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W. E. B. Du Bois’s seminal treatise on the African American experience

The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.

W. E. B. Du Bois was arguably the most progressive African American leader of the early twentieth century, and this collection of essays is his masterpiece. An examination of the black experience in America following emancipation, and an introduction to the historic concept of “double-consciousness” as it pertains to that experience, The Souls of Black Folk is an extraordinary literary achievement—a provocative, profound, and courageous clarion call.

The firsthand account of the life of adventurer, scholar, war hero, and twenty-sixth president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt.

There must be the keenest sense of duty, and with it must go the joy of living.

Here, in his own words, Theodore Roosevelt recounts his remarkable journey from a childhood plagued with illnesses to the US presidency and beyond. With candor and vivid detail, this personal account describes a life guided by a restless intelligence, a love for adventure, and an unflagging duty to his country. Roosevelt sheds light on his wide array of roles, from New York police commissioner, where he waged a battle against corruption, to cattle rancher in the Dakotas to assistant secretary of the US Navy under William McKinley to leader of the legendary Rough Riders at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, when he led the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry to victory in the Battle of San Juan Hill.

These extraordinary accomplishments earned Roosevelt national fame and set the stage for his ascent to the White House. As twenty-sixth president of the United States, he ushered in the Progressive Era with his domestic policies, such as the Square Deal, and trust-busting of monopolies, such as Standard Oil. He was a war hero, scholar, statesman, adventurer, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography provides unique insight into the truly remarkable life of one of America’s most beloved presidents.

This classic and controversial biography of Scotland’s National Bard offers an unvarnished chronicle of the 18th century poet’s life.

First published in 1930 to an unprecedented storm of protest, Catherine Carswell’s The Life of Robert Burns remains the standard work on its subject. Widely revered as Scotland’s greatest poet, Burns’s devotees were so upset by its contents that Carswell famously received a bullet in the mail, with instructions for its use.

Carswell deliberately shakes the image of Burns as a romantic hero, exposing the sexual transgressions, drinking bouts and waywardness that other biographies chose to overlook. But Carswell’s real achievement is to bring alive the personality of a great man: passionate, hard-living, generous, melancholic, morbid and, above all, a brilliant and inspired artist.

The author of Treasure Island shares true stories of his travels in the Pacific in these portraits of nineteenth-century Tahiti, New Zealand, and beyond.

Setting sail from San Francisco in June 1888, the author of Kidnapped and other classic adventure fiction embarked on a journey of his own. Having endured periods of illness and isolation in his earlier years, Robert Louis Stevenson was determined to see the far corners of the world.

His extensive travels took him to the Hawaiian Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Samoa, where he would eventually settle. This collection of Stevenson’s writings recounts these wondrous years of nineteenth-century South Seas exploration.