library tag from 1890

Lord Jim

"Nothing in the world moved before his eyes, and he could depict to himself without hindrance the sudden swing upwards of the dark sky-line, the sudden tilt up of the vast plain of sea, the swift still rise, the brutal fling, the grasp of the abyss, the struggle without hope, the starlight closing over his head for ever like the vault of a tomb—the revolt of his young life—the black end."

Joseph Conrad was everything they say he was: Victorian, racist, German, English, arrogant but also brilliant Lord Jim was first published in 1899, and has not been diminished by time. It's a bit flowery compared to modern writing but still compelling. It mystifies me that this followed Heart of darkness and I read only now that he co-wrote not one but three books with For Maddox Ford.. who's prose I find dull.

Roosevelt

A quote over 100 years old and still funny.

President Theodore Roosevelt was possibly the best writer among all our elected leaders. He was a naturalist and a historian, and he couldn't write about one without mentioning the other. Seeing as most of his works were first published in the 1890s they are all in the public domain now. Hell, some of this is so old, his biographies are public domain too.

This one comes from "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman." Mine is the Statesman Edition printed in 1904, part of a sizable set. For the price of the set I could have bought an ebook reader and downloaded them all for free. Damn my obstinacy. Luddites pay a premium.

"We rested a couple of hours as noon for lunch, and the afternoon's sport was simply a repetition of the morning's except that we had but one dog to work with; for shortly after mid-day the stub-tail pointer, for his sins, encountered a skunk, with which he waged prompt and vailant battle-thereby rendering himself useless as a servant and highly offensive as a companion."

Since it's public domain you can download it here.

But there are other fine works:
Outdoor pastimes of an American hunter
Lassoing wild animals in Africa
Life-histories of African game animals
Hunting the Grisly
Hunting in many lands
Animal life in Africa
Hunting Trips on the prairie and on the mountains
African Game Trails

And Archive.org has a lovely collection of free ebooks here.