Call of the Wild is London's most read book. The protagonist is a dog, but the themes and action are quite dark as it tells of the misadventures of 'Buck' and the breakdown of his domestication after he is kidnapped and sold as a sled dog.

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase sparked interest in expansion to the west coast. The USA purchased 2,100,000 square km of largely unknown territory from France for 3 cents per acre. This huge swath of land stretching from New Orleans to Canada now about forms about 23% of the USA. President Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to study the Indian tribes, botany, geology, Western terrain and wildlife. The journal details their trek from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back.

The work opens with an unnamed narrator listening to the reading of a manuscript written many years ago by a now dead young governess. The governess relates that soon after arriving to work in the house she learns that her predecessor had died under mysterious circumstances. As the tale unfolds the reader has room to doubt the reality of the evil that the governess feels is approaching.

A pioneer in travel literature, Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes is Robert Louis Stevenson's account of his 12 day journey through Cevennes, France. He suffered from ill health for much of his life, and this was his opportunity for a long desired adventure. Accompanied by a stubborn donkey, Modestine, Stevenson takes a serious note at times and at others, regales with tales of his encounters. Very entertaining indeed.

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)

1859 Best Seller.

The novel follows the orphaned Beulah from childhood in the Antebellum South through a troubled and stormy struggle for independence.

1898 Best Seller.

A new minister arrives at a mining and lumber boomtown in the 1880's West. He is determined to 'clean up the town' and win a few souls, but the task proves more challenging than he anticipated.