Last week I wrote about childhood sets of books. This week I’m looking complete sets on my Kindle. One of the cool things about Amazon for Kindle are the number of collections complete works by authors whose works can be impossible find in bookstores or even libraries. Different ebook companies have brought together set of mostly out of public domaine books at ridiculously low prices.
For example the set “Slavery: Not Forgiven, Never Forgotten” – which for about $2 US includes:
Narrative of Frederick Douglass
12 Years a Slave
The Underground Railroad
Up From Slavery
Willie Lynch Letter
Confessions of Nat Turner
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
History of Mary Prince
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
Thirty Years a Slave
Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green
The Life of Olaudah Equiano
Behind The Scenes
Harriet: The Moses of Her People
Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life
50 Years in Chains
Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb
Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave
Story of Mattie J. Jackson
A Slave Girl’s Story
From the Darkness Cometh the Light
Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy
Narrative of Joanna
Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped in a 3×2 Feet Box
Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley
Buried Alive (Behind Prison Walls) For a Quarter of a Century
Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain
Oroonoko
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Heroic Slave
Slavery’s Pleasant Homes
Our Nig
Clotelle
Marrow of Tradition
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
A Fool’s Errand
Bricks Without Straw
Imperium in Imperio
The Hindered Hand
The History of Abolition of African Slave-Trade
History of American Abolitionism
Pictures of Slavery in Church and State
Life, Last Words and Dying Speech of Stephen Smith Who Was Executed for Burglary
Report on Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Gettysburg Address
XIII Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1865)
Civil Rights Act of 1866
XIV Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868)
Reconstruction Acts (1867-1868)
Whew! This is a university syllabus that probably no university book store or even research library could supply.
Many of these sets are to broaden my knowledge of some writers who are known for their big hits; others are by authors of queer interest whose works I knew vaguely or of whom I have never heard of before until reading about them in my endless readings. One set is the Works of John Addington Symonds. I knew of him through mentions of his interactions with Walt Whitman. His books on Ancient Greek culture are sometimes citied in histories of queer writing. So I figure when I first got my Kindle to read some of those works. Interesting essays about travel in & history of Italy, but thank God writing style has changed.
The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft (+ 130 Poe short stories); Mary Shelly: The Ultimate Collection; The Complete Works of Bram Stoker. Who read what Mary Shelly wrote other than Frankenstein? Stoker wrote more than Dracula? Reading their other works one sees the why those works have faded. Mary was more or less an accidental writer & reading he rather work it’s easy to see why some suspect her husband played a role in her big hit for the plotting & characterizations. She was not really a fabulist. Bram became an almost tradition writer of his time & none of his other plots were as ‘startling’ as Dracula.
Lovecraft is a boyhood favorite of mine. His plots are rich, his writing style now strikes me as overly florid & it is creamy influenced by the Shelly & Stoker – but he does avoid, the most part, the need for some sort of romantic subplot. My bedroom on the east coast had slated ceilings so his story about the room with odd angles in the ceiling & walls always appealed to me. Those angles lead to another dimension. I have the bio ‘I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft’ on my e.bookshelf short list.
It’s not all gloom doom or educational on the Kindle thanks to Stephen Leacock: Humour Books collection; Mark Twain: 51 Classic Works. Both of these are authors I loved in my teens. Leacock still makes me laugh out loud. Twain can go on but he had a grasp of the foibles of human nature I love. His short pieces are fun & the longer books reflect their times. Both a writers of the local experience – Americana, Canadiana full of innocence that still speaks of today. Who isn’t intimidated if not anxious dealing with banks; has the plight of blacks in the USA progressed from the fears of the runway slaves in Twain?
Book Bound
in one of those boys’ books
tom swift hardy brothers
can’t remember which one
there were mysterious lights
on the cliff
or were they from a strange shape
in the ocean
hovering by the moon
something distant and indistinct
but threatening
tough guys
were skulking around town
something held in coat pockets
that might be a gun
a magnetic pulsator
that would incapacitate
one or all of our heroes
who would come to
tied up somewhere
worry about their girlfriend
they always had girlfriends
who were peripheral
to the story
but clearly in place
so we young readers
would not get a whiff
of anything more unsavoury
that those unshaved goons
with foreign accents
who slouched around the ranch
the railway yards
to do no good
the boys always had girlfriends
so no one would get the idea
that they weren’t the ideal role model
ripe with normal heterosexual
pubescent tension
that let them figure out
how to cut those ropes
how to make the star capacitor
turn the hydrogen to oxygen
so they could breathe again
float to the surface
drive off
fly off
with the adoring faces of their girlfriends
soft and worshipful
red-haired teens
with freckle faces
none of them shaving yet
jumping into their roadsters
worrying about their kidnapped fathers
deciphering cryptograms
punching each other joyfully
in the arm
as each hurdle was accomplished
as each bruise cleared up
always ready to face
the next opportunity
never doubting what they could do
never questioning
how they really were
what did this all mean
why couldn’t they go
a few weeks without smugglers
Martian terrorists lurking around
to make make it difficult for everyone
they never had to face peer pressure
other than the football team
a team that never got drunk after a big game
boys who where boys
becoming real men
growing up slowly
always gaining parental
acceptance and approval
amazing their pals
yet not letting it go to their heads
square jawed
rugged
individualist who only disobeyed
to make things better
grew up with out self doubt
normal heterosexual
pubescent tension
that let them figure out
how to cut those ropes
but how not to escape
what was written for them
https://wp.me/P1RtxU-2f6
every Tuesday 2019
September
17 – Shaw Festival – Sex (Mae West)
22 – Stratford Festival – Little Shop Of Horrors
Tuesday 24 – Hot Damn! It’s Queer Slam – Buddies and Bad Times Theatre
https://www.facebook.com/events/504067323723768/
October
15 – Stratford Festival – The Crucible
November
7 – Hot Damn! It’s Queer Slam – Buddies and Bad Times Theatre
December
The Secret Handshake Gallery – 
feature – date TBA
January
23 – Hot Damn! It’s Queer Slam – Buddies and Bad Times Theatre
March
March 5 – Hot Damn! It’s Queer Slam – Buddies and Bad Times Theatre
April
April 3 – Hot Damn! It’s Queer Slam – Season 6 finales Buddies andBbad Times Theatre
June – Capturing Fire 2020 – Washington D.C. 
capfireslam.org
Hey! Or you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington at 2020’s capfireslam.org – sweet, eh? paypal.me/TOpoet
https://wp.me/p1RtxU-uJ
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