Books published by publisher A.L. Burt Co

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in the Badgworthy Water region of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England. John Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and takes good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by accident, who turns out to be not only (apparently) the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone (lord of the Doones), but destined to marry (against her will) the impetuous, menacing, and now jealous heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone. Carver will let nothing get in the way of his marriage to Lorna, which he plans to force upon her once Sir Ensor dies and he comes into his inheritance. Blackmore experienced difficulty in finding a publisher, and the novel was first published anonymously in 1869, in a limited three-volume edition of just 500 copies, of which only 300 sold. The following year it was republished in an inexpensive one-volume edition and became a huge critical and financial success. It has never been out of print.

Horatio Alger Jr. (1832–1899), began his writing career by publishing in local newspapers. He turned professional in 1849, when a Boston magazine, the Pictorial National Library purchased a poem and two essays. Alger wrote four adult novels, and one adult novella, but he gained notoriety when his friendship with ‘William Taylor Adams’, a boys’ author, changed Horatio’s interest to writing for the juvenile market. ‘A Debt of Honor, The Story of Gerald Lane's Success in the Far West’ is one of Horatio Alger’s earlier rags-to-riches, ‘formula’ written books for boys. When the hero, 16 year old Gerald Lane, is orphaned, he must make his own way in the world, penniless and alone. Through his honesty, intelligence, hard work, and the timely assistance of new friends, Gerald is able to vindicate his deceased father’s memory by exposing the true perpetrator of a forgery, thus receiving the financial benefits from a long overdue debt of honor. During all of this, Gerald is able to make his own fortune by maintaining his own sense of honor.Further information on this prolific author will be found in the foreword provided by AlwaysWrite Ent. Although many of the books offered by AlwaysWrite Ent. are provided exactly as the author presented them in their original format, all works have been entered, and edited by hand, and not merely scanned. They have been spell-checked, and punctuation corrected where necessary.

Example in this ebookITHE VAN NORMANSThe old Van Norman mansion was the finest house in Mapleton. Well back from the road, it sat proudly among its finely kept lawns and gardens, as if with a dignified sense of its own importance, and its white, Colonial columns gleamed through the trees, like sentinels guarding the entrance to the stately hall.All Mapleton was proud of the picturesque old place, and it was shown to visiting strangers with the same pride that the native villagers pointed out the Memorial Library and the new church.More than a half-century old, the patrician white house seemed to glance coldly on the upstart cottages, whose inadequate pillars supported beetling second stories, and whose spacious, filigreed verandas left wofully small area for rooms inside the house.The Van Norman mansion was not like that. It was a long rectangle, and each of its four stories was a series of commodious, well-shaped apartments.And its owner, the beautiful Madeleine Van Norman, was the most envied as well as the most admired young woman in the town.Magnificent Madeleine, as she was sometimes called, was of the haughty, imperious type which inspires admiration and respect rather than love. An orphan and an heiress, she had lived all of her twenty-two years of life in the old house, and since the death of her uncle, two years before, had continued as mistress of the place, ably assisted by a pleasant, motherly chaperon, a clever social secretary, and a corps of capable servants.The mansion itself and an income amply sufficient to maintain it were already legally her own, but by the terms of her uncle’s will she was soon to come into possession of the bulk of the great fortune he had left.Madeleine was the only living descendant of old Richard Van Norman, save for one distant cousin, a young man of a scapegrace and ne’er-do-weel sort, who of late years had lived abroad.This young man’s early life had been spent in Mapleton, but, his fiery temper having brought about a serious quarrel with his uncle, he had wisely concluded to take himself out of the way.And yet Tom Willard was not of a quarrelsome disposition. His bad temper was of the impulsive sort, roused suddenly, and as quickly suppressed. Nor was it often in evidence. Good-natured, easy-going Tom would put up with his uncle’s criticism and fault-finding for weeks at a time, and then, perhaps goaded beyond endurance, he would fly into a rage and express himself in fluent if rather vigorous English.For Richard Van Norman had been by no means an easy man to live with. And it was Tom’s general amiability that had made him the usual scapegoat for his uncle’s ill temper. Miss Madeleine would have none of it. Quite as dictatorial as the old man himself she allowed no interference with her own plans and no criticism of her own actions.This had proved the right way to manage Mr. Van Norman, and he had always acceded to Madeleine’s requests or submitted to her decrees without objection, though there had never been any demonstration of affection between the two.But demonstration was quite foreign to the nature of both uncle and niece, and in truth they were really fond of each other in their quiet, reserved way. Tom Willard was different. His affection was of the honest and outspoken sort, and he made friends easily, though he often lost them with equal rapidity.On account, then, of his devotion to Madeleine, and his enmity toward young Tom Willard, Richard Van Norman had willed the old place to his niece, and had further directed that the whole of his large fortune should be unrestrictedly bestowed upon her on her wedding-day, or on her twenty-third birthday, should she reach that age unmarried. In event of her death before her marriage, and also before her twenty-third birthday, the whole estate would go to Tom Willard.To be continue in this ebook...

That Printer of Udell's is a 1903 work of fiction by Harold Bell Wright. Wright, who served as a minister before becoming a writer, created a story with Christian themes. In the story, Dick Falkner, who comes from a broken home, sees his father under the influence of alcohol and his mother starving. After his parents die, Dick goes to Boyd City in the Midwestern United States to become employed. Dick believes that "Christians won't let me starve." A printer named George Udell hires Dick; both of them decide to become Christians and Dick becomes a revered member of the religious community due to his public speaking abilities and optimism. At the end of the book, Dick gets a political job in Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan read the book at age 11 after his mother, a member of the Protestant Disciples of Christ Church, gave him the book. Reagan says that the book inspired him to become an evangelical Christian; he became baptized by his mother's congregation. At age 66 Reagan said that the book "left an abiding belief in the triumph of good over evil."