Literature

Vintage books, poems, memoirs and more!

  • |

    Art from ‘Twas the Night before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas (1912)

    This book is an illustrated version of the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by (probably) Clement Clarke Moore (see Wikipedia). This version was published in 1912 by Houghton Mifflin, and was illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith. There’s some really nice art in this book, so I downloaded scans from the Internet Archive, cropped them, and reuploaded them here to share! This particular edition of the book, including its illustrations, are in the public domain now, so you can use them to make your own art, make little prints for your house (Christmas decorations, perhaps?) and so on. Click…

  • 30+ FREE Books: Women’s Historical Diaries

    This is the third of several posts linking to various public domain books on interesting topics! Public domain books are ones that have fallen out of copyright, and so they’re available for free to download and read. This specific post focuses on the following: Be sure to also check out 101+ FREE Books About Women Traveling the World for more books! I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books on the “diaries” keyword pages. I even hand-coded the links myself! My hope is that putting these lists together will help you discover…

  • 100+ More FREE Books About Women Traveling the World

    This is the second of several posts linking to various public domain books on interesting topics! Public domain books are ones that have fallen out of copyright, and so they’re available for free to download and read. This specific post focuses on the following: Be sure to also check out 101+ FREE Books About Women Traveling the World for more books! I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books within the various travel-related subject pages. I even hand-coded the links myself! While you can find a lot just going through the main…

  • 101+ FREE Books About Women Traveling the World

    This is the first of several posts linking to various public domain books on interesting topics! Public domain books are ones that have fallen out of copyright, and so they’re available for free to download and read. This specific post focuses on the following: I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books within the various travel-related subject pages. I even hand-coded the links myself! While you can find a lot just going through the main “travel” genre page, I noticed that some books get sorted under specific location subjects or even just…

  • |

    Illustrations from The Princess and the Goblin (1920 edition)

    The Princess and the Goblin is a children’s fantasy book written by Scottish author George MacDonald in 1872. It’s one of my favorite books, highly recommend picking it up if you haven’t read it already! This edition, published in 1920 by David McKay Company, was illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith, one of my favorite artists from the early 20th century. I’ve used a scan from the Internet Archive to pull her illustrations for the book out into individual images and then uploaded them here for you all to enjoy. As they’re in the public domain, you can use them for…

  • |

    Illustrations from Rose Fyleman’s The Rainbow Cat (1923)

    The Rainbow Cat is a children’s fantasy book written by British author Rose Fyleman, published originally in 1922. This edition was published by the George H. Doran company in New York in 1923. The art in this book was by American artist Thelma Cudlipp (listed as Thelma Cudlipp Grosvenor on the book itself). I like the balance of clear lines and delicate colors, and especially how cute the cats are! These images were collected from a PDF scan provided by the Library of Congress. They aren’t the clearest, unfortunately, but I thought they were very charming and I wanted to…

  • Author Rose Fyleman Book Index

    Rose Amy Fyleman (née Feilmann, 6 March 1877 – 1 August 1957) was an English writer and poet, noted for her works on fairies for children. Her 1917 poem “There are fairies at the bottom of our garden” was set to music by English composer Liza Lehmann. (Source: Wikipedia) I think she’s one of those authors that’re maybe more popular in her own country– which is probably why I hadn’t heard of her before my research in Victorian/Edwardian fairy tale books, as I’m from the US and she was British! Of course, that means she’s a perfect fit for the library…

  • Author Frances Hodgson Burnett Book Index

    Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children’s novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). (via Wikipedia) Info The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books, and while I’ve read some of FHB’s other kids books (The Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy) I never knew she wrote so many other books– and most of them for adults! This is a bibliography of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s major works, including novels, novellas (or “novelettes”), and short story collections. I…

  • |

    Poem: THE MAGIC (1903)

    You who saw through my disguise Though I came so poor,Let me bless your true two eyes And your open door.Yes, I am a wonder-child; Hark and tell it not.—With the journey and the cold I had half forgot.Take the charmèd seeds I lay In your open hand:Some would cast them all away, You will understand.Trust the bud to come to flower, Trust the flower for fruit.Listen in the winter-timeFor a cricket lute.Here are blessings all from me —Though they look like tears—For your blessed eyes that see And your heart that hears.I am higher than I seem, Fair as…

  • |

    3 Fairy Poems by Rose Fyleman

    These poems come from the book The Fairy Flute by Rose Fyleman, originally published in 1921. It’s a collection of children’s poems about fairies; I picked these three specifically to share because I like the interaction between the real world and the fantasy world the fairies come from. The featured post image is “The Fairy Queen takes an airy drive in a light carriage, a twelve-in-hand, drawn by thoroughbred butterflies,” from the book In fairy-land (1875). 👉 All posts about fairy tales / All children’s stuff posts / More poetry / More literature IN BOND STREET Upon her little velvet…