Philip Chenevert

The White Ship is a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft. It was first published in The United Amateur (Volume 19) #2, November 1919. A lighthouse keeper named Basil Elton engages upon a peculiar fantasy in which a bearded man piloting a mystical white ship is found sailing upon a bridge of moonlight. Elton joins the bearded man on this ship, and together they explore a mystical chain of islands unlike anything that can be found on Earth.

Alice debuted in Carroll's first draft of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Under Ground originated from stories told to the Liddell sisters during an afternoon on 4 July 1862 while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth, and on subsequent rowing trips. At the request of ten-year-old Alice Liddell, Carroll wrote down the stories as Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which he completed in February 1864....

Science fiction from the 50s by one of the masters, Alfred Bester. Society has committed itself to complete stability. Nothing is allowed to upset this stability, nothing that is not planned and approved and accounted for in advance. Yes, this is hard to imagine but this has produced decades, nay, centuries of predictable prosperity and peace. Even the newspapers have very little to write about. One reporter however is curious about the "Prog" building,...

Dr. Salva Gordy looked at the radioactive smear that had been Detroit. Then he looked down at the boiling anthill. Why not, he thought excitedly, why not?...

The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" . "Apology" here has its earlier meaning of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions. The general term apology, in context to literature, defends a world from attack (opposite of satire-which...

Dig Me No Grave by Robert E. Howard is a dark and chilling tale of supernatural horror, exploring themes of occultism, fate, and the consequences of dabbling in forbidden knowledge. The story is narrated by John Conrad, who recounts a terrifying experience he shared with his friend, John Grimlan. The story begins when Conrad and Grimlan are summoned to the home of a recently deceased man named Malcomson. Grimlan, a close friend of the deceased, has...

Handy Mandy in Oz (1937) is the thirty-first of the Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the seventeenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill. The book's heroine is an "honest and industrious" goat-girl named Mandy, who grazes her flock on the slopes of Mt. Mern (a location otherwise unidentified). The story opens with a bang and a splash: an underground spring erupts in a geyser that blasts Mandy...

This is a collection of some of the delightful nonsense verses and stories by Edward Lear. A lot of them are also my favorites. The Jumblies, The Owl and the Pussy-cat; the Broom, the Shovel, The Poker and the Tongs; The Duck and the Kangaroo; The Cummerbund; The Dong with the Luminous Nose; The New Vestments; Calico Pie; The courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo and Incidents in the Life of My Uncle Arly. Also included at no extra cost are two sections...

Telephone lineman in the early 1900s were known for their very vocal appreciation of any and all female beauty as it walked below on the street. From their lofty perch they felt safe to whistle and shout their thanks to the lovely ladies who passed anywhere within their visual range. The women thus admired often expressed distain and dislike of this outward expression by the men but they usually walked away with their complexions a bit rosier than...

Doctor Dolittle, the man who can speak with the animals, is back home but running short of money to care for all the animals who need his help. He invites animals into his garden and encourages them to build their own societies and come and go as they please. This works very well. He has a mouse and rat town, a dog community, a burrow for badgers, and so forth. This does not make any money and only gets him into trouble with his neighbors. But the...