1865 Best Seller.

The story of Hans and his sister's participation in a skating competition is interwoven with their class reading of _The Hero of Haarlem_ (the boy who saved his country by plugging a dike with his finger). Somehow poplular myth has transferred Han's name to the dike boy.

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)

1864 Best Seller.

The sequel to Ishmael.

1871 Best Seller.

From age 19 Eggleston was an itinerant preacher until travelling broke his health.

The books relates the experiences of a young man sent to be the only teacher of a backwoods rural Indiana town. It is an early example of American realist fiction.