Combining a fascinating history of the first U.S. high school for African Americans with an unflinching analysis of urban public-school education today, First Class explores an underrepresented and largely unknown aspect of black history while opening a discussion on what it takes to make a public school successful. In 1870, in the wake of the Civil War, citizens of Washington, DC, opened the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, the first black public high school in the United States; it would later be renamed Dunbar High and would flourish despite Jim Crow laws and segregation. Dunbar attracted an extraordinary faculty: its early principal was the first black graduate of Harvard, and at a time it had seven teachers with PhDs, a medical doctor, and a lawyer. During the school's first 80 years, these teachers would develop generations of highly educated, successful African Americans, and at its height in the 1940s and '50s, Dunbar High School sent 80 percent of its...

It's the last market day before Christmas and Bruno, Chief of Police, is preparing for a traditional gastronomic feast. But, never off duty for long, Bruno is called to action when he receives information that a prisoner on parole has gone missing, last seen heading for St. Denis, where his ex-wife and son live.The goose, the oysters, his English girlfriend's Christmas pudding and Bruno's famous mulled wine will just have to wait...

If you enjoyed the powerful atmosphere of Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby you may just have an inkling of the smoothly professional efficacy of Alec Waugh's The Fatal Gift. His novel breathes the values and attitudes of the early decades of the 20th century. Raymond Peronne has wealth, is bright, is devastatingly attractive to women: his fatal gift. Second son of a baronet, Perronne goes to Oxford (from which he is rusticated), then to New York (in the'20s and '30s) and is in Egypt during the war (moving in circles then, as in this novel, inhabited by such as Evelyn Waugh, Claud Cockburn and Robin Maugham.). In tense anticipation we watch Peronne, for whom good fortune seems always imminent, fall at every point-until he finds the isle of Dominica and begins a love affair the like of which he has never known.

At the age of twenty-three, Bear Grylls became one of the youngest Britons to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At extreme altitude youth holds no advantage over experience, nevertheless, only two years after breaking his back in a freefall parachuting accident, he overcame severe weather conditions, fatigue and dehydration to stand on top of the world's highest mountain. Facing Up is the story of his adventure, his courage and humour, his friendship and faith. Facing the Frozen Ocean tells of a carefully calculated attempt to complete the first unassisted crossing of the frozen north Atlantic in an open rigid inflatable boat. But this expedition became a terrifying battle against extreme elements and icebergs as large as cathedrals. Starting from the remote north Canadian coastline, Grylls and his crew crossed the infamous Labrador Sea, pushed on through ice-strewn waters to Greenland and then found themselves isolated in a perfect storm 400 miles...

Eleven chilling tales, including the author's introductions and afterword comments, provoke the dreaded dark side of the reader's imagination.

This collection includes all of the writer's earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the late 1950's. These fascinating stories include The Little Black Box, The Electric Ant, and many others.  Stories In This VolumeThe Eye of the SibylThe Little Black BoxThe War with the FnoolsPrecious ArtifactRetreat SyndromeA Tehran OdysseyYour Appointment Will Be YesterdayHoly QuarrelA Game of UnchanceNot by its CoverReturn MatchFaith of Our FathersThe Story to End All Stories for Harlan Ellison's Anthology Dangerous VisionsThe Electric AntCadbury, the Beaver Who LackedA Little Something for Us TempunautsThe Pre-PersonsThe Eye of the SibylThe Day Mr. Computer Fell out of its TreeThe Exit Door Leads InChains of Air, Web of AetherStrange Memories of DeathI Hope I Shall Arrive SoonRautavaara's CaseThe Alien Mind

A provocative collection of short fiction, edited by one of science fiction's best-known names.  Of particular interest are several stories from the cyberpunk school, as well as Pat Murphy's Nebula award winning `"Rachel in Love'' and Ursula LeGuin's wonderful "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight.'' At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Lad, a courageous and dignified 80-pound collie, lived in The Place. The Place was thick with woods, abounding with squirrels to chase, and a cool lake in which to plunge — a beautiful kingdom — and Lad was its undisputed king. Lad's loyalty to his chosen Master and Mistress knew no bounds. The stories in this book are all about Lad. Some will make you laugh out loud, some will make you cry. And when the book comes to its conclusion, you will know one thing for sure — that Lad was a dog with a soul . . .