1872 Best Seller.

In his day E. P. Roe was a bigger seller than Mark Twain.

A story of the Chicago fire.

"We accord a hearty commendation to this work. The narrative is vigorous, often intense, but rarely if ever melodramatic. Its language is usually no less chaste than forcible and impressive. It betrays a power of invention and description which is not met with every day in the best of writers of popular fiction." -- Dr. Ripley, in the New York Tribune (contemporary review)

1874 Best Seller.

In his day E. P. Roe was a bigger seller than Mark Twain.

"In the Opening of a Chestnut Burr, Mr. Roe has made a marked advance upon his two previous stories. He has already exhibited a remarkable power of description, which in this volume he uses with good effect in the scenes of fire and shipwreck. It is thoroughly religious, thoroughly Christian both in tone and teaching." -- Harper's Magazine. (a contemporary review)