Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates Audiobook by Mary Mapes Dodge Read by Claire Bloom.

Описание: Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge, read by Claire Bloom. Abridged.

A life saving’s lost, a father who requires a surgery the family can’t afford, and a speed skating contest are all part of this colorful story told about a teenage boy from 1800s Holland named Hans. Mary Mapes Dodge wrote this book at age 34 to teach children about Holland, now called The Netherlands, while simultaneously telling the story of Han’s life and adventures. Hans Brinker was a best seller when published in 1865, and has remained in print ever since. Enjoy!

Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge added with marriage.(1831-1905) was born in New York City. She and her two sisters had extensive home schooling by tutors including: English, French, Latin, music and art. She married William Dodge in 1851 and had two sons with him. In 1858, William had severe financial problems and left his family. His body was found a month later, drowned.
Mary took her two boys and moved back with her parents. Widow Dodge began helping her father publish two magazines. After the American Civil War, Ms. Dodge became an associate editor of a farm and literary magazine called Hearth and Home began by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who’s still amazing, pre-US Civil War book Uncle Tom’s Cabin directly and stealthily helped people understand how inhumane slavery was and is.
In 1870 Mary Mapes Dodge became the editor of Saint Nicholas Magazine and her encouragement led many important writers of that time, Twain, Stevenson, Alcott, Tennyson and more to contribute. In fact, when Rudyard Kipling told Mary a jungle story occurring in India, she encouraged him to write it down for her magazine. Mr. Kipling had never written a children’s story but that encouragement led to him writing The Jungle Book. The audiobook version is here on Great Books on Tape.
Mary Mapes Dodge also gave awards to children for high quality submissions. Some of those prizes went to children who went on to further literary fame including, F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby), E.B. White (Charlotte’s Web), and Edna Millay, see below.

Claire Bloom (1931 - ) is a talented actress who has starred in stage, TV, and film. She stars with Charlie Chaplin in Limelight, acts with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud in Richard III, and costarred with Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Laurel Long is an artist whose fantastical illustrations for books are frameable. You can see them online but are best scene in books including: Hans Brinker, The Magic Nesting Doll, The Lady and the Lion, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Holly Claus. I wish they’d put them on Kindle. But mostly, I hope that someone with some funds would hire her to illustrate a book featuring Edna Millay’s (see above) Pulitzer Prize winning poem: The Ballad of the Harp Weaver. It has a sad feeling like The Little Match Girl. I think at the end the boy is in the same condition as his mom when he sees the clothes.