Julian Hawthorne was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mystery/detective fiction, essays and travel books. For this book, the critic August Nemo selected seven short stories by this author: - David Poindexter's Disappearance. - Ken's Mystery. - When Half-gods Go, the Gods Arrive. - Set Not Thy Foot on Graves. - My Friend Paton. - The Christmas Guest. - The Laughing Mill

On July 28, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife Sophia and daughters Una and Rose left their house in Western Massachusetts to visit relatives near Boston. Hawthorne and his five-year-old son Julian stayed behind. How father and son got along over the next three weeks is the subject of this tender and funny extract from Hawthorne's notebooks. "At about six o'clock I looked over the edge of my bed and saw that Julian was awake, peeping sideways at me." Each day starts early and is mostly given over to swimming and skipping stones, berry-picking and subduing armies of thistles. There are lots of questions ("It really does seem as if he has baited me with more questions, references, and observations, than mortal father ought to be expected to endure"), a visit to a Shaker community, domestic crises concerning a pet rabbit, and some poignant moments of loneliness ("I went to bed at about nine and longed for Phoebe"). And one evening Mr. Herman Melville comes by to enjoy a late-night discussion of eternity over cigars. With an introduction by Paul Auster that paints a beautifully observed, intimate picture of the Hawthornes at home, this little-known, true-life story by a great American writer emerges from obscurity to shine a delightful light upon family life—then and now.

This book contains 70 short stories from 10 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. The stories were carefully selected by the critic August Nemo, in a collection that will please the literature lovers. For more exciting titles, be sure to check out our 7 Best Short Stories and Essential Novelists collections. This book contains: - A. E. W. Mason:The Affair At The Semiramis Hotel The Clock Green Paint Ensign Knightley The Man Of Wheels The Coward Keeper Of The Bishop - Julian Hawthorne:David Poindexter's Disappearance. Ken's Mystery. When Half-gods Go, the Gods Arrive. Set Not Thy Foot on Graves. My Friend Paton. The Christmas Guest. The Laughing Mill - Kenneth Grahame:The Twenty-First of October Dies Irae Mutabile Semper The Magic Ring Its Walls Were as of Jasper A Saga of the Seas The Reluctant Dragon - John Kendrick Bangs:The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall The Spectre Cook Of Bangletop A Midnight Visitor The Speck On The Lens A Quicksilver Cassandra The Ghost Club A Psychical Prank - Frank R. Stockton:The Bee-Man Of Orn. The Griffin And The Minor Canon. Old Pipes And The Dryad. The Queen's Museum. Prince Hassak's March. The Battle Of The Third Cousins. The Banished King. - Jacques Futrelle:The Problem of Cell 13 The Thinking Machine Five Millions by Wireless Kidnapped Baby Blake, Millionaire The Problem of the Motor Boat The Problem of the Opera Box The Problem of the Vanishing man - Ella D'Arcy:Irremediable White Magic A Marriage In Normandy The Pleasure-Pilgrim The Web of Maya An Engagement - John Buchan:Politics and the Mayfly The Keeper of Cademuir The Wife of Flanders The Watcher by the Threshold Comedy in the Full Moon The Herd of Standlan - E. F. Benson:The Room in the Tower Caterpillars Mrs. Amworth Mr. Tilly's Séance Negotium Perambulans How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery The Horror-Horn - Daniil Kharms:Symphony no. 2 On phenomena and existences - No. 1 The thing Andrey Semyonovich An unexpected drinking bout The destiny of a professor's wife The memoirs of a wise old man