3 Free eBooks – August 2016

It always is hard to choose 3 favorites….there are so many available from the online repositories these days.

Roberts, David; Brockedon, William; Croly, George. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, Nubia. London: Day and Son. 1856. Available in 6 volumes from Hathi Trust Digital Library here. Some of the places are familiar from modern pictures but were more covered by sand in the 1850s…like the inside of Abu Simbel in the picture I clipped for this post.

Gruelle, Johnny. Raggedy Ann Stories. Chicago: P. F. Volland Company. 1918. Available from Hathi Trust Digital Library here (Raggedy Andy Stories are available here). When I found these it prompted me to look up the author on Wikipedia. Apparently he was an artist, political cartoonist, children’s book author and illustrator, and songwriter. But Raggedy Ann and Andy are his most enduring works. One of my sisters was particularly interested in the dolls…but I don’t think I’d ever seen the books until now.

Marshall, Nina Lovering. The mushroom book. A popular guide to the identification and study of our commoner Fungi, with special emphasis on the edible varieties. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1905. Available from Internet Archive here. I was interested in the quality of the photography of the mushrooms in this volume published in 1905. This fly amanita (poisonous) is in color and includes the shadows. I wondered if the picture was taken in the field or carefully brought back into a studio.