press reporter Marie McSwigan, first published in 1938.