Roast Beef, Medium: The Business Adventures of Emma McChesney was first published in 1913. It chronicles the adventures of perhaps the only a successful traveling saleswoman in literary history, a stellar employee of T. A. Buck’s Featherloom Petticoats. Edna Ferber is known for big old-fashioned novels like So Big and Giant . I always thought they were supposed to be bad novels – not read anymore, anyway – but these stories are superb. Continue reading →.

Although I’m not nostalgic and seldom reread children’s books, I had astonishingly good taste as a child: I read Little Women, Linnets and Valerians, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Friday’s Tunnel, An Episode of Sparrows, and E. Nesbit’s The Enchanted Castle. E. Nesbit’s charming fantasy classics were my favorites, and I demanded them for several birthdays and Christmases. I didn’t call these fantasies: I referred to them as “magic adventure books.” The adventure happens to witty, independent, intelligent children against the background of ordinary life at the turn of the twentieth century. Continue reading →.

First published in 1907, The Shuttle begins with the marriage of Rosy, a heiress from New York, to Sir Nigel who despises Americans but has entrapped her for her money. Back in England, he abuses her psychologically and physically until she turns over most of her money to him. He also cuts off Rosy’s communications with her family. Twelve years later, Rosy’s sister Betty suspects Rosy may be Sir Nigel’s victim and sets out to rescue her. Continue reading →.