Ralph Waldo Emerson wondered why New Yorkers elected to Congress the kind of man they would turn out of their own homes.

Ahab, his mind broken by an obsession, at last confronts the enemy he has hunted so long.

A young Nathaniel Hawthorne recalls a confidential conversation with a tired old horse.

However loud his critics shouted their disapproval, Abraham Lincoln would neither deprive them of free speech nor change his opinions.

Benjamin Franklin recalls the disciplines he put himself through on the way to becoming one of America’s literary giants.

In Jim Baker’s considered opinion, the bluejay had a much better command of language than Mark Twain’s cats did.