. . . My friend the major's malady approaches its term-the last few days find him fearfully enfeebled. He knows that the end draws nigh; indeed he speaks of it often, with remarkable calmness. I had thought it might turn his mind toward religion, but while he has accepted the ministrations of his Church, I fear it is without the sincere repentance of a Christian. When the priest had left him, yesterday, he summoned me, remarking, "Well, all that is over with," rather more in the tone of a man who has just reserved a place in a coach than one who will shortly stand before his Maker. "It does no harm," he said, reflectively. "And, after all, it might be true. Why not?" and he chuckled in a way that repelled me. Then he asked me to read to him-not the Bible, as I had expected, but some verses of the poet Gray. He listened attentively, and when I came to the passage, "Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed," and its successor, "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest," he asked me to repeat them. When I had done so, he said, "Yes, yes. That is true, very true. I did not think so in boyhood-I thought genius must force its own way. But your poet is right about it."

Thirteen O'Clock: Stories of Several Worlds is a collection of Benét's finest and most famous short stories, including “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1936), “By the Waters of Babylon” (1937), and “The King of the Cats” (1929). The complete contents consists of: By the Waters of Babylon The Blood of the Martyrs The King of the Cats A Story by Angela Poe The Treasure of Vasco Gomez The Curfew Tolls The Sobbin' Women The Devil and Daniel Webster Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent Glamour Everybody was Very Nice A Death in the Country Blossom and Frui Introduction by Karl Wurf

From the self-illustrated, unpublished work written in 1947 to hardboiled contributions to 1980s adult magazines, The Bells Tolls for No One presents the entire range of Bukowski's talent as a short story writer, from straight-up genre stories to postmodern blurring of fact and fiction. An informative introduction by editor David Stephen Calonne provides historical context for these seemingly scandalous and chaotic tales, revealing the hidden hand of the master at the top of his form. "The uncollected gutbucket ramblings of the grand dirty old man of Los Angeles letters have been gathered in this characteristically filthy, funny compilation ... Bukowkski's gift was a sense for the raunchy absurdity of life, his writing a grumble that might turn into a belly laugh or a racking cough but that always throbbed with vital energy."--Kirkus Reviews Born in Andernach, Germany, and raised in Los Angeles, Charles Bukowski published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he would eventually publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose. He died of leukemia in San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994. David Stephen Calonne is the author of several books and has edited three previous collections of the uncollected work of Charles Bukowski for City Lights: Absence of the Hero, Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook, and More Notes of a Dirty Old Man.

A witty, psychedelic, and telling novel of the 1960s Richard Fariña evokes the Sixties as precisely, wittily, and poignantly as F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering-among other things-mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The earth is doomed! Only ten people out of every 3,000 will escape aboard space ships to begin a new colony on Mars. For the rest of humanity . . . inevitable destruction. Bill Easson is a conscientious, straightforward guy. But as pilot of one of the ships, he holds the power of life and death in his hands. As the time grows nearer, violent mobs swarm through the streets, and the ten names on Bill’s list change and change again. The authorities only give Bill a 60 percent chance of survival. He knows in his bones he’s got to lengthen the odds. Or die trying.

"Rog Foley had never seen Earth--and he never would. For all that was left of Earth was an atomic funeral pyre in the sky. Rog Foley was a leader of the new generation of humans who were born and raised an Mundis, the distant planet circling Brinsen's Star and to which the last survivors of Earth had escaped in a 17-year journey through space. Rog Foley and his disciples were strongly opposed to the way things were being run on Mundis by their elders. There were too many DOs and too many DONT'Ts. Finally, in desperation, Rog established a separate colony--and it seemed as though the conflicts which had brought Earth to its doom were destined to haunt mankind even in this remote solar system. But then a new danger appeared--invasion by a band of interplanetary despots who wanted to make Mundis their first conquest on the path to Galactic Empire. Faced by this common peril, the Mundians were forced to unite in a desperate, last-ditch struggle to save humanity."--Back cover.

Three travellers find six very different worlds await their choice - if they have the courage to leave Eden... On awakening in an idyllic tropical paradise, Rex is disoriented and possibly afflicted with amnesia. He knows his name, but the particulars are curiously missing. He spends his first week exploring, and discovers that his Eden-like paradise is surrounded by a huge unscalable wall 50 miles in circumference. Furthermore, there are six gateways at roughly equal intervals, but there is no way to climb up there and see where they go...