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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 25
1,400 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 25 of 30.
A Tramp's Sketches
Stephen Graham
Walking alone along the Black Sea and joining thousands of Russian peasant pilgrims on foot toward Jerusalem, a wandering seeker records the songs, storms, and spiritual questionings of the open road.
Great Mysteries and Little Plagues
John Neal
Observed through an unhurried lens, the untamed logic and sharp disclosures of young children reveal a world far more surprising than adult intellect ever constructs.
Letters from France
C. E. W. (Charles Edwin Woodrow) Bean
Men dig under a continuous, distant rumble, carrying the memory of another shore into a vast expanse of wet, churned earth.
Nuts and Nutcrackers
Charles Lever
A collection of satirical essays punctures the pomposity of nineteenth-century social institutions, political schemes, and public pretentions with sharp Irish wit.
Reveries of a Schoolmaster
Francis B. (Francis Bail) Pearson
An experienced teacher sits by an evening fire, looking back across a lifetime in the classroom and looking out at a world full of quiet beauty, human absurdity, and untamed potential.
Rubble and Roseleaves, and Things of That Kind
Frank Boreham
Ordinary moments hold extraordinary grace when approached with a curious and quiet heart. From a scattered desk of mail to a walk along a stormy coast, small daily encounters reveal the quiet hand of God at work in the human soul.
Stories and Letters from the Trenches
Various
Amid the mud and machinery of 1914, human nature refuses to be entirely erased by the machinery of total war.
Key-Notes of American Liberty: Comprising the most important speeches, proclamations, and acts of Congress, from the foundation of the government to the present time
Various
A nation's identity reveals itself through its foundational texts, charting a turbulent passage from revolutionary ideals to the devastating trial of civil war.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
Classical physical discipline, contemporary religious debate, and American frontier expansion converge in a mid-nineteenth-century literary compendium.
A Journalist's Note-Book
Frank Frankfort Moore
A veteran newsman surveys the chaotic, often absurd landscape of the late-Victorian press, trading the polish of formal history for the gritty, colorful reality of the editor’s desk.
Notes and Queries, Number 229, March 18, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical serves as a collaborative clearinghouse for human knowledge, where curious minds gather to trade facts on everything from ancient bells to the mechanics of early photography. It survives as a vital snapshot of the intellectual preoccupations, social customs, and scholarly rigor of 1854.
Some Causes of the Prevailing Discontent
Charles Dudley Warner
A society that measures its success entirely by material accumulation creates the very unrest it fears, driving rich and poor alike to chase physical indulgence over the deeper cultivations of the human mind.
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 5, January, 1835
Various
HOOK This collection captures the intellectual pulse of the 1830s, blending historical dispatches from the Barbary Coast with the era’s urgent debates on literature, phrenology, and the preservation of American culture.
The Spirit of Christmas
Henry Van Dyke
A heavenly debate over human suffering yields to a simple revelation, turning an ancient seasonal tradition into a quiet, lifelong practice of unselfish devotion.
The Story Tellers' Magazine, Vol. I, No. 1, June 1913
Various
This inaugural issue of a 1913 periodical serves as a manifesto for the power of the oral tradition. It champions the art of storytelling as a vital, transformative tool for education, emotional healing, and human connection.
Address of President Roosevelt at Chautauqua, New York, August 11, 1905
Theodore Roosevelt
This address serves as a primary manifesto for the early twentieth-century American state, balancing the exertion of global power with the necessity of domestic economic reform. It offers a blueprint for an era of federal oversight.
Australian Writers
Desmond Byrne
This survey of Australian literature captures a young nation’s struggle to find its own voice while casting off the long shadow of English traditions. It serves as a vital historical lens into how colonial life, landscape, and identity were first translated into fiction.
The Book of Months
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A meditative journey through a single year, this work blends personal diary entries with lyrical nature writing to explore the intersections of profound grief, sudden joy, and the relentless passage of time.
With the French in France and Salonika
Richard Harding Davis
This account of the Great War offers an intimate, firsthand look at the human cost of conflict, from the shattered streets of Arras to the complex, shifting battlegrounds of the Balkans.
Women and Politics
Charles Kingsley
The argument for women’s suffrage is not a radical departure from justice, but a necessary realization of the fundamental principles of a free and fair society.
How to Fail in Literature: A Lecture
Andrew Lang
To write well is a formidable challenge, but to write poorly is an art form of its own. This manual for the aspiring literary aspirant serves as a cautionary guide to the precise methods—and social blunders—that guarantee total professional obscurity.
Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical serves as a sprawling, decentralized clearinghouse for the collective curiosities of nineteenth-century scholars, antiquarians, and lay researchers. It functions as a printed forum where historical, linguistic, and scientific enigmas are presented for communal resolution.
Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century repository of historical inquiry and literary debate serves as a collaborative archive for curious minds, bridging the gap between scholarly research and the shared knowledge of the reading public.
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 05, August 1, 1840
Various
This collection offers a vibrant, eclectic window into the mid-19th-century Irish landscape, blending travel sketches, social satire, and historical curiosities into a singular weekly record.
Why not? A book for every woman
Horatio Robinson Storer
A physician’s urgent 19th-century appeal to American women, this text serves as a stark, uncompromising warning against the dangers of induced miscarriage. It functions as a foundational document in the history of medical ethics.
State of the Union Addresses
Gerald R. Ford
The President addresses the nation at the end of a tumultuous era, offering a blueprint for economic recovery and a reflection on the enduring strength of the American constitutional experiment.
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1837
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century literary miscellany captures the restless spirit of a young nation, blending scholarly inquiry, social observation, and romantic storytelling into a single, eclectic volume. It remains a vital artifact for understanding the intellectual currents of the 1830s, offering a window into the…
The Wrack of the Storm
Maurice Maeterlinck
The world is reeling from the sudden eruption of the Great War, and these essays offer a meditation on the moral duty and spiritual resilience required to endure such an unprecedented collapse of civilization.
At the library table
Adrian H. (Adrian Hoffman) Joline
This collection of essays offers a window into the private world of a bibliophile, exploring the quiet joys of collecting, reading, and remembering forgotten authors. It serves as a personal meditation on the enduring value of books in a changing world.
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 433: Volume 17, New Series, April 17, 1852
Various
A diverse collection of mid-Victorian journalism, this volume captures the intellectual curiosity and moral earnestness of 1852 through a wide-ranging survey of the world’s curiosities and hardships.
Dead letters
Maurice Baring
HOOK History’s most celebrated figures are reimagined as ordinary people writing home about mundane struggles, domestic gossip, and the exhausting burden of being legendary.
Freedom In Service: Six Essays on Matters Concerning Britain's Safety and Good Government
F. J. C. (Fossey John Cobb) Hearnshaw
This series of essays offers a rigorous, unapologetic defense of the state’s authority to demand service from its citizens during a time of existential national crisis.
Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This Victorian periodical serves as a sprawling, collaborative clearinghouse for historical, linguistic, and literary trivia. It invites educated readers to trade specialized knowledge, turning intellectual curiosity into a communal, ongoing research project.
That Gospel Sermon on the Blessed Hope
Dwight Lyman Moody
This transcript preserves a powerful, urgent sermon centered on the imminent return of Jesus Christ. It serves as an earnest invitation for believers to live in constant, watchful expectation of a transformative future event.
The English Flower Garden: with illustrative notes
Henry Arthur Bright
This meditation on the English garden argues that true horticultural joy comes from intimate acquaintance with individual plants rather than the hollow, fleeting spectacle of mass-market color. It is a quiet call to reclaim the garden as a sanctuary of memory, history, and personal expression.
The Smiling Hill-Top, and other California sketches
Julia M. (Julia Moss) Sloane
California life, with its orange blossoms, rattling earthquakes, and the perennial, adventurous question of "Why not?", offers a fresh start for those weary of rigid East Coast conventions.
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 14 (of 20)
Charles Sumner
The legislative record of the post-Civil War era reveals a nation struggling to define the meaning of freedom. Through formal addresses and parliamentary debates, these pages document the urgent, unfinished business of American reconstruction.
Mere literature, and other essays
Woodrow Wilson
This collection of essays serves as a meditation on the marriage of literary craft and political thought. It argues that true writing, like true statesmanship, requires an imaginative grasp of the human spirit rather than mere technical expertise.
Practicable Socialism: Essays on Social Reform
S. A. (Samuel Augustus) Barnett
In the heart of Victorian London, a dedicated couple observes the crushing weight of urban poverty, arguing that true social reform requires not just systemic policy, but the personal, quiet influence of character.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 63, January, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection captures the mid-Civil War American imagination, blending urgent political commentary with the literary sensibilities of a nation searching for its own identity amidst the smoke of battle.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
The national crisis of the American Civil War defines this collection, framing the era’s urgent political debates, literary sensibilities, and shifting social landscape. It captures the heavy, anxious pulse of a country struggling to define its future.
The Great Discovery
Norman Maclean
A quiet Scottish parish finds its spiritual foundations shaken by the outbreak of the First World War, prompting a profound re-examination of faith, duty, and the national soul.
The Hills of Hingham
Dallas Lore Sharp
HOOK Finding meaning in the quiet rhythms of a country home, this meditation explores how the simple tasks of rural life act as an anchor against the uncertainties of a changing, often chaotic world.
Washington and the Riddle of Peace
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
This collection of dispatches captures the raw, immediate struggle to forge a lasting peace in the wake of the First World War, serving as a time capsule of a world teetering between collapse and a new international order.
Avril: Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance
Hilaire Belloc
These essays recover the lost vitality of the French Renaissance, tracing a vibrant lineage of poets from the medieval shadows of the fifteenth century to the rigid, polished brilliance of the classical era.
Ceres' Runaway, and Other Essays
Alice Meynell
A collection of contemplative essays, this work explores the tension between human artifice and the natural world. It offers a refined, observant look at the quirks of language, childhood, and the rhythms of English life.
On Being Human
Woodrow Wilson
To navigate the complexities of a modern, hurried world, one must cultivate a spirit of "genuineness"—a balanced, observant, and serene approach to life that favors broad understanding over narrow fanaticism.
State of the Union Addresses
Richard M. (Richard Milhous) Nixon
The arc of these addresses spans the defining years of a presidency, tracing the transition from global conflict to a sought-after domestic reform, ultimately confronted by the encroachment of political crisis.