Showing results by narrator "John Rayburn" in All Categories

Travel is one thing, but really going somewhere is something else. Here are firsthand tales of exciting places to see in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

The Brass Bottle is the story of an architect who bought an antique brass bottle to give to a professor dealing in Mideast antiquities. After the purchase, the architect’s curiosity was aroused, and he removed the stopper in the bottle. And when he did, a big cloud of smoke was released, producing a major surprise when a genie emerged. His name was Fakrash el-Aamash, and he turned out to be a fairy-tale-type character who wound up trying to repay the architect, Horace Ventimore, for giving him release from what amounted to a brass prison.

The materials of the following collection have been carefully chosen from more than a hundred volumes of the fairy lore of all nations; and none of them, so far as the editor was aware, had been previously translated into English.

This adventuresome voyage put John and Carol Rayburn on the road seeking out heartwarming human-interest stories about our great country and the positive accomplishments of its people. They visited with thousands of Americans at work and play and collected their upbeat attitudes about the way we are.

This book marks an epoch in my literary career. It is written in blood. It is the outpouring of a soul as deeply seared by Fate’s unkindness as the fairway on the dog-leg hole of the second nine was ever seared by my iron. It is the work of a very nearly desperate man, an 18-handicap man who has got to look extremely slippy if he doesn’t want to find himself in the 20s again.

It would be easy to call it a case of naivete on the part of Richard Hannay, but there was much more to the story. He had just returned to London after living in Rhodesia, so he wasn’t fully versed in the intrigue going on in England. That wasn’t much of a reason for Hannay allowing a man he met to live in his flat. However, that’s what he did, even though Franklin Scudder claimed to be a spy with involvement in an anarchist plot to assassinate the Greek Premier. Hannay got into a major problem when Scudder was found murdered in the apartment.

Three very successful series of stories aimed at children and teens were created by a man who had a book-packaging house and didn’t want to cause confusion. So none of the stories ever had his name on them. Instead, Edward Stratemeyer hired several writers and provided them with story ideas that were then published under the pseudonym Victor Appleton.

Bull Hunter was a young Western boy of unusual size who eventually became known as the “Gentle Giant”. Because of his stature and prodigious strength, along with a sort of natural timidity, Bull was often derided, even by his cousins, as being “slow” mentally. Eventually, he met and was befriended by a famous gunfighter who taught him how to use a gun. That changed a lot of derogatory opinions about him, and he didn’t get bullied any more.

Veteran radio/TV announcer John Rayburn garnered top ratings in broadcasting football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and other major events. He offers personal anecdotes, plus interviews/conversations with many of the brightest stars in the fascinating world of sports at all levels. Behind-the-scenes look at the major sports along with bits of fiction by award-winning writers are offered with admiring and amusing takes on teams, individuals, coaches, managers, and others associated with athletic endeavors.

Bret Harte was an American short-story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. We offer now some samples of his diversity in a collection of his short stories: “The Outcasts of Poker Flats”, “Tennessee’s Partner”, “The Idyl of Red Gulch”, “Brown of Calaveras”, “Muck-A-Muck”, “The Ninety-Nine Guardsmen”, “Mr. Midshipman Breezy”, “The Legend of Monte Del Diablo”, and more.

A remarkable resemblance of two boys born on the same day in the 16th century became the basis of Mark Twain’s first try at historical fiction. This resulted in a fable that was almost a fairy tale, one that became a fine story for young people of all ages. There were many unjust laws in the 1500s, and Twain delved into them with his usual remarkable insight.

This was the first effort by Frederick Faust aimed at writing a Western, and he used the pen name of Max Brand to produce it. There was a different style of literary focus, a variance that brought forth feelings of melodrama. However, as the story developed, that impression was changed drastically with startling examples of action, conflict, and revenge that set it apart. It was regarded as one of his most successful efforts in a career that produced perhaps as many as 25 to 30 million words, resulting in well more than 500 novels and short stories.

Author Pearl Zane Grey loved the game of baseball and was a good enough player to earn a baseball scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania. His knowledge later led to writing two published books about baseball, including the one you’re about to hear. Exposed to tales of the Old West, Grey shifted his literary focus and became better known for books about Western adventures, leading to a successful writing career that included a total of 89 books. Listen now to the outlandish behavior encountered by youthful Ken Ward as he entered the fictional college baseball arena....

A fictional priest and amateur detective named Father Brown had a face once described “as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling”. This made him appear somewhat clumsy and naïve, but that didn’t take into account his keen understanding of human nature and exceptional intuition. Stories include: “The Blue Cross”, “The Secret Garden”, “The Queer Feet”, “The Flying Stars”, “The Invisible Man”, and more.

King Solomon’s Mines is a variety of lost-world literature in what was one of the first English adventure novels that took place in Africa. It is told in a relatively rare first-person format. One story has stated that the author, H. Rider Haggard, wrote the book on a bet and that it took him only six weeks to do it.

A teenager with dreams of glory enlists with the Union army in the American Civil War. With not much in the way of immediate action, Henry Fleming begins to have doubt and fear while waiting.

A German advocate of the Kaiser discovers he is a facial/physical match for young Englishman Everard Dominey, who is near death after harrowing experiences in Africa. The remarkable doppelgänger resemblance leads Major-General Baron Leopold Von Ragastein to infiltrate the UK in perfect disguise. He wants to lead his country’s efforts as Europe is racing toward war. Part of the plan is to murder Dominey and have the Baron take his place in English society.

The ungentle laws and customs touched upon in this tale are historical, and the episodes which are used to illustrate them are also historical. It is not pretended that these laws and customs existed in England in the sixth century; no, it is only pretended that inasmuch as they existed in the English and other civilizations of far later times, it is safe to consider that it is no libel upon the sixth century to suppose them to have been in practice in that day also. The question as to whether there is such a thing as divine right of kings is not settled in this book.

The author’s birth name was Alan Alexander Milne, but his pen name used only the initials A. A. Milne. He eventually won worldwide acclaim for his renowned youth-oriented stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. However, he tried something different a few years before that, a story based on parental devotion.

The Lone Ranger kept the mask across his eyes and experimented with his guns. His shoulder made it hard for him to draw the gun on his left, but he found that his smooth speed seemed to have suffered no loss when he drew the other shining weapon. As a test he unloaded and holstered the pistol. “I’ll just make sure”, he muttered to Tonto. Standing with his right hand straight before him, palm down, he placed a pebble on the back of his hand....