Books with author R. M. Ballantyne

In this fun adventure in merry, old England, the reader is taken back to the beginning days of the General Post-Office, learning about the founding of the mail system. In the 1800’s, guaranteeing a letter to delivery was a bit of a challenge, as Phillip Maylands, his sister Mary, and their friend George Aspel quickly find out. Though the British Post-Office at this time delivered in good condition over fourteen hundred million letters, a half-dozen important ones addressed to Messr. Blurt and Co. are missing! Our friends must take on the role of detective to trace the mysterious disappearance. (Illustrated)

• Two of R. M. Ballentyne’s adventure tales are in this Kindle eBook: The Dog Crusoe and his Master & Fort Desolation.The Dog Crusoe and his Master, A Tale of the Western PlainsDick rescues a Newfoundland pup from an Indian's cooking fire and the best friends set off on an adventure across America’s western prairie. Dick and Crusoe find danger during their “peace mission” among the Indian tribes. Man’s best friend is ready to protect his master as the duo face down grizzly bears, wild horses, avalanches, and hostile Indian tribes including the warring Camanchee.Fort Desolation To look at Jack you would have supposed that he was the most ordinary of common-place men, but there was a deep, silent, but ever-flowing river of enthusiasm, energy, fervor—in a word, romance—in his soul. He was what we may call an outskirter of the world. He was one of those who, from the force of necessity, or of self-will, or of circumstances, are driven to the outer circle of this world to battle with Nature in her wildest scenes and moods.

Follows the adventures of a young man called Charles Kennedy. Loosely autobiographical account of Ballantyne’s own time with the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada. Its success prompted a series of excellent stories of adventure for the young with which this prolific Scottish author’s name is popularly associated. In the very center of the great continent of North America, far removed from the abodes of civilized men, and about twenty miles to the south of Lake Winnipeg, exists a colony composed of Indians, Scotsmen, and French-Canadians, which is known by the name of Red River Settlement. Although far removed from the civilized world, and containing within its precincts much that is savage and very little that is refined, Red River is quite a populous paradise, as compared with the desolate, solitary establishments of the Hudson’s Bay Fur Company.

This book has illustrations in color.One day, many years ago, a brig cast off from her moorings, and sailed from a British port for the Polar Seas. That brig never came back. Many a hearty cheer was given, many a kind wish was uttered, many a handkerchief was waved, and many a tearful eye gazed that day as the vessel left Old England, and steered her course into the unknown regions of the far north.R. M. Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) was a Scottish juvenile fiction writer.Born Robert Michael Ballantyne in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At the age of 16 he went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. He returned to Scotland in 1847, and published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business for the profession of literature, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.

Excerpt: "Ships are, as it were, the electric sparks of the world, by means of which the superabundance of different countries is carried forth to fill, reciprocally, the voids in each. They are not only the media of intercourse between the various families of the human race, whereby our shores are enriched with the produce of other lands, but they are the bearers of inestimable treasures of knowledge from clime to clime, and of gospel light to the uttermost ends of the earth. But for ships, we should never have heard of the wonders of the coral isles and the beauties of the golden South, or the phenomena and tempests of the icy North. But for ships, the stirring adventures and perils of Magellan, Drake, Cook, etcetera, had never been encountered; and even the far-famed Robinson Crusoe himself had never gladdened, and saddened, and romantically maddened the heart of youth with his escapes, his fights, his parrots, and his philosophy, as he now does, and as he will continue to do till the end of time."

The Scottish juvenile fiction writer R. M. Ballantyne was born into a famous family of publishers. Leaving home at age 16 he went to work for the Hudson's Bay Company; after returning home to Scotland R. M. Ballantyne published his first book "Hudson's Bay" detailing his experiences in Canada. Later Ballantyne would write about more of his experiences with Native Americans and the Fur trappers he met in the most remote regions of Canada. With his success as a writer he withdrew from the business world to become a full time writer for the rest of his life. With over a hundred different books he has become one of the most cherished juvenile fiction writers today. Along with his other exploits throughout his life he also was tremendously successful with his artwork as his water color paintings were displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy.