Books published by publisher Didactic Press

Charles XII., the most famous of Swedish kings, was a boy of fifteen at the death of his father. He was born June 17, 1682, at the castle of Stockholm. The astrologers declared that Sweden was to receive a new war-lord, and that time they were not mistaken. Charles XII. was born in the same year as the absolute monarchy of Sweden, which power he was to abuse in such a great measure. Shortly after his birth, one of the speakers of the knightly chapter house, Justice Gyllencreutz, said while warning against the consequences of an absolute power: “A king may come who follows his own will, being more fond of war than peace, or utterly extravagant. History proves that changes of the constitution generally are beset by dangerous consequences; yea, that they often have brought destruction to the country and its people.” These words were prophetic...

31 incredible science fiction novels and short stories, collected here and presented in full awesomeness! If you love sci-fi, you NEED to read H. Beam Piper, one of the greatest sci-fi writers of all time.Contents include:TIME AND TIME AGAINHE WALKED AROUND THE HORSESPOLICE OPERATIONTHE MERCENARIESLAST ENEMYFLIGHT FROM TOMORROWOPERATION R.S.V.P.DEARESTTEMPLE TROUBLEGENESISDAY OF THE MORONULLR UPRISINGNULL-ABCTHE RETURNTIME CRIMEOMNILINGUALTHE EDGE OF THE KNIFETHE KEEPERLONE STAR PLANETGRAVEYARD OF DREAMSMINISTRY OF DISTURBANCEHUNTER PATROLCROSSROADS OF DESTINYTHE ANSWEROOMPHEL IN THE SKYFOUR-DAY PLANET — Part 1FOUR-DAY PLANET — Part 2NAUDSONCELITTLE FUZZY — Part 1LITTLE FUZZY — Part 2A SLAVE IS A SLAVESPACE VIKINGTHE COSMIC COMPUTER

The follow-up sequel to George MacDonald's "The Princess and the Goblin", this fantasy novel follows the adventures of Princess Irene and Curdie a few years later as the pair must discover and overthrow ministers that are poisoning Irene's father, the King. Illustrated throughout to enhance the reading experience, "The Princess and Curdie" is one of George MacDonald's greatest works!

That great deeds and a broad field of action are not always commensurate is exemplified in the lives of the Ponces de Leon, Juan and Rodrigo, noteworthy names of a family famed in the annals of America and Spain. Of the two, doubtless the latter was the more distinguished in the land of his birth for bravery and military skill; but the former achieved a still wider celebrity by linking his name with the discovery of Florida and the search for the fountain of youth.These two famous sons of Spain were not closely related, although they bore the same patronymic, as Juan came from an ancient family of Aragon, and Rodrigo from an equally ancient, and in the fifteenth century more flourishing, house of Andalusia, or the south of Spain. Both belonged to the hidalguia, or Spanish nobility; but the northern, or Aragon branch, was in decadence at the time Juan was born, in or about the year 1460, while the Andalusian was then rapidly approaching the zenith of its glory. This, indeed, culminated with the career of Rodrigo Ponce de Leon (born 1443, died 1492), who, while possessing vast territory in Spain, with scores of castles, towns, and villages, passed the greater part of his life in camp.Soldiers were they both, trained almost from infancy in the profession of arms; but while Juan was still a page at the court of Pero Nunez de Guzman, Senor of Toral, Rodrigo could raise an army of his own retainers and vassals. For he was then the most illustrious of the Ponces, and, having in youth come into the ownership of title and estates, was well and widely known as the powerful Marquis of Cadiz. As his territory, at the time this story opens, lay contiguous to the region then occupied by the Moors, with whom for centuries the Spaniards had been engaged in deadly warfare, he had been, as it were, cradled beneath the canopies of tents, nurtured upon the traditions of his ancestors, and matured with Spain's seasoned veterans in the field. Thus it came to pass that he was regarded by the king and the queen, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, as their most doughty champion, defender of the faith, and implacable antagonist of the Mahometan Moors...

A beautiful collection of English fairy tales retold by Flora Steel, heavily illustrated by the masterful Arthur Rackham. This collection of English fairy tales is perfect for children and the young at heart alike, and a fantastic bedtime book. Formatted for Kindle devices and the Kindle for iOS apps.Contents include:ST. GEORGE OF MERRIE ENGLANDTHE STORY OF THE THREE BEARSTOM-TIT-TOTTHE GOLDEN SNUFF-BOXTATTERCOATSTHE THREE FEATHERSLAZY JACKJACK THE GIANT-KILLERTHE THREE SILLIESTHE GOLDEN BALLTHE TWO SISTERSTHE LAIDLY WORMTITTY MOUSE AND TATTY MOUSEJACK AND THE BEANSTALKTHE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAYCATSKINTHE THREE LITTLE PIGSNIX NAUGHT NOTHINGMR. AND MRS. VINEGARTHE TRUE HISTORY OF SIR THOMAS THUMBHENNY-PENNYTHE THREE HEADS OF THE WELLMR. FOXDICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CATTHE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIGTHE WEE BANNOCKHOW JACK WENT OUT TO SEEK HIS FORTUNETHE BOGEY-BEASTLITTLE RED RIDING-HOODCHILDE ROWLANDTHE WISE MEN OF GOTHAMCAPORUSHESTHE BABES IN THE WOODTHE RED ETTINTHE FISH AND THE RINGLAWKAMERCYMEMASTER OF ALL MASTERSMOLLY WHUPPIE AND THE DOUBLE-FACED GIANTTHE ASS, THE TABLE, AND THE STICKTHE WELL OF THE WORLD'S ENDTHE ROSE TREE

The writings of Shakespeare have been justly termed "the richest, the purest, the fairest, that genius uninspired ever penned."Shakespeare instructed by delighting. His plays alone (leaving mere science out of the question), contain more actual wisdom than the whole body of English learning. He is the teacher of all good-- pity, generosity, true courage, love. His bright wit is cut out "into little stars." His solid masses of knowledge are meted out in morsels and proverbs, and thus distributed, there is scarcely a corner of the English-speaking world to-day which he does not illuminate, or a cottage which he does not enrich. His bounty is like the sea, which, though often unacknowledged, is everywhere felt. As his friend, Ben Jonson, wrote of him, "He was not of an age but for all time." He ever kept the highroad of human life whereon all travel. He did not pick out by-paths of feeling and sentiment. In his creations we have no moral highwaymen, sentimental thieves, interesting villains, and amiable, elegant adventuresses--no delicate entanglements of situation, in which the grossest images are presented to the mind disguised under the superficial attraction of style and sentiment. He flattered no bad passion, disguised no vice in the garb of virtue, trifled with no just and generous principle. While causing us to laugh at folly, and shudder at crime, he still preserves our love for our fellow-beings, and our reverence for ourselves.Shakespeare was familiar with all beautiful forms and images, with all that is sweet or majestic in the simple aspects of nature, of that indestructible love of flowers and fragrance, and dews, and clear waters--and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies and woodland solitudes, and moon-light bowers, which are the material elements of poetry,--and with that fine sense of their indefinable relation to mental emotion, which is its essence and vivifying soul--and which, in the midst of his most busy and tragical scenes, falls like gleams of sunshine on rocks and ruins--contrasting with all that is rugged or repulsive, and reminding us of the existence of purer and brighter elements.These things considered, what wonder is it that the works of Shakespeare, next to the Bible, are the most highly esteemed of all the classics of English literature. "So extensively have the characters of Shakespeare been drawn upon by artists, poets, and writers of fiction," says an American author,--"So interwoven are these characters in the great body of English literature, that to be ignorant of the plot of these dramas is often a cause of embarrassment."But Shakespeare wrote for grown-up people, for men and women, and in words that little folks cannot understand.Hence this volume. To reproduce the entertaining stories contained in the plays of Shakespeare, in a form so simple that children can understand and enjoy them, was the object had in view by the author of these Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.And that the youngest readers may not stumble in pronouncing any unfamiliar names to be met with in the stories, the editor has prepared and included in the volume a Pronouncing Vocabulary of Difficult Names. To which is added a collection of Shakespearean Quotations, classified in alphabetical order, illustrative of the wisdom and genius of the world's greatest dramatist.

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens, and a few words are necessary to explain why the characters in the stories act and speak as though they belonged to a later age.It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and when the Britons, left to defend themselves against the attacks of the marauding Saxons, rose and defeated them at Mount Badon, securing to themselves peace for many years. It was probably about this time that King Arthur and his company of Knights performed the deeds which were to become the themes of stories and lays for generations afterwards.In olden times, it was the custom of minstrels and story-tellers to travel through the land from court to court, telling of tales of chivalry and heroism, and for many centuries the tales of King Arthur formed the stock from which the story-teller drew.In this way the stories came to be handed down from father to son, in Brittany (whose people are of the same family as the Welsh) as well as in Wales and England, and by this means alone were they prevented from being lost. But in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., they were set down on paper, and so became literature. Before this, however, a British writer had written out some of the tales, and from him as well as from the lips of the bards and story-tellers of their own generation, the writers in the time of Henry II. were able to collect their information.Now, it will be remembered that the second and third crusades were being carried on during the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., and many English and French Knights were therefore fighting in the fields of Palestine.The story-teller, whose living depended on the welcome his stories met with, instead of telling them according to tradition, altered them to suit the tastes of his hearers. Thus, the old heroes of tradition were placed upon prancing horses, clothed in coats of mail, and armed with lances as if they had been vassals of King Henry or King Richard. And in this way the story-teller called up before the minds of the listeners pictures of deeds of chivalry, such as husbands and brothers were performing for the Christian faith in far-off Palestine. The writers of the time, both English and French, set them down as they heard and knew them, and so in their altered and historically inaccurate form they have reached us at the present day.One of the most famous of the books compiled by old English writers was the “Historia Britonum,” which was written (in Latin) by Geoffrey, Bishop of Asaph. It contained an account of a war which King Arthur waged in Western Europe, but made no mention of the Holy Grail.From this and other books of romances compiled in England, and very largely, too, from books of French romances, Sir Thomas Malory obtained the material for his “Morte d’Arthur,” which was written in 1470. This is the most famous of the early books of Arthurian legend, and it is from the “Morte d’Arthur” that most of the stories in this book are taken. Some, however, are taken from the “High History of the Holy Graal,” translated from the French by Dr. Sebastian Evans. The language throughout has been modified with a view to making the legends more easy of study.

The career of Hernando Cortez is one of the most wild and adventurous recorded in the annals of fact or fiction, and yet all the prominent events in his wondrous history are well authenticated. All truth carries with itself an important moral. The writer, in this narrative, has simply attempted to give a vivid idea of the adventures of Cortez and his companions in the Conquest of Mexico...

"My Dear Alec,When Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, nearly two hundred years ago, boys had more time on their hands, fewer books and fewer games than they have now, and they, as well as their fathers, read it and loved it. And when your father and I were boys—though that is rather less than two hundred years ago—we too used often to read it.But boys nowadays do not seem to read Robinson Crusoe as they used to do. It is too long, they think, and there is much in it that they have not time to read. That is why I have written here, in as few words as possible, the tale of Robinson's twenty-eight years in his Island, and I hope that you, and other boys, will like it.The sea that lay round Robinson's island is not like the one you know, nor like the grey North Sea, stormy and cold; hut it is blue like a sapphire, and where the rollers break in white foam on the coral reefs it seems as if it were edged with pearls. On the shores of the islands, cocoa-nut palms wave their feathery fronds in the breeze; butterflies of wondrous colours hover about; and in and out amongst the thick-leaved trees clash birds, chattering and screaming, all crimson and blue and yellow and green.Often there are snakes too, and it was lucky that no snakes on Robinson's island troubled him. For on some islands that I have seen there are snakes—black and white, the most poisonous of them—that swim about in the sea and come up on the beach, and you have to be careful that you do not sit down on the top of one, for they are not always very quick at getting out of the way.When you are a man, perhaps someday you will go to one of those tropical islands, And if you take a boat and row out to the inside of the reef of Coral that lies round the island, and put your face close down, and look through the quiet, crystal dear water, you will know what Fairyland beneath the sea is like. You will find there gardens of a beauty never seen on land, only the branches of the trees are of coral, and in and out amongst them, instead of bright-coloured birds, you will see fishes swimming, some of a vivid yellow and black, others blue as the sky. That is where the mermaids used to play, when the world was younger than it is now.Affectionately yours,JOHN LANG."

"This book is intended as an historical reader, an elementary textbook in the history of our country, or as an introduction or supplement to any of the excellent textbooks on the history of the United States now in use.The aim has been not only to interest children in the great men of their own country, but to stimulate them to the cultivation of the lofty virtues of which they read, and to instil within their hearts a deep love for their native land.All the main facts in our early history have been given as simply and vividly as possible, and the lessons of patriotism, truthfulness, courage, patience, honesty, and industry taught by the lives of our principal heroes are carefully enforced. Great pains have also been taken to relate all the well-known anecdotes and quote the famous speeches which are so frequently alluded to in our current literature.Although this book ends with the Revolutionary War, the story of our country is continued on the same lines in a companion volume entitled The Story of the Great Republic; yet each book is independent of the other and can be used separately.So simply worded as to be easily intelligible to average children of ten or twelve years of age, the text is further arranged in short paragraphs, to facilitate its use as a reader in large classes.The pronunciation of difficult proper names is indicated in the text, and, more fully, in the carefully prepared index. The system of diacritical marks used is explained on the first page of the index." -Helene Guerber

An intriguing biography of Alexander the Great, conqueror of the world, who rose to power and rapidly absorbed the territory of his enemies into a vast empire stretching from Greece to India. This eBook is an excellent introduction to one of the most important historical figures ever.Illustrated throughout to enhance the reading experience. Formatted for Kindle devices and the Kindle for iOS apps.