ABOUT THE AUTHORS

F. ANSTEY (1856-1934), a British journalist and humorist, became immediately popular with his satirical novel, Vice Versa (1882), and followed it with such classic humorous fantasies as A Fallen Idol (1886) and The Talking Horse and Other Tales (1892). The best of his novels was collected in Humour and Fantasy (1931).

DJUNA BARNES (1892-1982) was an American writer of modernist fiction. Her best-known novel, Nightwood (1936), which featured an introduction by T. S. Eliot, is considered to be one of the all-time classics of gay literature.

AMBROSE BIERCE (1842-1914?), an American newspaper writer, is best-known today for his Civil War stories (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”), supernatural stories, and his sardonic humor (The Devil’s Dictionary)—although his greatest creation may be his own disappearance in Mexico at the end of 1913, never to be heard from again.

THOMAS BINGLEY wrote one book, Stories Illustrative of the Instincts of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits (1840). Nothing further is known about his life, although he was probably British.

HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN (1848-1895) was born in Norway, and came to the U.S. in 1869, where he became a college professor. His best-known work, Gunnar (1874), was the first novel penned by a Norwegian immigrant to America, but he also wrote many other short and long works of fiction, poetry, and criticism.

MARK E. BURGESS is a veterinarian specializing in exotic pets. His Borgo Press books include Dog Daze and Cat Naps: A Vet Student’s Odyssey (2011) and The Battle for Eden: The Human-Knacker War, Book Three (2012)—plus a science-fiction story, “Outside Looking In,” in Yondering: The First Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories (2011). Also look for his story, “Grab a Knife and Save a Life,” in THE DOG MEGAPACK.

MARY WICKIZER BURGESS, a California native, is the author of these recent Wildside Press and Borgo Press books: The Christmas Megapack: Yuletide Stories (Editor with Robert Reginald and John Gregory Betancourt, 2012), The Second Christmas Megapack: Yuletide Stories (Editor with Robert Reginald, 2012), The Cat Megapack: Frisky Feline Tales, Old and New (Editor with Robert Reginald and John Gregory Betancourt, 2013), The Second Cat Megapack: Frisky Feline Tales, Old and New (Editor with Robert Reginald, 2013), The Dog Megapack: Curly Canine Tales, Old and New (Editor with Robert Reginald, 2013), The Horse Megapack: Exciting Equine Tales, Old and New (Editor with Robert Reginald, 2013). She’s also penned two mysteries, Seeing Is Deceiving (with Lionel Webb, 2011) and The Purple Glove Murders (2013).

A. CONAN DOYLE (1859-1930) was a British writer who’s known primarily for his character Sherlock Holmes, who first appeared in the novel, A Study in Scarlet (1886). He also wrote many other works, including historical novels, fantasies, nonfiction, histories, and plays. Another iconic character, Prof. Challenger, was introduced in the science-fiction novel, The Lost World (1912).

EUGENE FIELD (1850-1895), an American writer, was a well-known journalist, humorist, poet, and children’s writer.

SEWELL FORD (1868-1946) was an American writer best-known today for his series of horse stories featuring “Torchy” and “Shorty McCabe.” He produced twenty books in his lifetime, many of them collections of his shorter works.

GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL (1849-1938), a well-known American writer, naturalist, and historian, is known today for his work in preserving U.S. wildlands and for saving the American buffalo from extinction. He penned numerous books on the American Indian.

BRET HARTE (1836-1902) was an American writer whose classic short stories, such as “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” and “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” portrayed pioneer life in early California.

JOHN HAY (1838-1905) was a well-known American politician, journalist, and writer. He served as Private Secretary to President Abraham Lincoln, as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, and later as U.S. Secretary of State to two presidents.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894), the well-known American writer, was one of the group of Fireside Poets that helped frame the development of U.S. verse at mid-century. His best-known books include The Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table (1858), the first of a series of essays; and Elsie Venner (1861), his first novel. He was the father of the jurist of the same name.

WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON (1877-1918) was a British writer of horror and fantasy novels and stories. Such works as The House on the Borderland (1908), The Ghost Pirates (1909), and The Night Land (1912) are justifiably considered classics of fantastic literature today. His first Carnacki story appeared in 1910.

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS (1837-1920), an American writer and editor, is remembered today for his editorship of the literary journal Atlantic Monthly, and also for such novels and stories as The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and “Christmas Every Day” (1892).

ANDREW LANG (1844-1912) was an enormously prolific Scottish writer of criticism, poems, and fiction, but is best-known today for his classic series of twelve “color” compilations of fairy tales, beginning with the Blue Fairy Book (1889).

HENRY LAWSON (1867-1922) was an Australian poet, writer, and journalist; many of his works are set in the Outback. His first collection of poems, Stories in Poetry and Verse, was published in 1894.

KATHERINE MAYO (1867-1940), an American historian and polemicist, advocated a strict, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant nativism, and opposed granting any rights to Catholics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and other races she considered “impure.” Her writings on India and the Hindus have been especially criticized by modern scholars.

W. H. H. MURRAY (1840-1904) was an American writer who became known as the Father of the Outdoor Movement. His best-known work, Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks (1869), was the beginning of his efforts to popularize the Adirondacks as a great natural resource.

A. B. PATERSON (1864-1941) was a writer and journalist. In such popular works as “Waltzing Matilda” (later put to music), “The Man from Snowy River,” and “Clancy of Overflow,” “Banjo” Paterson became a much-beloved Australian bush poet.

H. BEAM PIPER (1904-1964) was an American science-fiction writer, best-known today for his Fuzzy trilogy (e.g., Little Fuzzy, 1962), his Paratime sequence (e.g., Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, 1965), and his Federation series (e.g., Space Viking, 1963). Look for more of his stories in THE H. BEAM PIPER MEGAPACK.

PLUTARCH (46?-120?), a Greek philosopher, biographer, and historian, is primarily known today for his Parallel Lives, a series of portraits of prominent Greeks and Romans, paired with each other to demonstrate their common vices and/or virtues.

ROBERT REGINALD was born in Japan, and lived in many different places in his youth. A retired academic librarian, he now edits the Borgo Press imprint of Wildside Press (1,340+ books), and is the author of 140+ volumes of history, criticism, and popular fiction, including these recent Wildside Press and Borgo Press titles: The Phantom’s Phantom (Phantom Detective #1, 2007), The Nasty Gnomes (Phantom Detective #2, 2008), Choice Words: The Borgo Press Book of Writers Writing About Writing (Editor, 2010), Knack’ Attack: A Tale of the Human-Knacker Wars (2010), The Elder of Days: Tales of the Elders (2010), The Judgment of the Gods and Other Verdicts of History (2011), Invasion! Earth vs. the Aliens (War of Two Worlds #1, 2011), Operation Crimson Storm (War of Two Worlds #2, 2011), The Martians Strike Back! (War of Two Worlds #3, 2011), The Paperback Show Murders (2011), Academentia: A Future Dystopia (2011), The Cracks in the Æther (The Hypatomancer’s Tale #1, 2011), The Pachyderms’ Lament (The Hypatomancer’s Tale #2, 2011), The Fourth Elephant’s Egg (The Hypatomancer’s Tale #3, 2011), Yondering: The First Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories (Editor, 2011), To the Stars—and Beyond: The Second Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories (Editor, 2011), Once Upon a Future: The Third Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories (Editor, 2011), Whodunit? The First Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories (Editor, 2011), More Whodunits: The Second Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories (Editor, 2011), Melanthrix the Mage (The Hieromonk’s Tale #1, 2011), The Christmas Megapack: Yuletide Stories (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess and John Gregory Betancourt, 2012), The Second Christmas Megapack: Yuletide Stories (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess, 2012), Killingford (The Hieromonk’s Tale #2, 2012), ’Ware the Dark-Haired Man (The Hieromonk’s Tale #3, 2013), The Cat Megapack: Frisky Feline Tales, Old and New (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess and John Gregory Betancourt, 2013), The Second Cat Megapack: Frisky Feline Tales, Old and New (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess, 2013), The Dog Megapack: Curly Canine Tales, Old and New (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess, 2013), The Horse Megapack: Exciting Equine Tales, Old and New (Editor with Mary Wickizer Burgess, 2013).

ANNA SEWELL (1820-1878), a British writer, published only one book—Black Beauty (1877)—the latter part of which was dictated to her mother during her final illness. She died five months after selling her novel to a major British publisher, but lived long enough to know that it would become a huge bestseller.

AMY STEEDMAN (1867?-1939) was born in South Africa, raised in Scotland, and died in England. She apparently never married.

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745) was a British/Irish writer and satirist, best-known today for his works, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and A Modest Proposal (1729).

MARK TWAIN (1835-1910) is best-known today for his classic American novels, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, but he also wrote hundreds of short works for the popular magazines of his day.

VOLTAIRE (François-Marie Arouet [1694-1778]) was a well-known French writer, dramatist, historian, and political philosopher. He is particularly remembered today for such works as Zadig (1747), Micromégas (1752), and Candide (1759), although he was enormously prolific.

ADAM WHITE (1817-1879), an influential Scottish zoologist and entomologist, worked for many years in the Dept. of Zoology of the British Museum.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939) was an Irish poet and writer who is considered one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. His status was confirmed when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.