Thirty More Famous Stories Retold

Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
by James Baldwin

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Book Description
This volume was written by the author in answer to the requests of hundreds of children for more stories like the ones they had enjoyed in "Fifty Famous Stories Retold." Since this book is intended for slightly older students (ages 7 to 10), the anecdotes related have a greater spirit of adventure matching the interests of these older students. We hear of the explorers Columbus, Balboa, Drake, and Ponce de Leon and their adventures in the New World. We see scientists at their moment of inspiration: Newton pondering the fall of an apple, Galileo observing the swinging lamps, and Archimedes yelling "Eureka!" We observe the persistence of Gutenberg in improving the printing press and James Watt in harnessing the energy of steam. We thrill to the exploits of the heroes at the fall of Troy and rejoice with Penelope at Odysseus's homecoming. We follow the fortunes of Rome from its founding through its wars with Carthage. We travel eastward with King Richard and Frederick Barbarossa during the Crusades. We applaud when King John signs the Magna Charta at Runnymede. The richer vocabulary and more complicated plot elements in these stories of historical events, scientific discoveries, and legendary heroes, gradually accustom children to following a longer narrative.

Card catalog description
Presents thirty well-known stories involving such figures as Romulus and Remus, Christopher Columbus, Johann Gutenberg, King John, Hannibal, Balboa, Archimedes, Galileo, James Watt, Julius Caesar, Ulysses, and Penelope.

About the Author
Born in 1841 in a small Quaker settlement in the backwoods of Indiana, James Baldwin rose to become a highly-respected author and textbook editor. Largely self-educated, Baldwin became a teacher at 24, then served as superintendent of the graded schools of Indiana for 18 years before moving into the publishing world. As an editor of school books, first with Harper and Brothers and later with the American Book Company, he selected the best of our literary heritage and cast it into a form that delighted children of all ages. His influence in the first decades of the twentieth century was broad because of all the grammar school books in use in the United States at that time over half had been written or edited by him. He is remembered most for the books of introductory historical sketches he wrote for younger students and his retellings of the legends of the heroes for older students.

Excerpted from Thirty More Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
COLUMBUS AND THE EGG

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS discovered America on the 12th of October, 1492. He had spent eighteen years in planning for that wonderful first voyage which he made across the Atlantic Ocean. The thoughts and hopes of the best part of his life had been given to it. He had talked and argued with sailors and scholars and princes and kings, saying, "I know that, by sailing west across the great ocean, one may at last reach lands that have never been visited by Europeans." But he had been laughed at as a foolish dreamer, and few people had any faith in his projects.

At last, however, the king and queen of Spain gave him ships with which to make the trial voyage. He crossed the ocean and discovered strange lands, inhabited by a people unlike any that had been known before. He believed that these lands were a part of India.

When he returned home with the news of his discovery there was great rejoicing, and he was hailed as the hero who had given a new world to Spain. Crowds of people lined the streets through which he passed, and all were anxious to do him honor. The king and queen welcomed him to their palace and listened with pleasure to the story of his voyage. Never had so great respect been shown to any common man.

But there were some who were jealous of the discoverer, and as ready to find fault as others were to praise. "Who is this Columbus?" they asked, "and what has he done? Is he not a pauper pilot from Italy? And could not any other seaman sail across the ocean just as he has done?"

One day Columbus was at a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given in his honor, and several of these persons were present. They were proud, conceited fellows, and they very soon began to try to make Columbus uncomfortable.

"You have discovered strange lands beyond the sea," they said. "But what of that? We do not see why there should be so much said about it. Anybody can sail across the ocean; and anybody can coast along the islands on the other side, just as you have done. It is the simplest thing in the world."

Columbus made no answer; but after a while he took an egg from a dish and said to the company, "Who among you, gentlemen, can make this egg stand on end?"

One by one those at the table tried the experiment. When the egg had gone entirely around and none had succeeded, all said that it could not be done.

Then Columbus took the egg and struck its small end gently upon the table so as to break the shell a little. After that there was no trouble in making it stand upright.

"Gentlemen," said he, "what is easier than to do this which you said was impossible? It is the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it—after he has been shown how."

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