Books published by publisher A Word To The Wise

Mentor and guide to the Lost Generation of expatriate American writers, including Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) is perhaps better known for her Parisian salon than her literary works. Yet her innovative approach to writing and her originality of thought make the impact of her books on contemporary literature enormous.Tender Buttons, published in 1914, is vintage Stein. She pushes abstraction to its farthest limits by experimenting with words purely as words in a style more akin to painting than literature. Interested in their melody and color, Stein favors verbs and prepositions in unusual combinations and attempts to avoid using nouns. According to Sherwood Anderson, Tender Buttons "gives words an oddly new intimate flavor and at the same time makes familiar words seem almost like strangers … For me the work of Gertrude Stein consists in a rebuilding, an entire new recasting of life, in the city of words."Often compared with music and Cubist imagery, the exhilarating prose and thought-provoking experimental techniques of Tender Buttons offer readers a rewarding sojourn through one of Stein's most influential works.

Kenneth Grahame was born on 8 March 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was initially sent to work at the Bank Of England rising eventually to Secretary. As a young man, Grahame began to publish light stories in periodicals such as the St. James Gazette. Some were collected together and published as Pagan Papers in 1893, and, two years later, The Golden Age. These were followed by Dream Days in 1898, which contains The Reluctant Dragon. Shortly thereafter he became a father and did not publish again until 1908. It was worth waiting for. The Wind In The Willows was a fabulous triumph. Despite its success, he never attempted a sequel.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935) was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis. Here we publish ‘Herland’ a seminal piece of fiction where a world completely run and controlled by women comes into contact with a small band of men.

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born on January 13, 1832. A prolific American author, who specialised in the ‘rags to riches’ story. He wrote mainly for juveniles during America’s Gilded Age. Stories of impoverished boys rising from humble backgrounds and beginnings to lives fulfilling the American Dream through hard work, honesty and courage. Almost always it is an extraordinary act of honesty or bravery that turns the boy’s life around. For a time he was very successful but as America grew up his own ambitions did not and his new writings were not as able as his earlier ones such as this volume 'The Cash Boy'

The Touchstone is a novella by the American writer and novelist Edith Wharton that follows the story of the lawyer Stephen Glennard. In the beginning of the narrative, Glennard finds himself impecunious and unable to afford to marry his beautiful fiancée, Alexa Trent. In desperation, a London magazine advertisement brings back to his mind the romantic letters that his dead ex-lover used to send him. Since the author of those letters, Margaret Aubyn, has posthumously become a famous novelist, the documents can surely be converted to quite a fortune once sold to avid publishers. This is what Glennard actually does by the end after removing his name from the letters. However, soon after marriage, his guilty conscience starts to torture him along with the ghost of the dead author which seems to be unleashed after the publication of the letters. Glennard starts to imagine that the people around him have learnt about his secret. Among these, the one he is most concerned about is his wife. He thinks that he does not deserve her love since he feels that he has betrayed her too. Yet, unexpectedly, when he finally confesses his secret to her, she decides to forgive him and help him recover from his psychological torments.

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", Stephen Crane's first novel, is the story of a beautiful young girl living in the slums of New York in the late 19th Century. "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" is a shockingly explicit portrait of the brutal conditions that existed in the poverty-stricken slums of New York. Originally refused by all publishers that it was submitted to because of its brutal and sexual realism, "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" was first published by Stephen Crane at his own expense.

First published posthumously in the eighteenth century by her husband, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman is still today reckoned as a seminal feminist work. It takes the form of an unfinished novel whose events revolve around the character of Maria who is mischievously sent to a mental asylum by her husband after taking her only child from her. In the asylum, Maria befriends other women, mainly her attendant Jemima whose life is as miserable as hers. Jemima reveals that she was born an illegitimate child and then had to work as a servant from early childhood. Her master used to abuse her and even rape her before she was dismissed from her job by his wife. Jemima decides to help Maria by bringing her books to read. In the remaining parts of the book, different details of Maria’s tragic experience with her corrupt and tyrannical husband are recounted. Generally, the narrative expresses a fierce diatribe against patriarchy, the institution of marriage and the unfair legal system of eighteenth-century Britain. The book also represents a very early celebration of female sexuality.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 and is far better known by his pen name; Mark Twain. An American author and humorist of the first order he is perhaps most famous for his novels, The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, written in 1876, and its sequel, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, written in 1885 and often described with that mythic line - "the Great American Novel." Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the backdrop for these great novels. Apprenticed to a printer he also worked as a typesetter but eventually became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Later, heading west with his brother, Orion to make his fortune he failed at gold mining and instead turned to journalism and found his true calling as a writer of humorous stories. That wit and humour would sparkle from every page, his craft evident with every phase and punctured target. Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and predicted that he would "go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return in 1910. 'A Horse's Tale' is a brilliant work that is well worth a read.

Flora Annie Steel was born on 2 April 1847. Married at 20 to Henry William Steel, who was a member of the Indian civil service, she spent the next twenty-two years in India. Her husband suffered from ill health so at times she would take over some responsibilities such as inspecting schools. Her writing almost always involved some part of India and its sprawling culture. In 1889 the family moved back to Scotland where she continued to write including this delightful volume of English Fairy Tales.

Harry Sinclair Lewis (7th February, 1885 – 10th January, 1951) was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930 "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." Whilst an accurate description of his writing it misses the central theme and tone of his work which is more evident from his own words in accepting the Prize: “America is the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today” and on American literary establishment: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead." Lewis was born in the small town of Sauk in Minnesota and although he led an unhappy childhood there, the town was to provide the model for the fictional town of Gopher Prairie in Minnesota where the Main Street of the book’s titles is set. The publication of Main Street was a phenomenal success, selling 2 million copies despite the projected sales of 25,000 by his agent and securing Lewis’s financial and literary future. The book is critical of the conformity and narrow mindedness of small town America seen through the eyes of Carol Kennicott who desires social reform for women and greater individual happiness. This chimed perfectly with the era of a growing labour movement and, in the same year of its publication, women getting the vote in the US. However. many literary critics believe that the real power of the book transcends its contemporary themes and satire of simple towns folk and superficial intellectuals that think they are so superior but stems from Lewis’s faithful reproduction of local speech and customs. Lewis has been honoured with a postage stamp in the US and many feel strongly that his impact on modern American life was far greater than Hemingway, Fitzgerald or Faulkner.

This, the ninth book about the Land Of Oz was his favorite and was first published on July 16th, 1915. In it Cap'n Bill and Trot journey to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow (and some magic he has from Glinda) overthrow the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland. Baum also experiments with such fascinating devices as berries to make you grow big or small and continued to develop themes and experiences that enthralled his young audience.

First published in 1914, Booth Tarkington’s Penrod is the first collection of stories that follow the adventures of the eponymous twelve-year-old protagonist. The stories are set in early-twentieth century American Midwest. Often compared to Mark Twain’s young heroes Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, young Penrod Schofield engages in a series of childish adventures that Tarkington presents in full and passionate details. The narrative is characterized by a high degree of suspense, risk-taking and innocent humor. This is encountered mainly in short stories like “A Boy and His Dog,” “Evils of Drink,” “Uncle John” and “The Inner Boy.” In addition to the protagonist, other interesting characters are introduced in this seminal book to reappear in later volumes. They mainly include Penrod’s faithful dog Duke and his intimate friend Sam Williams, in addition to other minor characters. Their naughtiness often gets them into serious trouble with bad-tempered adults. Yet, they always manage to escape using their wit and childish bravery. In addition to being a pleasant read, the collection, along with its sequels Penrod and Sam (1916) and Penrod Jashber (1929), offers an overview of American society, culture and tradition of the turn of the century.