The Peabody Sisters

by Megan Marshall

2006 · HMH

Pulitzer Prize Finalist: "A stunning work of biography" about three little-known New England women who made intellectual history ( The New York Times). Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody were in many ways the American Brontës. The story of these remarkable sisters—and their central role in shaping the thinking of their day—has never before been fully told. Twenty years in the making, Megan Marshall's monumental biography brings the era of creative ferment known as American Romanticism to new life. Elizabeth Peabody, the oldest sister, was a mind-on-fire influence on the great writers of the era—Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau among them—who also published some of their earliest works; it was she who prodded these newly minted Transcendentalists away from Emerson's individualism and toward a greater connection to others. Middle sister Mary Peabody was a passionate reformer who finally found her soul mate in the great educator Horace Mann. And the frail Sophia, an admired painter among the preeminent society artists of the day, married Nathaniel Hawthorne—but not before Hawthorne threw the delicate dynamics among the sisters into disarray. Casting new light on a legendary American era, and on three sisters who made an indelible mark on history, Marshall's unprecedented research uncovers thousands of never-before-seen letters as well as other previously unmined original sources. "A massive enterprise," The Peabody Sisters is an event in American biography ( The New York Times Book Review). "Marshall's book is a grand story . . . where male and female minds and sensibilities were in free, fruitful communion, even if men could exploit this cultural richness far more easily than women." — The Washington Post "Marshall has greatly increased our understanding of these women and their times in one of the best literary biographies to come along in years." — New England Quarterly

The Life of George Washington (Summarized Edition)

by John Marshall

2026 · Quickie Classics

John Marshall's The Life of George Washington offers a documentary, nation-making biography that follows Washington from frontier officer to president while narrating the French and Indian War, the Revolution, and the contested birth of the republic. In stately, juridical prose, Marshall privileges orders, correspondence, and public papers over anecdote, producing extended campaign analyses and constitutional commentary typical of early nineteenth-century Federalist historiography. Marshall - Revolutionary War veteran, diplomat, congressman, and Chief Justice - drew on service in the Continental Army and a jurist's devotion to national union. Commissioned by Bushrod Washington and granted privileged access to Mount Vernon papers, he arranged scattered manuscripts into a coherent public life, clarifying episodes from Trenton to the Jay Treaty while advancing a broad constitutional vision. Scholars of the early republic, military history, and political thought will prize this work for its archival depth and revealing Federalist lens. Read it for measured argument and documentary richness, and with awareness of its apologetic tone. Alongside modern biographies, it remains a foundational, challenging guide to the making of Washington and the nation. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.

The National Hockey League, 1917-1967

by Marshall D. Wright

2014 · McFarland

This is a statistical history of the National Hockey League in its first 50 seasons. It provides every statistic for every player for every game, including playoff games. A full introduction puts the tremendous amount of data contained within the book in its historical context, and each chapter then recounts a single season. An explanatory essay illuminating the most important attributes of a particular season introduces each chapter.