A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY Charles Francis Horne (1870-1942) was an American author and editor. He edited many multiple volume collections at the beginning of the twentieth century including: Great Men and Famous Women (8 volumes, 1894), The Story of the Greatest Nations (with Edward S. Ellis) (10 volumes, 1901-1906), Works of Jules Verne (15 volumes, 1911), The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East (14 volumes, 1917), and The Great Events by Famous Historians (with Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd) (21 volumes).JOHN ADAMS, BISMARCK, BOLIVAR, EDMUND BURKE, JEAN FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION, GROVER CLEVELAND, GEORGES CUVIER, CHARLES DARWIN, BENJAMIN DISRAELI, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, LÉON GAMBETTA, WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, HORACE GREELEY, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, PATRICK HENRY, ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, ANDREW JACKSON, WILLIAM MCKINLEY, MARIA THERESA, COUNT DE MIRABEAU, ISAAC NEWTON, DANIEL O'CONNELL, PARNELL, JEAN HENRI PESTALOZZI, PETE

François Edouard Joachim Coppée (26 January 1842 - 23 May 1908) was a French poet and novelist. He was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and won public favour as a poet of the Parnassian school. His first printed verses date from 1864. In 1869 his first play, Le Passant, starring Sarah Bernhardt and Madame Agar, was received with approval at the Odéon theatre, and later Fais ce que dois (1871) and Les Bijoux de la délivrance (1872), short poetic dramas inspired by the Franco-Prussian War, were applauded.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) was an English author and intellectual, best known for his book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West. In 1821, he went to London to dispose of some translations from German authors, but was persuaded first to write and publish an account of his opium experiences, which that year appeared in the London Magazine. This new sensation eclipsed Lamb's Essays of Elia, which were then appearing in the same periodical. He maintained himself by contributing to various magazines. His other works include: On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth (1823), Walladmor (1825), Biographical Essays (1851), Autobiographical Sketches (1853), Romances and Extravaganzas (1877), and Collected Writings (1889).

Along the eastern bank a small Indian canoe, containing a single individual, was stealing its way--"hugging" the shore so as to take advantage of the narrow band of shadow that followed the winding of the stream. There were no trees on either side of the river, but this portion was walled in by bluffs, rising from three or four to fully twenty feet in height. The current was sluggish and not a breath of air wrinkled the surface on this mild summer night.

Annie Besant (née Wood; 1 October 1847 - 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist, and campaigner for Indian nationalism. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was also a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. As an educationist, her contributions included being one of the founders of the Banaras Hindu University. For fifteen years, Besant was a public proponent in England of atheism and scientific materialism. Besant's goal was to provide employment, better living conditions, and proper education for the poor.