The Quite Contrary Man

In early-nineteenth-century New England, folks considered a clean chin a sign of godliness. Born into this buttoned-up, strict society, Joseph Palmer stood out from childhood as someone who liked to do things his own way. A friend to Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Alcotts, Palmer lived by his own code and grew a belly-flowing beard that made his neighbors so crazy that they tried forcibly to shave him. He fought back and ended up in prison for a year. His cause became a local sensation, and a few short decades later a president of the United States—Abraham Lincoln—would wear a beard. Narrated with the charm of a tall tale, this true story celebrates the long American history of nonconformity and encourages children to question social rules they may take for granted. Praise for Quite Contrary Man “She [Hyatt] cleanly lays out a morality tale that could prompt a healthy civics lesson. Brown's arch illustrations, in watercolor with pen and ink, nicely capture 19th-century New England.” –Kirkus Reviews “Brown’s warmhued watercolors reiterate the folk yarn feel with rustic touches. A spirited introduction to an iconoclastic 19th-century activist.” –Publishers Weekly

The unusual thing about the collection Quite Contrary is the range of subgenre. Although these are all crime stories, each is vastly different in its approach to the crime. One story, A Step Above The Beasts, borders on horror, following the actions of a highly ethical murderer. Time, The Thief, which is set in a piazza in Italy, shows the power of imagination, and comes dangerously close to being a romance. In several of the stories, notably Five Points Of View, who the bad guy is may come as a surprise or even remain a mystery. There is humor here and even a bit of parody, as in Detour On Mean Street, the dilemma of a hard-boiled PI caught up in a cozy. These stories have appeared in seven different publications. Two of them (Quite Contrary and The Plot Thickens) won contests and one (Quite Contrary) has since appeared in a mystery anthology printed in Japan. Boson Books also offers the full length mysteries Our Fathers and Now Mourn the Space Cadet by John Chabot. For an author bio, photo and a sample read, visit www.bosonbooks.com

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1877) is a collection of essays and letters by Michel de Montaigne. Originally published in French as Essais (1580), this edition was translated by English poet Charles Cotton in the late-17th century and republished by William Carew Hazlitt, the grandson of renowned English essayist and critic William Hazlitt. “No man living is more free from this passion [of sorrow] than I, who yet neither like it in myself nor admire it in others, and yet generally the world, as a settled thing, is pleased to grace it with a particular esteem, clothing therewith wisdom, virtue, and conscience. Foolish and sordid guise!” In his masterful essays, Michel de Montaigne eschews the typical distancing required of the authorial voice in order to investigate public matters through a personal lens. As the subject of his own musings, he provides both a stirring self-portrait and an invaluable new voice that will resonate throughout Western literature. Unlike the Enlightenment thinkers who would follow in his footsteps, Montaigne is skeptical of the possibility of human certainty and takes an ethical stand against the European colonial project in the Americas and elsewhere. At times serious, at others tongue-in-cheek, his wide-ranging topics include conscience, politics, sorrow, solitude, fear, friendship, war, and poetry. The Essays of Michel de Montaigne were written at a crossroads in human history—between Renaissance and Enlightenment, Catholicism and Protestantism, Montaigne argues that to look outward requires we first look within, and that the quest for happiness requires us to accept what we cannot know. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Essays of Michel de Montaigne is a classic of French philosophy reimagined for modern readers.

Tatler is the iconic literary and society journal founded in 1709. It was issued three times a week for two years and aimed to inform its readers about the latest trends and events in social life. To make sure the editors are aware of all the news in society, they sent their secret reporters to the four most famous coffee houses of the time. Those were White's, Will's, Grecian Coffee House, St. James's Coffee House. The stories were written and edited by Richard Steel, who worked under the pseudonym, Isaac Bickerstaff. Yet later, this name was coverage for other contributors like the famous writer Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison. After two years of life, Tatler left a deep trace in Britain's cultural and literary life. Numerous subsequent incarnations like Tatler in Edinburgh, Female Tatler, the Northern Tatler, and London Tatler continued for decades. Even nowadays, there is an eponymous British magazine of the same thematical direction. After the closure, all Tatler editions were issued as several volumes of collected works, presented here.

This is the author's first novel, which relates the experiences of a young bohemian intellectual. The six episodes create a fascinating portrait of a New York social circle of the 1930s. McCarthy's bold insight and virtuoso style won her immediate recognition as one of the most accomplished, versatile, and penetrating writers in americanca.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Complete Essays of Montaigne (107 annotated essays in 1 eBook + The Life of Montaigne + The Letters of Montaigne)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Table of Contents: Preface.; The Life of Montaigne; The Letters of Montaigne.; The Author to the Reader.; Book the First; That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End.; Of Sorrow; That Our Affections Carry Themselves Beyond Us; That the Soul Expends its Passions Upon False Objects, where the True are Wanting; Whether the Governor of a Place Besieged Ought Himself to Go Out to Parley; That the Hour of Parley Dangerous; That the Intention is Judge of Our Actions; Of Idleness; Of Liars; Of Quick or Slow Speech; Of Prognostications; Of Constancy; The Ceremony of the Interview of Princes; That Men are Justly Punished for Being Obstinate in the Defence of a Fort that is Not in Reason to Be Defended; Of the Punishment of Cowardice; A Proceeding of Some Ambassadors; Of Fear; That Men are Not to Judge of Our Happiness Till After Death.; That to Study Philosopy is to Learn to Die; Of the Force of Imagination; That the Profit of One Man is the Damage of Another; Of Custom, and that We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Various Events from the Same Counsel; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That it is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Friendship; Nine and Twenty Sonnets of Estienne De La Boitie; Of Moderation; Of Cannibals; That a Man is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinances; That We are to Avoid Pleasures, Even at the Expense of Life; That Fortune is Oftentimes Observed to Act by the Rule of Reason; Of One Defect in Our Government...