era: edwardian

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    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…

  • 23 Wizard of Oz Illustrations by W.W. Denslow (1900) – Chapter Headers

    This is the second of several posts highlighting W.W. Denslow’s illustrations for the 1900 edition of L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. The first post focused on full-page color illustrations, while this one features the chapter “header” pages. These show up at the start of every chapter and are an entire page in themselves. While they’re not full-color, they do have SOME color, usually either red, green or yellow. To make this collection: I downloaded each image individually, lightly edited them (keeping the vintage aged paper look), then re-uploaded them here. I had to shrink the quality a…

  • Cafe Parfait Alexandria (Coffee Mousse) Recipe from 1913

    Here’s another interesting recipe from the book Ultra Select Dishes for Afternoon Teas, published in 1913. It’s a collection of fancy recipes from high end hotels, and this particular recipe comes from Charles A. Frey, chef at the Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles, California. It’s basically a coffee mousse dessert, simple but very delicious. Original Recipe CAFE PARFAIT ALEXANDRIA Make a very strong coffee and pour over one pound of cube sugar. Dissolve the same over a slow fire, but do not let it boil, until it reaches twenty-eight degrees. Beat eight yolks of eggs in a kettle which is…

  • 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…

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    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…

  • The Wizard of Oz Book Series Index

    The Wizard of Oz book universe is a larger thing than you may know! There’s the original books written by L. Frank Baum, then there’s the spinoffs and sibling books, and THEN there’s the rest of the “official Oz” books written by authors approved by the publisher after Baum’s death in the 1920s. If you’ve only every heard of the original book (and maybe a few others), you may be surprised at how many books are actually out there! This post is an index of all the official Oz books, which include the “Famous Forty” official books, as well as…