A Coffin for Jacob

Ludwig, Edward W., 1920-1990Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 62K words
Chapters: 7

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.A Coffin for Jacob by Edward W. LudwigAuthor: Ludwig, Edward W., 1920-1990,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 14, 2016

Editor's review

A Coffin for Jacob is a short English-language work by Edward W. Ludwig published in the mid-twentieth century. It belongs to the American literature category and is brief, with a tight narrative pace. It serves well as a sample of Golden Age genre fiction: the author is skilled at building suspense and advancing plot within limited space, and his depiction of characters' predicaments is direct and effective. Because the book comes from Project Gutenberg, readers can obtain the electronic edition free of charge, which is very convenient. When reading, do not look for grand themes; focus instead on structural technique and period idiom—such works often drive the story through concise dialogue and scene changes, offering lessons for aspiring writers. It is suitable for reading in one sitting during a commute or short break, and can also serve as English extensive reading material for experiencing the word choice and sentence patterns of twentieth-century American popular literature. Readers who prefer in-depth literary analysis will need to supplement background materials themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy twentieth-century American short genre fiction
Learners who want to use original English short stories for extensive reading practice
Readers interested in public-domain ebooks from Project Gutenberg
Writing enthusiasts who want to study suspense and structural technique in popular fiction

Not a good fit for

Deep literary readers expecting long, complex character arcs
Beginner readers who need a Chinese translation or bilingual edition
Readers who prefer contemporary subjects and contemporary narrative pacing

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot direction, then go back to see how the author plants suspense within a short space.
Note unfamiliar words and period expressions as English extensive reading material to build language intuition.
After reading, try retelling the story structure and analyzing how the opening, turning point, and conclusion are arranged.
If interested in the author or the period background, consult additional materials on American popular literature.

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 a novel or a short story?

Judging from the Project Gutenberg listing information, it is a relatively short English-language work, suitable for reading in one or two sittings. The exact page count varies with the electronic edition's layout; readers can check the file length after downloading.

How difficult is the English, and what level is it suitable for?

The work is twentieth-century American popular fiction with relatively direct vocabulary and sentence patterns, suitable for readers with intermediate English reading ability. If your vocabulary is limited, you can use a dictionary while reading and take notes, treating it as extensive reading material.

Why is no specific plot mentioned in the recommendation?

Because the available material is mainly bibliographic information and does not provide a detailed plot summary. To avoid inventing details that are not in the book, the recommendation focuses on the work's genre, language style, and reading approach; readers can judge for themselves after reading the original text.

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About the author

Ludwig, Edward W., 1920-1990 Author

Edward W. Ludwig (1920–1990) was an American author of science fiction whose life and writing career are poorly documented in publicly available sources. Seven of his works are held in this collection, including A Coffin for Jacob, Spacemen Die at Home, The Lonely Ones, To Save Earth, The Holes and John Smith, Juvenile Delinquent, and The Drivers. These pieces are mostly short science fiction and fantasy stories, often dealing with space exploration, threats to Earth, and the predicaments of marginal figures. His narrative style is concise and typical of mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazine fiction. Though not a widely known star author, Ludwig's short stories circulated in the science fiction periodicals of his day and are now regarded as part of the genre literature of that period, retaining some reference value for readers studying early short science fiction.