HISTORY · JUVENILE
J. Walker McSpadden
Also known as: Joseph Walker McSpadden, McSpadden Joseph Walker
Joseph Walker McSpadden, an American editor and translator, attended University of Tennessee (UT) beginning in November 1893. He graduated in 1899 and moved to New York. He and two other UT alumni (Marshall Lawrence Havey and John S. Coppers) organized a U.T.N.Y. luncheon group in 1899, which was expanded to become the Tennessee Society of New York in 1905. McSpadden was a prolific author. He is best known for his Robin Hood (1891) and succeeding tales of Robin Hood. Among his other publications are Opera Synopses (1920), Operas and Musical Comedies (1936), Shakespearian Synopses (1923), The Fables of Aesop, Based on the Texts of L’Estrange and Croxall (1903), Stories from Great Operas (1923), Alps: As Seen by the Poets (1912), California: A Romantic Story for Young People (1926), Boys’ Book of Famous Soldiers (1924), Famous Ghost Stories (1918), Famous Psychic Stories (1920), Famous Sculptors of America (1924), Synopses of Dickens’s Novels (1909), The Book of Holidays (1935), and Storm Center: A Novel about Andy Johnson (1947). Source: [Volopedia](
IN MERRY ENGLAND in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood.
— from Robin Hood, 1973
Most acclaimed
Robin Hood
1973
Geronimo Stilton, cet intellectuel sensible et raffiné qui dirige "L'écho des rongeurs", se propose ici de raconter à ses admirateurs les grands classiques de la littérature pour la jeunesse qui ont bercé son enfance et qui l'ont fait voyager dans des contrées aussi fabuleuses qu'exotiques. Chaque opus de la série fait donc revivre un chef-d'oeuvre littéraire, dont les protagonistes se voient conférer les traits de rongeurs humanisés. Sous ce titre: les aventures épiques de Robin des bois, ce légendaire brigand au coeur d'or qui se fait un honneur de réparer les injustices commises par le prince Jean Sans Terre et le shérif de Nottingham en l'absence du bon roi Richard Coeur de Lion. Révolté de constater que le perfide duo s'enrichit au profit d'un peuple accablé d'impôts et réduit à une existence miséreuse, Robin se réfugie dans la forêt de Sherwood en compagnie de Petit Jean et de frère Tuck, avec l'aide desquels il met sur pied une armée de hors-la-loi qui se fait l'ardente défenderesse des opprimés, détroussant les riches pour redistribuer leurs richesses aux pauvres et aux orphelins. Et ce, en recourant à de savants déguisements et stratagèmes qui attisent la frustration de leurs victimes une fois dévoilés ... Geronimo Stilton raconte les grands classiques de la littérature de jeunesse.
California
1914
Henry Vizetelly (1820-1894), a London engraver and author, was a pioneer in the publication of inexpensive illustrated books and magazines. Edwin Bryant (1805-1869) was a Kentucky journalist before coming to California in 1846. He served under Frémont in the Mexican War and was then made alcalde of San Francisco. California. Four months among the gold-finders (1849) by "J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, M.D." is a fictional account of the Gold Rush that purports to have been sent to the author's brother from Monterey in October, 1848. In truth, Henry Vizetelly wrote the book without ever leaving London, supplementing easily available official accounts of the Gold Rush with his own imagination. The secret of his authorship and the book's fictious nature did not become public knowledge for some forty years after its original publication. "Brooks's" account begins with his arrival in San Francisco, continuing with a trip to the goldfields near Sutter's Fort and a try at prospecting at Weber's Creek and other camps. What I saw in California, the second portion of the volume, originally published in 1848, contains Edwin Bryant's more authentic account of life in pre-Gold Rush California, 1846-1847, including the U.S. Army occupation of the territory. Other documents in the appendix are letters concerning the Gold Rush that had appeared in the public press.