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Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 19th January 1809. Poe is also one of a number of authors credited with inventing the detective genre with his Parisian sleuth C. Auguste Dupin. He's featured in three stories, including the legendary ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’, and by sheer deduction, logic and a touch of Gallic arrogance revealed what was hidden to the rest of us.

Richard Edward Connell Jr was born on the 17th October 1893, in Poughkeepsie, New York. During the First World War Connell served in France with the US Army and was the editor of his camp's newspaper. After the war he turned to writing short stories, and eventually wrote over 300 of them for the periodicals and journals of the day, including regular contributions to The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. The attention of his audience kept him popular for decades. He is perhaps best remembered for his macabre short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’, written in 1924.

Pearl Zane Grey was born on 31st January 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. From an early age, he was intrigued by history, fishing, baseball, and writing. Grey was an avid reader of adventure stories, consuming dime store novels by the dozen. His first magazine article, about one of his fishing expeditions, was published in 1902. It was not until 1910 that he wrote his first Western, ‘The Heritage of the Desert’. It was a breakthrough title and quickly became a bestseller.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. The Birthmark is a classic tale from Hawthorne’s pen. Georgina has a small red birthmark on her cheek. Her husband, a brilliant scientist and philosopher, becomes obsessed with what he thinks is this blemish on her beauty.

Robert William Chambers was born on 26th May 1865 in Brooklyn. His best-known work is ‘The King in Yellow’ (1895), a highly vivid collection of Art Nouveau short stories. These stories are woven together by the theme of a fictitious drama of the same title, which drives those who read it insane. ‘The Repairer of Reputations’ from ‘The King in Yellow’ is a mind-bending and disruptive story that adds just enough reality that the unreal elements seem totally at home in the descent to chaos.

William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. In December 1899, in McClure’s Magazine, he published a short story as O. Henry.

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio. In 1916 his first book, ‘Windy McPherson’s Son’, was released and in 1919, his most famous book, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’, a collection of short stories about life in an Ohio town was released. Anderson continued to write short stories, novels and non-fiction but his only true bestseller came with ‘Dark Laughter’. His influence on writers that followed, from Faulkner to Hemingway, was immense.

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio. In 1916 his first book, ‘Windy McPherson’s Son’, was released and in 1919, his most famous book, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’, a collection of short stories about life in an Ohio town was released. Anderson continued to write short stories, novels and non-fiction but his only true bestseller came with ‘Dark Laughter’. His influence on writers that followed, from Faulkner to Hemingway, was immense.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language. In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. Success and further works including poetry followed.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language. In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. Success and further works including poetry followed.

Christmas may come but once a year but human emotions, the driving force of our characters, are with us every day. Yet, somehow these same emotions when they happen at Christmas seem amplified; we seem more tender to their touch, their words. In this volume we take the verse and poems of our classic poets and put them alongside our short story masters to reveal a Christmas that everyone remembers and that everyone wants to be part of.

Christmas may come but once a year but human emotions, the driving force of our characters, are with us every day. Yet, somehow these same emotions when they happen at Christmas seem amplified; we seem more tender to their touch, their words. Whether it’s a long-lost returning soldier wondering how best to return to the arms of his family without too great a risk of shock... Or a prodigal son whose taken path has driven pain into his own and others hearts… These stories reveal much about the human condition.

The human race has been on the receiving end of many viral and bacterial diseases. And as medicine brings them to heel, eradicates their power, so Nature and Evolution brings others to the fore in a ceaseless march to weaken some, to strengthen others. And, as our race understands their mysteries, so we begin to weaponize them for our own malevolent use as biological weapons. Authors have always been drawn to this global scale and individual human response. In this collection virus and plague are given their head and the responses must see cure or capitulation within.

Alan Seeger was born on 22nd June 1888 in New York. After attending several elite preparatory schools, he enrolled at Harvard in 1906, where he also edited and wrote for the Harvard Monthly. War’s looming dark shadow was to have a transformative effect on the young poet and on 24th August 24th, 1914, he joined the French Foreign Legion so he could fight for the Allies. On American Independence day, 4th July 1917, whilst urging on his fellow soldiers in a successful charge at Belloy-en-Santerrem he was hit several times by machine gun fire and died.

John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876, in San Francisco. In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where now, calling himself Jack, he completed grade school. In the Klondike Jack began to gather material for his writing. During the late 1890s Jack was regularly publishing short stories and by the turn of the century full-blown novels.

As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich.

This Is Wildfire offers everything you need to know about fire in one useful volume. Nick Mott and Justin Angle reflect on the history of humanity’s connection to flames, analyze how our society arrived at this perilous moment, and recount stories of those fighting fire and trying to change our relationship with it. Throughout, they give practical advice, from choosing your insurance and making your home resilient to burns, to packing an emergency go-bag and rebuilding after a fire.

In a world ravaged by the effects of climate change, sixteen-year-old Joe has been left with nothing but mountains full of junk. When Joe and his friends are caught in an avalanche of waste, six-year-old Lily is left deathly ill, and Joe sets out towards a mysterious city to seek out help. Nothing could prepare him for what he finds on the way: a dangerous prince wearing a suit made of stars, the wolf from Red Riding Hood bearing its teeth, and the reality-changing power of storytelling aloud.

Esteemed historian Dr Carter Malkasian explains how this conflict in a small peninsula in East Asia had a tremendous impact on the entire international system and the balance of power between the two superpowers, America and Russia. In this history, he examines how the West demonstrated its resolve to thwart Communist aggression and the armed forces of China, the Soviet Union and the United States came into direct combat for the only time during the Cold War.

Six circles of relationship formed around Jesus in his time on earth. In the outermost circle, the Crowds who were curious. Next, the Five Thousand who were needy, while the Seventy worked and served in Jesus’ ministry; then came the Twelve who walked with Jesus, the Three who suffered and celebrated with him, and finally the One who sat beside him at the Last Supper. In The One Jesus Loves, you will learn about each of the six circles, and what it takes to move further in, closer and closer to Jesus.