The Highest Mountain

Walton, Bryce, 1918-1988Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 34K words
Chapters: 4

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.The Highest Mountain by Bryce WaltonAuthor: Walton, Bryce, 1918-1988,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 7, 2016

Editor's review

The Highest Mountain is an English-language short story by Bryce Walton from the twentieth century, made available again to readers through Project Gutenberg's free electronic edition. Walton wrote popular fiction over a long career; this piece belongs to American literature (Library of Congress class PS), is short in length, and serves as an accessible sample of the narrative style of the American pulp-magazine era. The electronic text was proofread by volunteers and can be freely obtained, making it easy to distribute in class or use for self-study. When reading, it helps to place it in the context of mid-twentieth-century American genre fiction and to notice how the author advances the plot through compact scenes and dialogue, as well as how the characters' psychology shifts when they face difficulty. Because Project Gutenberg provides only the original text, readers need basic English reading ability; for deeper study, it can be read alongside standard anthologies of American short stories to appreciate the tension between popular writing and literary fiction. Overall, this is a lightweight public-domain text with historical interest.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English learners who want to practice reading with a short English original
General readers interested in twentieth-century American popular fiction
English teachers who need public-domain English texts for classroom materials
Readers who like free ebooks and are used to reading on screens

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a long novel with a complex plot
Readers with weak English who need Chinese annotations
Readers looking for contemporary new releases or bestsellers

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then read again to look up unfamiliar words and note useful expressions.
Read it alongside an anthology of American short stories to observe the structural features of popular narrative.
When reading on an electronic device, use bookmarks to mark passages with dense dialogue.

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 in Chinese or English?

The original is in English and belongs to American literature (class PS). Project Gutenberg publishes the free electronic edition, which contains no Chinese translation.

Can Project Gutenberg ebooks be read for free?

Yes. Project Gutenberg was the first project to provide free ebooks, and its public-domain texts can be freely downloaded and read, subject to the copyright terms published by the project.

What level of English is needed to read this book?

This is a short English work. Intermediate or higher English reading ability is recommended, with a dictionary to help understand the narrative text; it should then read fairly smoothly.

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About the author

Walton, Bryce, 1918-1988 Author

Bryce Walton (1918–1988) was a twentieth-century American author of science fiction and popular fiction, little known to Chinese readers, with limited publicly available information. Fourteen of his works are held in the collection, covering space exploration, alien civilizations, future warfare, and relations between the sexes, including To Each His Star, Thy Name Is Woman, The Highest Mountain, The Victor, The Mating of the Moons, Strange Alliance, War Game, and Dreamer's World. Judging from these titles, he was skilled at handling interstellar conflict, human choice, and emotional entanglement through tight plotting and an accessible style. His works were aimed at a broad readership and carry the adventurous flavor and speculative bent common to Cold War-era science fiction. Though not part of the established canon, his writing offers a useful sample for studying the popular science fiction landscape of his time.