Some of the texts at merrycoz.org are available here pre-packaged as free ebooks. Each is created from a specially created file. Page numbers for that edition and a little tiny introduction are included.
Titles may be available in several formats:
• .prc, made with Mobipocket Creator and readable with Mobipocket
Reader. (Get it at
mobipocket.com.)
• .pdb, made with DropWin and readable with eReader.
• .epub, made by hand and tested in ePub Checker, and on the Barnes & Noble Nook
and the delightful Firefox addon, “ePubReader.” Those not wishing to use
Firefox or buy a Nook can find the Barnes & Noble eReader program as a free
download at http://bn.com.
And because epub files are simply zipped-together .html files, you can unzip them into web pages.
Because the books are DRM-free, they can be converted to whatever format works best for you. A number of conversion programs are described in the wiki at mobileread.com. I’ve found Calibre (at calibre-ebook.com) very useful.
Now you can read John Dunn Hunter in a canoe on the Jack’s Fork! enjoy Fanny Fern on the bus! consult John Russell Bartlett in the bathtub! take Eliza Leslie to parties! Go ahead—you know you want them!
Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, by John Dunn Hunter (3rd. ed, 1824)
Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848) one of the most popular texts at the site
The Dictionary of Americanisms went through at least four editions between 1848 and 1877. As a record of the “colloquial language of the United States,” it’s a fascinating look at the words that actually came out of the mouths of early 19th-century Americans. It’s also a window into U. S. history, with tiny essays on early political parties (the Democratic party, for example, was known as the “Loco-foco” after an incident of the kind which won’t surprise observers of the political process), economics (how bears and bulls went to Wall Street), and culture (both strong drink and the Millerites); its collection of quotes offers later readers examples from a wide variety of early-19th-century works (everything from Congressional speeches to Sam Slick in England). And where else will you find discussions of words like “sanctimoniouslyfied” and “absquatulate”? or of phrases like “acknowledge the corn” and “red dog money”?
The Behaviour Book, by Eliza Leslie (1853)
The Behaviour Book is more than just a look at mid-19th-century rules of etiquette. Leslie covers the wide range of daily life: four pages are devoted to selecting an umbrella (green silk ones weren’t colorfast); she includes instructions for making a good black ink; and bed-making gets half a page. It’s a chatty book, full of anecdotes (George Washington telling a tall tale to a credulous traveler) and of one-paragraph essays on subjects like having a bedroom window open and how to refer to black servants. (There’s a disengenuous paragraph on a noxious racial epithet.) It’s also a wealth of anecdotal information about Leslie’s native Philadelphia, including a child’s rhyme listing its principal streets. The two chapters on how to treat writers and how to become a writer probably answered questions Leslie had heard over and over.
Ruth Hall, by “Fanny Fern” (1854)
“Fanny Fern” was Sara Payson Willis (1811-1872), who by the time Ruth Hall was written was already famous as an essayist; her newspaper essays were published in two popular collections in 1853. Ruth Hall was her first novel (she eventually wrote another, and a novelette), but in theme and tone it’s very much a piece with the newspaper essays: sentimental and satiric. Sara could be devastating, especially, on the subject of families and of family relationships; here, the character of Ruth’s brother—“Hyacinth Ellet”—is based on Sara’s own brother, whom she’d already portrayed as “Apollo Hyacinth” (in the second collection titled Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio). The novel itself is vaguely autobiographical.
Gala Days, by “Gail Hamilton” (1863)
Wool-Gathering, by “Gail Hamilton” (1867)
Popular Amusements, by J. T. Crane (1869)
Methodist minister Jonathan Townley Crane (1819-1880) explores the pros and cons (mostly cons) of various forms of recreation in mid-19th-century America, in Popular Amusements (Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye; New York: Eaton & Mains, 1869). Dancing, chess-playing, horse-racing, baseball: all are subjected to scrutiny. From the point of view of the 21st century, the most entertaining chapter in this book is his diatribe against novels—which his son, novelist Stephen Crane, appears to have ignored.
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To “Nineteenth-Century Children & What They Read” Some of the children | Some of their books | Some of their magazines |
To “Voices from 19th-Century America” Some works for adults, 1800-1872 |