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    The Man Without a Country
    The Man Without a Country
    The Man Without a Country
    Ebook50 pages1 hour

    The Man Without a Country

    By Edward E. Hale

    4.5/5

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    This story was written in the summer of 1863. It was meant for the Americans of that day. It has since been introduced as a reading book in schools, and it is largely used in celebrations, especially on the patriotic anniversaries. It came into existence about the time when General Grant was entering Vicksburg, which he had been besieging for many months; and when nearly one hundred thousand men in the Northern army fought with nearly the same number in the Southern Army at Gettysburg.... Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateDec 9, 2011
    ISBN9781447497783
    The Man Without a Country

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    Reviews for The Man Without a Country

    4.5/5

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    • 3/5
      I saw this on a list of"other" books to read this summer and found it on Gutenberg. I remembered the Cliff Robertson movie (TV, 1973), and I'm sure I read it back then, but it was nice to reread. Nice to read a short story after Game of Thrones. Nice to read good writing after Game of Thrones.

      A thinker that really needed to be fleshed out.
    • 5/5
      This is the deeply moving story of naval lieutenant Phillip Nolan, a young man who lived to regret a rash and passionately spoken oath. For when Nolan, who had fallen under the spell of the treasonous conspirator Aaron Burr, was court-martialed for his part in Burr's plot, he cursed the United States and avowed that he wished he might never hear of it again. His judges took him at his word, and for the next fifty years, until his death, he was never allowed to set foot on American soil, nor to see nor hear a single word of news about her and her affairs.The author, Edward Everett Hale, paints a heart-rending portrait of a man who, having abjured his country, comes to regret his rash oath and longs for a home to call his own. Everett Shinn's beautifully executed illustrations grace every page of this edition, with scenes from the book as well as simple motifs of ship and sea.
    • 5/5
      This was a short read, but honestly well worth relating to today. How many people are lost in the system to this day? How many people, when handed down what seemed a simple sentence, discovers that the sentence itself takes away more than it was supposed to take? There are repercussions for everything. This was a story that took place during the War of 1812. A number of things were misunderstood by the prisoner, by the courts, and by the general population of that era. After 50 years, these things were never corrected. Just like the things happening today.
    • 4/5
      Edward Everett Hale has earned a place in American fiction (for that is what this story is) with this woeful tale of a man who made a slip of tongue in front of the wrong person and was condemned to sail on a ship where no one could ever refer or allow him to any way sense the existence of the United States. Should the one-world concept triumph (as I'm sure it will), this may diminish the epathetic effectiveness of the book.

    Book preview

    The Man Without a Country - Edward E. Hale

    Notes

    Preface

    THIS story was written in the summer of 1863. It was meant for the Americans of that day. It has since been introduced as a reading-book in schools, and it is largely used in celebrations, especially on the patriotic anniversaries. I like to be remembered by boys and girls who are going to be the leaders of the country before many years have gone by, so I am glad to be asked to tell them how the book came into existence,—indeed, to tell them what the book is for.

    Let me say first, that I hope—I believe—that no one who reads this preface will live to see any such crisis as existed in the United-States when it was written. That was just about the time when General Grant was entering Vicksburg, which he had been besieging for many months; and when nearly one hundred thousand men in the Northern army fought with nearly the same number in the Southern army at Gettysburg. Now the central question which had called these armies into the field was the question whether this was a country or not. Through all the Southern States there was the impression, sometimes careless, sometimes conscientious, that the various States of the nation were united by a treaty called the Constitution of the United-States, but that any State could cut the cord which bound them together whenever it chose. There was also a careless habit of talking about the duty which any man or woman owes to the country in which he is born. The Civil War set men and women thinking on such questions, and I wrote this book to show to boys and to girls, to men and to women, what it is to have a country. We wanted to show them what a terrible thing it would be if we had not a country. For this purpose I invented a history of the life of a young man who in a frenzy of excitement expressed a wish to live without a country and had that wish granted.

    I do not think any bright boy or girl needs to have the lesson of a book for young people dissected out of it as you might cut a man’s skeleton out of his body. But in talking about the book it may be well enough to say that every one of us is born into a nation called the United-States. No American boy or girl who reads these lines lived a day, even, at the beginning of his life, when he was not protected by the law of the United-States. From that moment the United-States watched over him in ways perhaps which he never thought of. Perhaps the school in which these words are read would not have existed except for the United-States laws with regard to education. Very likely the bread and butter which the boy had for breakfast could never have existed but that the country called the United-States had made laws and carried on government in such ways that the grain could be raised, that the cattle could be fed, and the butter made. It is in a thousand such ways as this that the country in which we live takes care of us in every hour of our lives. And as Philip Nolan says in the story, the tie which binds you and me to the country which takes care of us is a tie as real and it involves duties as distinct as the tie which binds a boy to his mother, to whom he owes his life and who has always taken care of him.

    In publishing a revised edition of this book,—nearly half a century after it was written,—I omit a prophecy which proved untrue, as to the position which certain sailors and soldiers would take after the war.

    I believed it true when I wrote,—and I believed it necessary. But we all rejoice when such men are as glad that they have a country as are those who opposed them in a war.

    When in a school exercise the boys and girls salute the flag, they do not merely express their pride that it is a flag honored over the world. They ought to

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