Product Description
1918. Parnassus on Wheels is the story of Roger Mifflin, a sprite like figure who moves through the New England countryside with his traveling book wagon. His story shows how book selling can be one of the world's highest callings, spreading enlightenment with a dose of delight. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

A woman asserts her rights at the turn of the 20th century
This book was a delight. My life has been made much richer by this public domainKindle download. Written in 1917 by 27-year-old Christopher Morley, it looks at the world through a woman's eyes at a time when women were generally not given much consideration. I was surprised to see a book so sympathetic to women at that time. Some of the language was unfamiliar, but on my Kindle, an instant dictionary was at hand. I did have to go to Wikipedia.com to learn about "Parnassus," or what we today call a bookmobile, named for Mt. Parnassus of Greek mythology, the center of poetry, music, and learning. We see laughter, fright, learning, and love through the adventures of 39 year-old Helen McGill as she breaks away from the drudgery of keeping a farm going and taking care of her brother. She realizes she has baked 6,000 loaves of bread in the last 15 years and it's time to get a life of her own. So, she becomes a bookseller in the Parnassus on wheels and very quickly turns her life around. Don't miss the sequel, The Haunted Bookshop. These two books showed me that my literary education is very limited! There is much to be learned from these older books.

Parnassus on Wheels (1917)
This is the first book published by American author, poet, and journalist Christopher Morely (1890-1957). Morely delivers lots of intriguing characterizations and action, swirling around a bookstore on wheels and those who owned it. There are plenty of references to outstanding books of the past and of Morley's present (1917), and I tend to think that Morely put quite a bit of himself into making the work "come alive." This is not deep literature but a foray into the backroads of rural East Coast living. Undoubtedly my grandparents would have given the work a double nod for its realism and folksy flavor.

One of the best writers ever
I loved this book from the first page to the last. Christopher Morley is such a good writer and what a shame he is not revered more. The Haunted Bookshop is the book after this and just as good.

Short, but sweet
Christopher Morley's 'Parnassus on Wheels' attracted my attention alongside its sequel, The Haunted Bookshop, in a used book store in upstate New York on a book-buying vacation I took last year. The title 'Haunted Bookshop' is sure to attract most bibliophiles, and to read the dustflap and see that it was a sequel to Parnassus, with Parnassus sitting right there next to it, was too much a temptation to pass up, at least for me.

When the traveling bookshop 'Parnassus' rolls up to Sabine Farm, spinster Helen McGill finds herself attracted not only to the books inside, but to the life of Parsassus's proprietor, Roger Mifflin, as he recounts his travels to and fro, here and there, bringing great literature and joy into the lives of his customers.At once charmed and intrigued by the man and his profession, Helen resolves to purchase the Parnassus, upon offer of sale, from Roger Mifflin, who in reality came to discuss the possibility of sale to Helen's brother Andrew, a locally famous chronicler of the virutes of a simple, farming life.

Once the sale is complete, Helen and Mifflin depart Sabine Farm to begin Helen's life on the road selling books, with a furious Andrew not far behind, determined to bring to justice this man who has swindled his sister.

Though a very quick read at a mere 160 pages, this delightful novella has all the charm, wit, and literary name dropping that a reader could want. This book took me, literally, an hour and a half to read, but will remain with me for some time, and is one I will definitely recommend to other lovers of such stories.

Highly recommended.

Wonderful old book
We are so enjoying this book as a "read-aloud" at night. Well-written, descriptive, and shows a real love of books and adventure. Read it! ... Read more

Product Description
Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957) was, for countless readers, the American man of letters of his generation.Whether they appeared as newspaper and magazine columns, literary essays, novels, or plays, his writings were eagerly awaited and read.Born in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and raised in Baltimore, he was educated at Haverford College and then, as a Rhoades Scholar, at Oxford.But he spent virtually all the remaining years of his life in the journalistic and literary milieux of New York, with a brief stint as a journalist in Philadelphia.

Given his predilection for living in New York, then, it is not surprising that Morley devoted much of his writing to recording life in the city as he observed it daily.But what is surprising is that a book comprising exclusively these writings has heretofore been unavailable.Christopher Morley’s New York will be welcomed, therefore, by anyone who has ever wished for such a book or, for that matter, by anyone who would like to experience the New York of a bygone era at the hands of a truly great American writer.

A collection of fifty-five essays, written mostly in the mid-twentiesbut with some later examples as well, Christopher Morley’s New Yorkpresents in rich, evocative detail New York at the end of World War I– that heady time after the doughboys returned, the Twenties gotroaring, the Volstead Act found itself thwarted, and a lot ofprogressive life got on with its business before running into the wallof the Great Depression.In the first section of the book, East Side,West Side, All Around the Town, we experience New York just as Morleydid: through its bookstores, restaurants, taverns, waterfronts, andother locales that lent the city its unique, rough-and-tumblecharacter.But we’re also treated to a vivid picture of ChristopherMorley himself, particularly in the next section, The Three Hours forLunch Club, in which Morley’s gusto in food, drink, companionship,conversation, and general bonhomie is plainly evident.Finally, inthe last section, we experience another, suburban New York: Roslyn,Long Island, where for years Morley lived with his wife and family.Contrasted with the vulgar beauty of the city, the natural splendorMorley encountered on Long Island is particularly affecting.

This attractive volume is enhanced by the evocative period illustrations of Walter Jack Duncan, who illustrated so many Morley first editions. ... Read more

Product Description
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He went to New College, Oxford University for three years on a Rhodes Scholarship, studying modern history. He moved to Philadelphia where he got his start as a newspaper reporter and then columnist for various publications. In 1920, he returned to New York City and took a job writing the column The Bowling Green for the New York Evening Post. He was one of the founders and long-time contributing editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. Out of enthusiasm for the Sherlock Holmes stories, he became the founder of the Baker Street Irregulars and wrote the introduction to the standard omnibus edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Author of more than 100 books of essays, poetry, and novels, he is probably best known as the author of Kitty Foyle (1939), which was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. His works include Parnassus on Wheels (1917), Shandygaff (1918), The Haunted Bookshop (1919), Where the Blue Begins (1922), Thunder on the Left (1925), The Trojan Horse (1937), and The Old Mandarin (1947). ... Read more

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An excerpt:

Customer Reviews (1)

A book lover's delight
Written in 1919, it has nothing to do with hauntings, séances and the like. This is the sequel to Parnassus on Wheels and deals with the tensions at the time of the WWI armistice. It is a mystery, a spy thriller and a love story. It takes us into the world of a bookseller and into the place where all book lovers would find delightful - the company of a bookseller who likes to share his wisdom.Reading this has whetted my appetite for older books, and I have read several other books written at the turn of and into the early 20th century. What a wonderful way to get a literary education! ... Read more

Product Description
Where the Blue Begins is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Christopher Morley is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Christopher Morley then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A simple story told well... We ALL need to go Home!
This is a book who's meaning changes as the reader matures.I first read it in childhood and found it to be entertaining, much like Alice in Wonderland.

Many (30!) years later I felt a desire to revisit the story and, only recently, was able to buy a copy through a Used Book dealer in Maine.It was worth the search!

The story says so many different things, things the We ALL need to hear, when read with adult's eyes.The clearest message of all... go ahead and search the world for your dream of "something better" - but don't be suprised when you find that "something" right at home!

If you get a copy of this book share it with those you care about... especially your children. ... Read more

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Mince Pie is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Christopher Morley is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Christopher Morley then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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A novel ... Read more

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The Shelf2Life Literature and Fiction Collection is a unique set of short stories, poems and novels from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.From tales of love, life and heartbreaking loss to humorous stories of ghost encounters, these volumes captivate the imaginations of readers young and old.Included in this collection are a variety of dramatic and spirited poems that contemplate the mysteries of life and celebrate the wild beauty of nature.The Shelf2Life Literature and Fiction Collection provides readers with an opportunity to enjoy and study these iconic literary works, many of which were written during a period of remarkable creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

A charming story
I thoroughly enjoyed this charming cozy mystery.It called up simpler times and even during the most suspenseful parts, there was the reassuring sense that all would turn out well somehow.

The book is centered in Roger Mifflin's large, cluttered but cozy secondhand bookshop, behind which he lives with his wife.It's part meditation on bibliophilia, and book lovers will likely salivate over the descriptions of Roger's bookstore and his cozy sitting room lined with his most cherished volumes.Roger himself is quite a charming character, if sometimes long-winded on his favorite subject (books, of course).

Onto this cozy canvas of biblio-bliss unfolds a mystery: a volume keeps disappearing and reappearing from Roger's shop, strange noises are heard, and suspicious characters start to turn up.The mystery was suspenseful and enjoyable, but for me, the most charming thing about this novel was its atmosphere.I was delighted to find there is a "prequel" to this novel, and look forward to checking it out.

What Happened ?
What happened to the delightful storyline and the quaint but congenial prose of "Parnassus on Wheels?"The prose of "The Haunted Bookshop" is preachy and the storyline dark. Where "Parnassus" is cheery and light, "Haunted Bookshop" is sinister and the events shadowy. It is as if Morley tries to regain the feeling of the first book but the mood escapes him. Here is what I think happened: "Parnassus" was written prior to 1914, "Haunted" in 1919. What intervened on the world stage that could have resulted in Morley's less than sunny mood?The First World War.You will find mention of it in "The Haunted Bookshop." You will feel the "loss of innocence" and the onset of hopelessness the war brought to many people in America. Actually, reading "Haunted" left me sad. I wanted to regain the optimism and positive energy of "Parnassus on Wheels" and was blindsided by Morley's change of tenor and mood. I am a little sorry I read "Haunted Bookshop."I could escape to a simpler and better time in "Parnassus.""The Haunted Bookshop" brought me back to earth with a crunch.

Disappointed!
First Line: If you are ever in Brooklyn, that borough of superb sunsets and magnificent vistas of husband-propelled baby-carriages, it is to be hoped you may chance upon a quiet by-street where there is a very remarkable bookshop.

A couple of years ago, Christopher Morley's Parnassus On Wheels was one of the books I enjoyed reading the most, so I was very happy to obtain a copy of the follow-up to it. The Haunted Bookshop follows Roger and Helen Mifflin to Brooklyn, New York, where Roger has a dream come true: he opens his own bookstore.

In short order, the couple find themselves with a mysterious disappearing and reappearing book; a rich friend insists on sending his daughter to them so she can work in their store and learn the value of hard work and a paycheck; and a young man in the advertising business becomes involved with the mystery book and falls in love with the beautiful young heiress.

All this could've been great fun. The young man in particular could be very amusing because most of his thinking was heavily influenced by ad copy and the popular magazines and movies of the day:

"For one terrible moment he thought she was going to cry. But he remembered having seen heroines cry in the movies, and knew it was only done when there was a table and chair handy."


But the humor was buried under Morley's insistence in having Roger Mifflin-- formerly a very caring and observant character-- spout speech after speech on his views of truly great literature, war, and peace. Although I did agree with Morley's viewpoints on almost every topic, I did not appreciate being continuously beat over the head with his opinions.

If those diatribes had been excised from this book, it would have been a charming sequel to Parnassus On Wheels. Oh well. You win some... and you lose some. My advice would be to read Parnassus On Wheels and give The Haunted Bookshop a miss.

The Haunted Bookstore (1919)
I picked up my copy of this book from the library and was utterly transported into another world, both the post-WWI world and that of a charming bookstore whose owner claims is haunted by the literary ghosts of the past. The characters are dimensional; the plot is carefully worked out to sustain interest; and the descriptive writing "to die for." Morley was a well-known author and journalist in America and wrote more than 100 books. This one in particular, his second book, will keep you amused and engaged, especially if you love a good mystery. A delightful read just before retiring after an eventful day.

Not bad
Ok story, but I think the title has been mis-named. :)

I didn't think the bookshop was haunted at all. There was a love story wrapped around all of it and it was sort of a mystery so not bad all in all, but just a different writing style...it was written in the early 1900's ... Read more

Product Description
The cult of Sherlock Holmes and its organizational centerpiece, The Baker Street Irregulars, were products of the fertile mind of Christopher Morley (1890-1957), one of the most versatile and prolific writers of the first half of the twentieth century.Novelist, essayist, columnist, Book-of-the-Month Club judge, poet, panelist, and promoter, Morley was an avid exponent of the literature he loved.Few writers were closer to his heart than Arthur Conan Doyle, whose tales of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were still being penned during Morley’s boyhood.

This collection is a virtual anthology of Morley’s many styles.In addition to old favorites like "In Memoriam Sherlock Holmes," the preface to the Doubleday edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes published in 1930 and probably the most widely read Sherlockian essay of them all, here are previously unpublished or never-before-collected essays, poems, short stories, and even a play.Excerpts from the fifteen years of Morley’s columns in the Saturday Review of Literature and a decade of his "Clinical Notes by a Resident Patient" in the Baker Street Journal (currently published by Fordham University Press) cover ever aspect of Holmes’s world – from dressing gowns to Turkish baths, from beekeeping to the "B" in221B Baker Street.

As Morley put it in his little-known reader for high-school students, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, a Textbook of Friendship, "The beginning reader of Sherlock Holmes concerns himself with little more than attentive enjoyment, but there is a post-graduate school as well.There is a special and superior pleasure in reading anything so much more carefully than its author ever did."The Standard Doyle Company – Morley’s punning title for the Baker Street Irregulars – is an advanced syllabus for the lover of Sherlockian literature and lore. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

BSIr's Forever!
How splendid to find this volume back in print!I have treasured it ever since it was first published several decades ago.Anyone who admires graceful, witty writing should revel in its pages even if not a Baker Street Irregular (BSIr) or at least a lover of Doyle's Holmes stories.The two annotated editions of the stories are certainly valuable and nice to have, but in Morley you will find more enthusiasm and fun than both of them together.And if you are a booklover in general you should seek out two slim books of delight by Morley - "Parnassus on Wheels" and "The Haunted Bookshop" (both out of print except for an execrable edition combining both in one badly produced volume full of typos and other errors).

The Man Who Saved Sherlock Holmes
Chris Morley is largely forgotten now, so it might be difficult for modern readers to believe that he was once one of the best known men of letters in America.From the late 1920s to the 1940s, his columns, essays, novels andpoems were widely read, and his appearances on radio were enthusiasticallywelcomed.Morley's most popular novel, Kitty Foyle, even made it toHollywood. But if Morley had written nothing else than his tributes toSherlock Holmes, it would have been enough. Indeed, it is not going tofar to say that Morley is the man who single-handedly created a cult ofHolmes worship (by founding the Baker Street Irregulars) which is alive andwell today. While some of his Holmes work is easy to find (see hisintroduction to The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Doubleday), Morley's moreobscure thoughts were scattered among obscure bibliographic relics. StevenRothman has combed his considerable collection of Morley's writings andbrought everything he ever wrote about Holmes into one place. This bookis an excellent opportunity for anyone who knows a little about SherlockHolmes to learn a lot about both Holmes and one of his most devoutdisciples.Rothman has also done an excellent job of drawing abiographical background for the reader. Morley might be forgotten, but hiswork about Sherlock HolmesÑÑlike the great detective himselfÑ-lives on. ... Read more

Product Description
On Christmas Eve, while the Perfect Reader sits in his armchair immersed in a book—so absorbed that he has let the fire go out—I propose to slip gently down the chimney and leave this tribute in his stocking. It is not a personal tribute. I speak, on behalf of the whole fraternity of writers, this word of gratitude—and envy.
No one who has ever done any writing, or has any ambition toward doing so, can ever be a Perfect Reader. Such a one is not disinterested. He reads, inevitably, in a professional spirit. He does not surrender himself with complete willingness of enjoyment. He reads "to [2]see how the other fellow does it"; to note the turn of a phrase, the cadence of a paragraph; carrying on a constant subconscious comparison with his own work. He broods constantly as to whether he himself, in some happy conjuncture of quick mind and environing silence and the sudden perfect impulse, might have written something like that. He is (poor devil) confessedly selfish. On every page he is aware of his own mind running with him, tingling him with needle-pricks of conscience for the golden chapters he has never written. And so his reading is, in a way, the perfection of exquisite misery—and his writing also. When he writes, he yearns to be reading; when he reads, he yearns to be writing.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Better Than I Dared to Think!
Wow, am I a happy camper! My copy of Plum Pudding by Christopher Morley just arrived today (and perhaps the disappointment with not being able to get it in two days with Amazon Prime was compensated by the anticipation and joy of finally getting this beautiful book in my hands!)

I must say that the copy was in VERY good shape, with just a few pencil marks on the inside cover. Kudos to the Amazon reseller. I'm impressed and would definitely order from them again.

Reading is a passion for me, and getting such a beautiful and rare book for five bucks (including shipping and handling) is nothing short of sheer pleasure. (I am a Yankee at heart, you know, and we DO love a bargain!)
... Read more

Product Description
Christopher Morley was one of the most celebrated American authors of the 1920s and 1930s. Best known as the author of Parnassus on Wheels and Kitty Foyle, Morley wrote for a popular audience that keenly appreciated his style, his wit, and his exuberant championing of the written word. Morley wrote most of the pieces collected in this volume from 1918 to 1920, while a columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Ledger. His assignment: to "saunter" around town and the Philadelphia suburbs, and then - usually after a leisurely lunch - report back. The result was a series of lively essays that, read now, not only reveals a city's colorful past, but sheds light on its present: much of the Philadelphia Morley explored remains intact for the native or visitor with the eye and patience to discover it. Morley's best Philadelphia work, scattered among 12 volumes published during his lifetime, have been collected in this handsome new book, which includes period illustrations by Walter Jack Duncan and Frank Taylor, and a critical introduction by Ken Kalfus. Published on May 5, 1990, on the 100th anniversary of Morley's birth, Christopher Morley's Philadelphia brings together numerous essays that have been out of print for 50 years or longer. The book joins Fordham University Press's 1988 collection, Christopher Morley's New York, as a lasting contribution to the Morley oeuvre. ... Read more

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As far as this book is concerned, the public may Take It, or the public may Let It Alone. But the authors feel it their duty to say that no deductions as to their own private habits are to be made from the story here offered. With its composition they have beguiled the moments of the valley of the shadow.

The public will forgive this being only a brief preface, for at the moment of writing the time is short. Wishing you a Merry Abstinence, and looking forward to meeting you some day in Europe, -Christopher Morley and Bart Haley ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Business ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more