Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1914.

Set in the world of authors, artists, and their patrons this novel explores the conflict between art for art sake and art for profit and fame. It was quite controversial in it's day; some accusing Wright of preaching and others supporting his observations.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1913.

It is important to note that the author is not the famed English politician and author, but an unrelated American writer.

"masterly grip of detail and rare psychological insight" - Henry Davies from letters to the New York Times 1913.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1915.

Tarkington was a widely read and prolific multiple Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and dramatist. The story uses a tale of two families following different trajectories but linked by romance to provide a glimpse of the changes induced by industrialization and urbanization.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1918.

An epic novel set against the construction of the Union-Pacific Railroad between 1864 and 1869 and the introduction of the telegraph. Full of wonderfully drawn characters and a central romantic thread.

This is one of the most colorful and fascinating autobiographies and what a wild, wild ride it is. Benvenuto Cellini the untameable goldsmith, sculptor, musician, artilleryman, sharpshooter, wheedler, and brute gives us the story of his life in his own words. Although esteemed for his art, when push came to shove he could as effectively dispatch an enemy with his words as with his sword. Cellini lived as the Italian renaissance was peaking where he was able to create masterpieces for his patrons - kings, popes, and leaders of sometimes waring Italian city-states.

The Lady With the Dog is one of Chekhov's most famous stories. What seems like a brief affair between two married people becomes a threat to their family lives as they find they cannot forget each other. Chekhov is now the most popular playwright in the English-speaking world after Shakespeare, but many think that his short stories are his greatest achievement. Chekhov's stories are ranked No.9 on Time magazine's list of the "10 Greatest Books of all time", January 2007.

A tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between Catherine, a dull but sweet daughter, and her brilliant domineering father as Catherine slowly develops maturity and independence. "Everybody likes Washington Square, even the denigrators of Henry James," wrote critic Donald Hall.