An Annapolis First Classman

Beach, Edward L. (Edward Latimer), 1867-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 359K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An Annapolis First Classman by Edward L. BeachAuthor: Beach, Edward L. (Edward Latimer), 1867-1943,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 29, 2012

Editor's review

An Annapolis First Classman is a young adult novel by Edward L. Beach set at the United States Naval Academy, falling under the juvenile belles lettres category of Project Gutenberg public-domain ebooks. The work revolves around academy life and bears the typical features of a coming-of-age novel and campus narrative: discipline, friendship, honor, and personal trials intertwine, allowing readers to sense the training atmosphere and values of a naval academy in the early twentieth century. It is more readable than contemporary engineering reports of the same period, and its language is generally straightforward, making it a suitable introductory text for understanding early fiction set at the U.S. Naval Academy. It should be read not as factual naval history but as a campus coming-of-age story bearing the marks of its era; its character development and conception of discipline can be compared with later military-academy fiction. For young readers, the story is stronger than the moralizing; for researchers, it offers a window into how juvenile literature of the time shaped images of military personnel and collective honor.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Young adult readers who enjoy campus coming-of-age and discipline-themed fiction
General readers interested in stories set at the U.S. Naval Academy
Literary readers studying early juvenile literature and military-academy narratives
English learners who want to encounter classic campus fiction through public-domain ebooks

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern military technology or realistic naval combat depictions
Readers who accept only fast-paced contemporary novelistic narration
Researchers needing rigorous factual naval history materials

Reading tips

Read chapter by chapter, noting the protagonist's choices between discipline and friendship.
After finishing, compare it with other military-academy or boarding-school coming-of-age novels, comparing how characters are portrayed.
English learners can excerpt descriptions of campus life and training scenes to build relevant vocabulary.
Do not treat the book's contents as factual history of the Naval Academy system; annotate passages reflecting the ideas of the era.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this novel a real memoir of the Naval Academy?

No. It belongs to the juvenile fiction category, using the Annapolis Naval Academy as a literary setting, and should not be used directly as the author's memoir or factual naval history material.

What age of readers is it suitable for?

Judging by subject and category, it suits young adults and general adult readers with some English reading ability. The campus discipline and coming-of-age themes are fairly easy to understand, but the language bears period features, so younger readers may need assistance.

Do I need to know about the U.S. Naval Academy before reading?

Not necessarily. The story unfolds around academy life and character relationships, and the basic background can be understood while reading. For deeper understanding, you might first learn the basic system of the Annapolis Naval Academy and then compare it with the campus descriptions in the book.

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About the author

Beach, Edward L. (Edward Latimer), 1867-1943 Author · American · 1867–1943

Edward L. Beach (1867–1943) was an American naval officer who also wrote. Only a small number of his works have survived to the present, among which An Annapolis First Classman is the most frequently mentioned. The novel draws on life at the United States Naval Academy and blends the themes of naval education with the growth of young men. Beach's own naval career gives his treatment of navigation, discipline, and campus training a noticeable firsthand quality, and his scenes tend toward realism rather than romantic embellishment. His writing centers broadly on naval and maritime subjects and appeals mainly to readers interested in naval life and academy traditions. Because public information is limited, his biography, the full range of his work, and his literary standing cannot be described in detail; existing accounts rest chiefly on his few known works and his professional identity, and his influence is best understood as a modest contribution to naval-themed narrative.