Bøker av Joseph Lewis French

...It is one of the curiosities of literature, a fact that old Isaac Disraeli might have delighted to linger over, that there have been no collectors of sea-tales; that no man has ever, as in the present instance, dwelt upon the topic with the purpose of gathering some of the best work into a single volume. And yet men have written of the sea since 2500 B.C. when an unknown author set down on papyrus his account of a struggle with a sea-serpent. This account, now in the British Museum, is the first sea-story on record. Our modern sea-stories begin properly with the chronicles of the early navigators-in many of which there is an unconscious art that none of our modern masters of fiction has greatly surpassed. ...

This book "" Great Pirate Stories "", has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

This book "" Great Ghost Stories "", has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

The case for the "psychic" element in literature rests on a very old foundation; it reaches back to the ancient masters, -the men who wrote the Greek tragedies. Remorse will ever seem commonplace alongside the furies. Ever and always the shadow of the supernatural invites, pursues us. As the art of literature has progressed it has grown along with it. To-day there is a whole new school of writers of Ghost-Stories, and the domain of the invisible is being invaded by explorers in many paths. We do not believe so much more, perhaps, that is, we do not so openly express a belief, but art has finally and frankly claimed the supernatural for its own....... It only remains to be added that the present great interest in spiritualism and allied phenomena has made necessary the addition of certain material of a "literal" character which we believe will be found quite as interesting by the general reader as the purely literary portion of the book.

Great Pirate Stories is a collection of extracts of tales of pirates (whether fictional or not - there is no clear indication which are and aren't, you would have to look up each original book for that!). The tales range in dates from as early as 1621 to the 19th Century, which results in the use of a great range of styles of English language (the 1621 account might be a little difficult to read for some due to the more arbitrary use of grammar and spelling of the time).Each extract gives a snippet of a particular encounter with pirates, whether from the pirate's perspective and standpoint or that of their victims or onlookers to the events. Each account is short and wets the appetite for more story before suddenly ending - I'm in half a mind to track down each of the original books for more details.Some accounts are quite intriguing and bring to mind a number of questions about the content (anything from the realism to the accuracy could be questioned down to the motives and what exactly did happen next)...This book does not confine itself to European-based pirates (wherever they then roamed), but also brings out accounts of Chinese, Malay and various other less well-known pirate groups (at least less well-known to me, having done little studies of the topic). Some pirate names are quite familiar though, such as Barbarossa or Morgan.If you have an interest in pirates and pirate stories, this book is a good little gem that'll unearth other gems for you. (Carole's Reviews)

Joseph Lewis French (1858-1936) was a novelist, editor, poet and newspaper man. The New York Times noted in 1925 that he may be "the most industrious anthologist of his time." He is known for his popular themed collections, and published over twenty-five books between 1918 and his death in 1936. He founded two magazines, The New West (c. 1887) and The Wave (c. 1890). Afterwards he worked for newspapers "across the country" contributing poetry and articles. He struggled financially, and in 1927 the New York Graphic, a daily tabloid, published an autobiographical article they convinced him to write, entitled "I''m Starving - Yet I''m in Who''s Who as the Author of 27 Famous Books."

Set sail for adventure. Out of this past the pirate emerges as a romantic, even at times heroic, figure. This final niche, despite his crimes, cannot altogether be denied him. A hero he is and will remain so long as tales of the sea are told. So, have at him, in these pages! Here are seventeen tails of swashbuckling adventure full of courage and danger!