Great Possessions

Ray Stannard BakerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 214K words
Chapters: 22

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.Great Possessions by David GraysonAuthor: Grayson, David, 1870-1946,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

Great Possessions carries on the characteristic temper of David Grayson's essays: it draws from rural daily life, natural scenery, and ordinary people and events a deepened appreciation of living. The title's "great possessions" are not material wealth but the things easily overlooked yet truly nourishing—a quiet morning, a sincere conversation, a familiarity with the ground beneath one's feet. The tone is gentle and restrained, winning not through drama but through fineness of observation and sincerity of feeling. It suits as a buffer for a busy life: each piece is short, easy to pick up without burden, yet leaves a lingering aftertaste when the book is closed. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook, it is also a light entry point to early American pastoral essays and to plain, unadorned English expression.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who love nature writing and pastoral essays
Readers seeking calm from everyday details
Learners who want short English texts for reading practice
Readers who prefer scattered reading in print or digital form

Not a good fit for

Readers after strong plots such as suspense or adventure
Readers needing scholarly annotation or in-depth textual analysis

Reading tips

Read slowly in the order of the pieces, writing a sentence or two of your own response after each.
Read in a quiet stretch of time, alongside observing your surroundings or the change of seasons.
When reading in English, first read a paragraph through for the gist, then go back to unfamiliar words.
Read favorite passages aloud to feel the rhythm and tone of the essays.

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

What does the title "Great Possessions" refer to?

From the content, it points not to property but to the people, things, and natural scenery of country life that are worth cherishing. Its specific meaning is for each reader to feel while reading the pieces; the book gives no abstract definition.

How does it relate to Adventures in Friendship?

Both are essay collections by David Grayson, similar in subject and tone, both writing of country life, human feeling, and nature. You may read one first and then the other; order does not matter.

Is it suitable as English-learning material?

Yes. The pieces are short and the language plain, suitable for extensive reading to build a feel for the language. But it is not a textbook, with no vocabulary lists or exercises; use it with a dictionary tool and reading notes.

What is the reading experience of the electronic edition like?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a plain-text eBook with simple formatting, easy to adjust font size on a phone, tablet, or e-reader. It suits fragmented reading time, but for annotation, use reading software that supports markup.

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About the author

Ray Stannard Baker Author · American · 1870–1946

David Grayson was the pen name of the American writer Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946). Born in Lansing, Michigan, Baker was a muckraking journalist on a par with Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. Under the Grayson pen name he wrote a series of rural essays, including Adventures in Contentment, Adventures in Friendship, The Friendly Road and Great Possessions. These works, centered on tranquil country life, are written in a warm and unhurried style and became bestsellers around the world. Under his own name he also wrote an eight-volume life of Woodrow Wilson, for which he won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Five of his works are held in this collection, along with the novel Hempfield.