Books in Oxford Paperbacks series

In tellng the story of his youth, Maurice O'Sullivan uses a style derived from the folk tales he learned from his grandfather, and sharpened by his own lively imagination. Though he wrote simply for his own pleasure and for the entertainment of his friends--without any thought of a wider audience--O'Sullivan now enjoys a devoted following of readers who appreciate what E.M Forster praised as the "gaiety and magic" of this book.

Jim Corbett was every inch a hero, something like a "sahib" Davy Crockett: expert in the ways of the jungle, fearless in the pursuit of man-eating big cats, and above all a crack shot. Brought up on a hill-station in north-west India, he killed his first leopard before he was nine and went on to achieve a legendary reputation as a hunter.Corbett was also an author of great renown. His books on the man-eating tigers he once tracked are not only established classics, but have by themselves created almost a separate literary genre. Man Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett's books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of big-game hunting.

The first volume of Louis R. Harlan's biography of Booker T. Washington was published to wide acclaim and won the 1973 Bancroft Prize. This, the second volume, completes one of the most significant biographies of this generation.Booker T. Washington was the most powerful black American of his time, and here he is captured at his zenith. Harlan reveals Washington's complex personality--in sharp contrast to his public demeanor, he was a ruthless power borker whose nod or frown could determine the careers of blacks in politics, education, and business.Harlan chronicles the challenge Washington faced from W.E.B. Du Bois and other blacks, and shows how growing opposition forced him to change his methods of leadership just before his death in 1915.Also available: Volume 1, $10.95k, 501915-6, 394 pp., plates

This volume, based on thirty years of collecting and research by two pioneers in the field of children's lore and language, presents hundreds of singing and clapping games popular with children since the Middle Ages, including such favorites as "Pop Goes the Weasel," "Lazy Mary Will You Get Up?," "Skip to My Lou," "The Muffin Man," and "Ring a Ring o' Roses." Serving as an exposition of both the workings of folklore and the perennial ways of young children left to play on their own, The Singing Game categorizes over 150 of these games into groups such as "Matchmaking," "Wedding Rings," "Cushion Dances," "Witch Dances," "Calls of Friendship," "Eccentric Circles," "Buffoonery," and "Clapping." The Opies provide a detailed, historical description of each game, as well as a vivid, firsthand account from one of its most recent practitioners on the playgrounds and backstreets throughout England. Demonstrating how the games have evolved over the years, and how they vary from country to country, this book offers a comprehensive, authoritative history of a universal folk genre. Beautifully illustrated throughout, it contains photographs, lithographs, and prints; the words to each game as well as the music for many of them; footnotes; a bibliography; a general index; and an index of songs, games, and dances.

This is an autobiographical account of the influences and people who have helped Rosemary Sutcliff in her personal development as a writer. The author is a well-established historical and children's novelist who has been awarded several prizes and in 1975 was honoured with an OBE for services to children's literature. Sutcliff recounts her early years when, as a victim of Still's Disease, a rare form of juvenile arthritis, she was unable to walk. After the war and a love affair which left a lasting impression on her life, she started to write. This book ends when her first manuscript was accepted by Oxford University Press.

Most of Jim Corbett's books contain collections of stories that recount adventures tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalaya. This volume, however, consists of a single story, often considered the most exciting of all Corbett's jungle tales. He gives a carefully-detailed account of a notorious leopard that terrorized life in the hills of the colonial United Provinces. This story represents Corbett's most sustained and unique effort.

In December 1787, the Bounty sailed from Spithead for the South Seas. In April 1789, her crew mutinied near the Friendly Islands and set the commander, William Bligh, and several companions adrift on the ocean in an open boat. The mutineers took Tahitian wives and settled on an uninhabited and virtually unknown island where twenty years later one survivor and many of their descendents were discovered. Bligh, himself, safely navigated his boat-load of starving shipmates thousands of miles across the ocean to Timor. Published to coincide with the bicentenary of the mutiny of the Bounty, this classic of maritime history, which first appeared in 1831, records the intriguing story of adventure and discovery, in full. Based on his research of unpublished documents and the papers of Captain Peter Heywood--a midshipman on the Bounty--Sir John Barrow answers the two crucial questions raised by the incident: why the crew of the Bounty mutinied in the first place, and why an officer prompted and led the mutiny.