Step into the humorous world of "Contraband Matrimony" by Arthur D. Howden Smith. Serialized in periodicals during the 1910s, this collection of mystery short stories offers readers a delightful blend of humor, intrigue, and culture. Smith's witty narrative and intricate plots make this a must-read for fans of classic literature and those interested in the cultural landscape of the early 20th century.

Swain's Vengeance by Arthur D. Howard Smith is about Viking Swain, Olaf's son, who goes on a journey to avenge his brother and his father. Excerpt: "You're holding treasures. It's tempting to call them lost, but it's more accurate to describe them as inaccessible because unless you had laid hands on an old hardback from the 1930s – which reprinted only a handful of Swain tales – or a long run of Adventure magazine from the teens and '20s of the last century, you couldn't read these..."

An exhaustively researched history of black families in America from the days of slavery until just after the Civil War.

Tera W. Hunter offers the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century and into the Jim Crow era. She reveals the practical ways couples adopted, adapted, or rejected White Christian ideas of marriage, creatively setting their own standards for conjugal relationships under conditions of uncertainty and cruelty.--