I imagined him in his beloved Brooklyn, strolling in Prospect Park and preaching to chance comers about his gospel of good books. "When you sell a man a book, " says Roger Mifflin, the sprite-like book peddler at the center of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life." In this beguiling but little-known prequel to Christopher Morley's beloved Haunted Bookshop, the "whole...

A hobo who rides the rails lands in a bleak and lawless town overrun with crime. After witnessing a series of atrocities, he buys a shotgun, embarking on a mission to clean up the town, with extreme prejudice.

During the catastrophic economic depression of the 1890s, young Jack London found himself in the same situation as many others-homeless and unemployed. After a failed American investment and crop failure, the nation found itself in a panic. As London recounts these times, he tells stories of hopping on freight trains, consequently being forcefully removed. While living as a hobo, London often had to beg for food and money, and frequently found himself...