Harper & Brothers

"When a white dog with black spots runs away from home, he gets so dirty his family doesn't recognize him as a black dog with white spots. Harry is a white dog with black spots who loves everything ... except baths. So one day before bath time, Harry runs away. He plays outside all day long, digging and sliding in everything from garden soil to pavement tar. By the time he returns home, Harry is so dirty he looks like a black dog with white spots....

This collection of short writings is remarkable for its variety--both in terms of length and style. This might be attributed to Twain experimenting with form as growth, of moving from the brevity of his often humorous journalism toward themes that could sustain more lengthly treatment. This book has speeches, short stories, poems, hoaxes, satires, fables, travelogues, burlesques, first and third person narratives, and biographical and autobiographical...

First published in 1937, They Came Like Swallows was William Maxwell's second novel. It tells of an ordinary American family overtaken by the devastating epidemic of the Spanish influenza of 1918. The book begins on the day before the armistice in a small midwestern town, and the events are seen from the perspective, in turn, of eight-year-old Peter Morison - called Bunny; of his older brother, Robert; and of their father. They are witnesses to a...

The Ruby of Kishmoor (1908) is a deceptively simple story by renowned author and illustrator Howard Pyle. From the very beginning, it concerns itself with the mystery behind appearances, with all that lies hidden beneath the veil of a first glance. "You may never know what romantic aspirations may lie hidden beneath the most sedate and sober demeanor." This is how the reader is introduced to Jonathan Rugg, a young Quaker from Philadelphia who unwittingly...

America's post-Civil War years brought a renewed interest in the European scene. Journeys known as Grand Tours led tourists to take ship to the Continent. They fanned out across the landscape with the intent to "know Europe." Their return home resulted in a flurry of published accounts. Twain satirizes both the tourists and their writings with delicious wit. Ever a man to play with words, his "tramp" refers to both himself and the walking tour of...

Mark Twain loved to place American characters-forthright, ingenious, but sometimes naive-in exotic locales, just to see what madcap results might ensue. In this sequel to Tom Sawyer, Tom and his pals Huck Finn and Jim travel via balloon to Africa, where they run up against robbers, lions, and some particularly fearsome fleas.

A failed mutiny lands the narrator in a Tahitian jail where he and his companion, Doctor Long Ghost, are treated with curiosity and kindness. After their eventual release, the two embark on a series of adventures as they work at odd jobs, view traditional rites and customs on the island, and contrive an audience with the Tahitian queen. Thought-provoking, humorous glimpses of a vanished 19th-century world in the South Seas.

"After killing a man in self-defense, Buck Duane becomes an outlaw." --

In the last book published during Mark Twain's lifetime, the spirit of a deceased ship captain takes a voyage to Heaven, and learns many interesting things about the Afterlife.