A novel about the Mexican rubber industry, the contract-labor system, and mass deportations of the Yaqui Indians - all events that were taking place at the time of the book's original publication in 1909. Herman Whitaker (1867-1919) was also the author of The Mystery of the Barranca and of The Settler. A Berkeley socialist, whom Jack London so admired, he was a driving force in California Progressivism. In the early 1900's, writers including Jack London, poet George Sterling and short story writer Herman Whitaker gathered informally at the Coppa Club in the old Montgomery block in San...

The 'shark killers' of the U. S. fleet
The United States of America entered the First World War in April 1917, though its support for the allied war effort had, of course, been immensely influential in terms of the provision of material up to that point. The direct intervention of America in the war, with its vast resources of military personnel and equipment, backed by a huge manufacturing capacity, was inevitably pivotal. This account, part history, part anecdotal and part first hand account, was written shortly before the end of the conflict and describes in some detail the endeavours...

The 'shark killers' of the U. S. fleet
The United States of America entered the First World War in April 1917, though its support for the allied war effort had, of course, been immensely influential in terms of the provision of material up to that point. The direct intervention of America in the war, with its vast resources of military personnel and equipment, backed by a huge manufacturing capacity, was inevitably pivotal. This account, part history, part anecdotal and part first hand account, was written shortly before the end of the conflict and describes in some detail the endeavours...

The clip of a cutting axe flushed a heron from the bosom of a reedy lake and sent him soaring in slow spirals until, at the zenith of his flight, he overlooked a vast champaign. Far to the south a yellow streak marked the scorched prairies of southern Manitoba; eastward and north a spruce forest draped the land in a mantle of gloom; while to the west the woods were thrown with a scattering hand over a vast expanse of rolling prairie. These were the Park Lands of the Fertile Belt-a beautiful country, rich, fat-soiled, rank with flowers and herbage, once the hunting-ground of Cree and Ojibway,...

Oh Bob, just look at them " Leaning down from his perch on the sacked mining tools which formed the apex of their baggage, Billy Thornton punched his companion in the back to call his attention to a scene which had spread a blaze of humor over his own rich crop of freckles.

The Three had chosen their lair wisely. In the picturesque Spanish phrase, it "situated itself" midway of the desert, the great Mexican desert that is more varied in its heated monotony than a land of woods and fields and streams. Here it runs to sparse grass land under upland pinon; there spreads over wide, clean sands that reflect like burnished brass the intolerable glare of the sun. Now it marches for leagues with the yuccas that fling crazed arms and shrunken limbs like posturing dwarfs; again it is dotted with lonely mesas, monolithic masses that raise orange and vermilion facades out...

Cross Trails, The Story of One Woman in the North Woods by Herman Whitaker. This book is a reproduction of the original book published in 1914 and may have some imperfections such as marks or hand-written notes.

Herman Whitaker (January 14, 1867, Huddersfield, England - January 20, 1919, New York City) was a Californian writer.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.