On Christmas Day In The Morning by Grace S. Richmond 1908 illustrated

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Title: On Christmas Day In The Morning

Author: Grace S. Richmond

Color plate illustrations: Charles M. Relyea

Storyline: Christmas promises broken, and promises kept unexpectedly. A beautiful little book about family relationships to warm the heart at any time of the year.

Copyrights: 1905, 1908

Published: 1908

Publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, New York

Format: Boards with integral dust-jacket. Each text page with green decorative border.

Page Count: 40

Author Biography:

Richmond, Grace S. (b.1866–d.1959)  If you are the daughter of a clergyman, what does one do at the turn of the last century? Write! Grace sure did! Grace was a prolific commercial romance author, best known as the creator of the Dr. R.P. ("Red Pepper") Burns country doctor series.

Works include: The Indifference of Juliet (1902); The Second Violin (1907); With Juliet in England (1907); On Christmas Day in the Morning (1908); Round the Corner in Gay Street (1908); A Court of Inquiry (1909); On Christmas Day In The Evening (1910); Red Pepper Burns (1910); Strawberry Acres (1911); Brotherly House (1912); Mrs. Red Pepper (1913); Under the Christmas stars (1913); The Twenty-Fourth of June: Midsummer's Day (1914); Under the Country Sky (1916); The Brown Study (1917); Red Pepper's Patients (1917); The Enlisting Wife (1918); The Whistling Mother (1918); Red and Black (1919); The Bells of St. John's (1920); Rufus (1921); Foursquare (1922); Red of the Redfields (1924); Cherry Square (1926); Light's Up (1928); At the South Gate (1928); The Listening Post (1929); High Fences (1931); Red Pepper Returns (1931); Bachelor's Bounty (1932); Midsummer's Day (1934)

The Spinners by Eden Phillpotts 1918 Gritty British Novel of Mill Life

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Title: The Spinners

Author: Eden Phillpotts

Storyline: Time frame - circa the turn of the century (1900). Set in the English county of Dorset, our story begins with the funeral of the mill owner. His younger son, Raymond, must now learn the business from the older. He meets Sabina, the beautiful 19-year-old chief spinner, promises to marry her, takes her to bed, and then abandons her. The story is told in two sections - the first about Sabina's history, the second (which opens some ten years later) about Sabina's bastard son, in whose spirit is concentrated all the despair and bitterness his mother felt before his birth. As he grows, can he be turned by the love of another woman from the mill and reconcile with his father?

Copyright: 1918

Published: 1918 (First Edition)

Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York

Format: Red cloth-bound hardcover

Page Count: 479

A Place Called Saturday by actress author Mary Astor 1968 Novel 1st Ed

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Title: A Place Called Saturday

Author: Mary Astor

Storyline: Cora March takes her stand on abortion, a stand that is to have a profound effect on her husband, her marriage, her future, her life... For Cora and Rafe March the life they share together in a small Arizona desert community is idyllic in every aspect save one: after almost four years of marriage they are still childless. Then one hot summer day Cora is brutally raped by a young and unknown assailant; three months later she learns she is pregnant. As her marriage starts to unravel over her refusal to have an abortion, the rapist is discovered, leading to a tense and agonizing climax. Astor deals forthrightly with the moral, ethical and emotional problems of a subject surrounded by taboos and controversy.

Copyright: 1968

Published: 1968 (First Edition)

Publisher: Delacorte Press, New York

Format: Yellow cloth-bound hardcover with decorative cover, in original dust-jacket

Page Count: 212

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. Alice Hegan Rice 1962 Children's Story

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Title: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Author: Alice Hegan Rice

Illustrators: Norma and Dan Garris

Storyline: Mrs. Wiggs, a widow, is left to raise five children in dire poverty, but faces life with optimism and hope. (This book was a bestseller for two years when originally published, and was adapted for a stage and screen several times, with one version in 1934 featuring W. C. Fields)

Copyright: 1901

Published: 1962

Publisher: Whitman Publishing Company, Wisconsin

Format: Photo-printed hardcover

Page Count: 138

Author Biography:

 

Rice, Alice Hegan (b.1870-d.1942) was an American novelist born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Known as the author of her most famous work, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Rice published over two dozen books in all. Many were produced in other languages, and are still in publication today. A best seller in 1902, the book was set in Louisville, Kentucky where she then lived, Mrs Wiggs was both a successful play in the early 1900s, and the basis of three Hollywood films. The 1934 version starred W. C. Fields. The story of Mrs. Wiggs was meant to bring attention and public sympathy to the plight of the less fortunate in the region where Rice lived. Married to Cale Young Rice (1872-1943), author, dramatist, and poet, Mrs. Rice rubbed elbows with other literary stars of the day, such as Thorton Wilder, and was well reviewed by Theodore Roosevelt.

Works include: Lovey Mary (1903); Sandy (1905); Captain June (1907); Mr. Opp (1909); A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill (1912); The Honorable Percival (1914)

At Home With The Jardines by Lilian Bell 1906 Women's Novel

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Title: At Home With The Jardines

Author: Lilian Bell

Storyline: "Cast iron angel" Irish serving woman Mary jovially runs the lives of two New York society newlyweds. For a domestic sit com analogue think of the 1960s vintage TV show housekeeper "Mabel."

Copyright: 1902

Publication: 1906

Publisher: A. Wessels Company, New York

Format: Blue cloth-bound hardcover with embossed decoration

Page Count: 322

Author Biography:

Bell, Lillian (Mrs Bogue) (b.1867-d.1929) Published her first novel at age 26. She wrote mostly from her experience and her travels as the wife of upper-crust Arthur Hoyt Bogue of Chicago. Her father, Maj. William W. Bell, fought in the Civil War, as did did her grandfather, Gen. Joseph Warren Bell  (a Southerner, who sold and freed his slaves before the war, brought his family North, and organized the 13th Illinois Cavalry). Her great - great - grandfather, Captain Thomas Bell, served Virginia in the American Revolution. Lilian Bell was born in Chicago, but she was brought up in Atlanta.

Works include: The Love Affairs of an Old Maid (1893); Hope Loring; A Little Sister to the Wilderness (1895); The Under Side of Things; From a Girl's Point of View (1897); The Expatriates (1900); Abroad with the Jimmies (1900); At Home With The Jardines (1902); As Seen By Me; Carolina Lee (1907)

The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson Romantic Mystery

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Title: The House of a Thousand Candles

Author: Meredith Nicholson

Illustrator: Howard Chandler Christy

Storyline: This melodramatic novel has it all - romance and adventure, love and valor, secret passages and tunnels, and hidden treasure. The hero must live an entire year in an isolated house if he is to inherit it from his grandfather. Should he fail, he'll lose the house to a young woman whom the will forbids him to marry. The answer to the dilemma is a secret to be discovered.

Copyright: 1905

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, New York

Format: Blue cloth-bound hardcover with applied plate, black lettering to spine

Page Count: 382

A Spinner In The Sun by Myrtle Reed 1906 Women's Mystery Novel

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Title: A Spinner In The Sun

Author: Myrtle Reed

Storyline: Miss Evelina Grey returns alone to her abandoned cottage and dormant garden after 25 years. What tragedy occurred to turn her hair white in one night? Who caused the fire that ruined her beauty and forced her to wear a veil? Why was she in the hospital all that time? There are many mysteries to be unraveled in the story of this enigmatic and interesting woman.

Copyright: 1906

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, New York

Format: Blue cloth-bound hardcover with applied decorative plate to front cover

Page Count: 393

Author Biography:

Reed, Myrtle (b.1874–d.1911) American, wrote best selling novels, poetry, and cookbooks (as Olive Green). Daughter of a preacher and an oriental scholar. Born and died in Chicago, Illinois, and was married to her high school pen-pal. Was also known as a philanthropist who ordered her estate divided among her favorite charities after her tragic death by an intentional overdose of sleeping powder.

Works include: Love Letters of a Musician (1899); Later Love Letters of a Musician (1900); The Spinster Book (1901); Lavender and Old Lace (1902); The Shadow of Victory (1903); Pickaback Songs (1903); The Book of Clever Beasts (1904); The Master's Violin (1904); What to Have for Breakfast (1905); At the Sign of the Jack o' Lantern (1905) - made into a silent film directed by Lloyd Ingraham in 1922; A Spinner in the Sun (1906); Love Affairs of Literary Men (1907); One Thousand Simple Soups (1907); How to Cook Fish (1908); Flowers of the Dusk (1908) - made into a silent film directed by John H. Collins in 1918; One Thousand Salads (1909); Old Rose and Silver (1909); Master of the Vineyard (1910); Sonnets to a Lover (1910); Everyday Desserts (1911); A Weaver of Dreams (1911); The White Shield, a collection of short sketches by Myrtle Reed (1912); Threads of Gray and Gold (1913); Happy Women (1913)