November is Native American Heritage Month, so why not delve into human heritage of cultures from all over the world with 10 gems from our catalog.

Let’s start at the beginning of Western civilisation. Troy has fallen, its men are dead, and even the noblest of The Trojan Women will have to spend the rest of their lives in slavery. Hear their plight in the ancient drama by Euripides.

A similar story, but from the victor’s viewpoint, is chronicled by Frederick A. Ober. His biography Francisco Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru tells how it took only 168 Spanish men to destroy the great kingdom of the Inca.

Less violent, but equally destructive was the meeting between the beautiful Indian Iracema, the Honey Lips and the Spaniard Martim in the Brazilian forest. Had she not saved his life, not fallen in love with him, maybe there had been a happy ending in José de Alencar’s novel?

Many meetings between whites and natives of other races ended with the natives being forced to adapt to a new life. In The Indian To-day, Ohiyesa presents the 1915 status of the American Natives, and talks about their past and future and what he sees as the Indian’s gift to the nation.

Charles Godfrey Leland went to the North American East Coast and there collected The Algonquin Legends of New England. The book contains more than 70 stories of the tribes called Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot.

These stories always have a strong environment-dependent character, but very often the morals behind them are the same. Compare the above to our 30 Australian Legendary Tales compiled by K. Langloh Parker from the stories of the Noongahburrah aborigines.

The Folklore of the Santal Parganas, an Indian district about 150 miles northwest of Kolkata, collects legends and stories about different aspects of life, infused with a lot of Eastern Wisdom as it is found in India.

While Isabella L. Bird was not in search for such wisdom, her time Among the Tibetans in 1890 – as one of the first Westerners – gives an insight into the daily lives and customs of a people that is still relatively unknown today.

Equally unknown at that time was the then called Hermit Kingdom. Henry Lee Mitchell Pike’s book tries to raise children’s interest for the lives of other people and does so by having them spend time with Our Little Korean Cousin.

Let’s close our tour by returning to the start of Western civilisation. Ovid describes in his poem The Fasti the numerous holidays and thus connected customs of the Romans. Unfortunately he could not finish the work, but at least the first 6 months have been handed down to us.

Enjoy – and celebrate your heritage!

Autumn mists are rising and slowly engulf the world… Not everything in the gloomy shadows finally reveals itself as a simple tree… Say hello to the ghosts hiding in the twilight with 10 gems from our catalog.

Something lies hidden in the little lake behind the old farmhouse Roger Locke recently bought. A woman appears to warn him of The Thing From the Lake, but who is she – and on whose side? Find out what will be revealed in the horror novel by Eleanor M. Ingram.

The History of the Caliph Vathek by William Beckford tells the story of a caliph who renounces Islam and thus loses his wordly power. Now, Vathek wants to gain supernatural powers and is ready to sacrifice anything and anybody to get them.

Alexandre Dumas tells of real life villains in his series Celebrated Crimes. The first volume puts the powerful Florentine Borgia family in the spotlight; they played an influential role in 15th and 16th century Italian politics and religion.

Religious expression? Hellish possession? Mass hysteria? Between the 14th and 17th century, The Dancing Mania befell groups of people of all ages all across Europe. Justus Hecker tries to find the reason for the societal phenomenon.

Helen Vaughan is a dangerous woman who leaves destroyed men in her wake wherever she ventures. In the end, she is urged to kill herself, but on her death she transforms… Read Arthur Machen’s book The Great God Pan to find out about Helen’s life and death.

The nature of death is one of the great questions of mankind. In Emily Dickinson on Death we find a collection of letters and poems of the famous poetess dealing exclusively with this subject.

Not dead, but mentally and physically ruined are all the former apprentices of a great master. Nevertheless, in George Sylvester Viereck’s novel, a young novice writer moves in with the old man into The House of the Vampire.

Another haunted house mystery was written by Charles Goddard and Paul Dickey, and it is full of strange characters, heroes and villains. Listen to our dramatic version of the famous story The Ghost Breaker.

William Hope Hodgson pictures in all spooky details the last voyage of a haunted ship, from being besieged by ugly sea-devils to the final sinking. Let yourself be captivated by The Ghost Pirates.

Hopefully, you won’t get bad dreams from our selection above. If you do, have a look at The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. There may be more to your dreams than you had thought…

Enjoy – but don’t get scared!

It is September and in many countries this is the month when school starts again. Whether you love school or hate it – get in the mood with 10 gems from our catalog.

Let’s do something easy to warm up: In A Soup of Alphabets from A – Z various authors teach children about birds, famous people, the evils of slavery… all in a pleasant way using little poems.

Not quite so pleasant are the school days of Laura, who enters a boarding school in Melbourne in the novel by Henry Handel Richardson. There, the poor girl faces the ridicule of the wealthy ones, and soon learns that The Getting of Wisdom means more than just acquiring bookish knowledge.

Morgan is The Pupil of Pemberton, a young man with more education than money. Unfortunately, Morgan’s parents also develop financial problems and cannot pay the tutor Pemberton, so he is forced to leave. When he finally returns in Henry James’ novel, things have gotten even worse for Morgan and his family.

Different problems – those of an intercultural kind – awaited Anna H. Leonowens in 1862, when she became The English Governess at the Siamese Court. Although the king wanted a Western education for his wives and children, she came to be seen as difficult person and often reflects critically.

22 year old Ann Veronica is a biology student and moves out of her father’s home after a fight. H. G. Wells describes her slow emancipation from a timid school girl to a New Woman, which caused a sensation when published in 1909.

All about emancipation – in the strict sense of the word – is the work of Dr. Maria Montessori. The Montessori Method of Education supports the self-development of children, who are naturally curious; and even today, the system is used in thousands of schools all over the world.

Children learn easiest when they are involved on more than one level. Mary Ella Lyng created 14 short History Plays for the Grammar Grades about famous people and incidents, for example: Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,…

Finding the right type of teaching is always difficult, and even more so when the child has special needs. John Dutton Wright, a pioneer in the education of the deaf, explains in What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know his method of acoustic and auricular training.

Of course, such special approaches were quite unknown when Ralph Connor grew up in rural Ontario. The very popular sketches of his Glengarry School Days take you back to the time of the Canadian Confederation.

A similar book is by Thomas Hughes, whose book about Tom Brown’s School Days is based on his own experiences at Rugby School for boys in the 1830s. Still, life and school are different on the two sides of the great pond: Tom’s top event is a cricket match…

Enjoy – and never stop learning!