More E. K. Means

Means, E. K. (Eldred Kurtz), 1878-1957Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 504K words
Chapters: 51

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.More E. K. Means by E. K. MeansAuthor: Means, E. K. (Eldred Kurtz), 1878-1957,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 10, 2019

Editor's review

This is the Project Gutenberg electronic edition of works by E. K. Means, in the American literature category, collecting short narrative pieces. Means was active in the early twentieth century, and his writing often depicts small-town and rural Southern characters in a light, humorous vein, with local color and a flavor of social comedy. For readers curious about early twentieth-century American popular literature or interested in Southern regional narrative, this book offers a very low-cost entry sample. The electronic edition is convenient for searching and excerpting, suitable as supplementary reading for literary-historical background and for short-story lovers to dip into in spare moments. Note that this is a digitized resetting of a public-domain book, not a definitive edition with modern scholarly collation, and the text is preceded by Project Gutenberg's copyright and release notices. It is best treated as a window rather than a core text for systematic study.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular short stories and regional humor
Those who need public-domain English texts for language learning or translation practice
Commuters who like to read short stories in fragmented time
Enthusiasts studying American local-color literature who need primary electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Serious researchers expecting modern scholarly notes and detailed background introductions
Readers who prefer long, continuous plots and are impatient with short-story collections
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are not used to reading English originals

Reading tips

Read the Project Gutenberg header first to confirm the edition and copyright information, then proceed to the text.
Read in a dispersed manner by piece, noting characters and regional background after each to facilitate cross-comparison.
When encountering dialect spellings or slang, skip them first and revisit after reading the whole piece to avoid interrupting the rhythm.

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 book the complete original work or an excerpt?

According to Project Gutenberg release information, this is a digitized electronic edition of a collection of Means's works arranged according to the original book's contents, not an abridged edition; however, public-domain electronic editions usually do not contain modern editorial notes, and the specific contents are subject to the file's table of contents.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for beginners?

The works date from the early twentieth century, and the narrative language is generally plain, but it contains local-color dialogue and old-fashioned expressions, posing a certain threshold for English beginners. Readers with intermediate reading ability who are willing to look up words and tolerate dialect spellings are advised to try.

Can it be used as a research text for a literature course?

It can serve as background or supplementary material to understand the author and the popular literature of the time; however, the electronic edition lacks scholarly collation, notes, and literature review. For formal papers, one should also consult authoritative editions and reliable secondary research.

Comments

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About the author

Means, E. K. (Eldred Kurtz), 1878-1957 Author

E. K. Means (Eldred Kurtz Means, 1878–1957) is an author about whom little biographical information survives. Only two of his works are currently held in the library, the representative titles being More E. K. Means and E. K. Means. Because public information is limited, details of his nationality, education, career, and writing life cannot be confirmed, and this introduction makes no speculative additions. Judging from the available bibliographic records, his works were published under his personal name, with titles that directly use the author's name and its continuation, giving them a certain recognizability among comparable books. Such naming is often found in volumes centered on an author, suggesting that the contents may relate to the author's own observations, essays, or narrative writing, though the specific subject matter and genre would require further examination of the original books. On the present evidence, his writing style and influence cannot be adequately assessed, and readers may learn more from the two works held in the library.