Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He also invented bifocals, a stove that is still manufactured, a water-harmonica, and the lightning rod. Franklin's extraordinary range of interests and accomplishments...

Often referred to but rarely read, The Communist Manifesto is one of the great documents of world history. Written by Marx and Engels and published in London in 1848 (in German originally), it presented a totally different view of social and political organization, as revolutionaary as Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The Manifesto's effect on world politics was incalculable, but though it might seem to have been discredited by the late 20th century,...

"Once upon a midnight dreary ..." This strikingly illustrated version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven will haunt and thrill readers new and old.--Publisher.