This is a wonderful, imaginative collection of stories and poems for kids. "Bad Mousie" and the story about the girl who lived on the flying city were two of my favorites from this collection. The illustrations are marvelous. This was one of my favorite books as a child, and it is strange that it is no longer available. It is such a timeless classic...

I've got a copy of this- it's a great book. My grandma gave it to my mother and her sister in 1957, and it's still with us....a little battered, but still there. My mum used to read it to me and my brother, the illustrations are beautiful and they sparked off my imagination many times. It's a wonderful collection of original stories- I wish they'd do a reprint so children today could enjoy it.

This is an excellent book. I am very disapointed to find that it is out of print. My Mother used to read me this book over and over again. I still can't get enough of the wonderful stories and illustrations. My new daughter loves it too. This book shaped my imagination in such a way that I still wonder if faieries and elves are real. This book added mystery and and spark to nature for me as a child. My Mother and I still enjoy reciting the passages we can remember. It was this book that encouraged me to read and I enjoy reading it to myself to this day. The stories are like no other new children's book I have read. A timeless collection of classic fiction and verse! This book is a must have bonding agent for mums and babes. " Somewhere, somewhere. Can you tell me the way to somewhere, the Somewhere that's meant for me?" J Warnock

A long history/memoir by Morton, who rose to command of Forrest's artillery after the death of (my relative, perhaps) Captain Freeman. Morton was only 18 when he joined up in '62 and spent seven months of the war in Northern prisons, of which he gives some description.

Forrest wasn't happy to accept this "tallow-faced boy" at first, but Morton slowly won him over and participated in all of his campaigns.

We get a lot of observations as to Forrest's character -- including that, according to Morton, he believed one attacker superior to two defenders (this is alarming) and that he was "at times the most insubordinate of men" (13). (Greatest general of all time, eh? I can't quite feature that.)

We learn as well about the activities of Forrest's troops, and I found it interesting to observe how often his men charged entrenched opponents (cf. Morton's description of the Battle of Dover, p. 76; etc.). I would be interested to know what Forrest's casualty rates were, as compared to other cavalry commanders and as measured against what he achieved.

The death (possibly a murder) of Captain Freeman, Forrest's deadly brawl with Lieutenant Gould, Chickamauga and Brice's Crossroads all are covered, among other events. Though Morton quotes letters between Forrest and the Federal commander Washburn regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, there is little discussion of Fort Pillow and it is implied, as far as I can tell, that Morton and his artillery weren't there--which seems hard to believe, but that's what the text seems to suggest.

A detailed account, a vital source for the activities and personality of Forrest. Limited personal narrative, with Morton tending to refer to himself in the third person, but quite vivid nonetheless. For anyone wanting to understand the war in the West this would be indispensable.

This book reflects Forrest's will to win the battles, and the fights he put up in the process. He will ALWAYS be known as the GREATEST general any war has ever seen.

I happened across the title, "The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner," while doing some research on the Civil War in Texas. At the time, I was skeptical about what I might find in the book. As it turns out, Watson's book is not only a fast read, it's entertaining and suspenseful, too!

In this book, William Watson relates the experiences he had during the last few years of the Civil War. Watson, a British subject and a Confederate veteran, purchases a schooner, the Rob Roy, with the intent of making money through honest trade. However, he quickly realizes that more money might be had through blockade running. To that end, while making a run up the Texas coast to New Orleans, he ducks into the Brazos River at peril from a blockading gunboat and begins his career as a runner.

In his career, Watson makes several successful runs with the Rob Roy before he is forced to sell it because of disagreements with his business partners. Watson then finds employment on a steamer, and later captains a few more runs himself before the Civil War -- and with it, blockade running -- comes to an end.

Several things interested me in the book. First, Watson paints a good picture of the Confederate economy. I could almost see him cringe when the government siezes his boat and desires to pay him off with worthless Confederate paper money. However, Watson manages to keep his cool and successfully negotiates to have his vessel released.

Also, Watson goes into great details about the tricks he learns to avoid the United States gunships and slip in and out of Galveston.

Finally, Watson's business transactions show that many people, including foreign governments, found ways to make money, if not a living, from the war.

To be sure, Watson makes no apology for being an experienced sea captain. As a result, the reader will want to have handy a nautical dictionary to better understand what happened, for example, when the foreboom unshipped from its mast, or to understand what the captain of a boarding party is saying when he asks, "Is your jib to windard?" While the general idea can be had if the reader bears with Watson, I find it all the better to get the full nuance that he intended.

I completed the book in a week, mainly because I always wanted to find out what was going to happen to Watson next. Through good luck and bad, Watson makes the most of his career, with the result that he finds himself hundreds of dollars richer than when he began.

If you are interested in either the operation of 19th Century sailing ships, or the United States blockade during the Civil War, I recommend that you read this book as an excellent eyewitness account of both.

First, I arranged for the re-publication of this book because it relates to the Institute of Nautical Archaeology's multi-year excavation of the wreck of the Denbigh, a famous blockade-runner lost at Galveston in 1865. Certainly, I am a biased reviewer.

The book is of interest for the excellent writing style and coverage of the topic. Watson provides many technical details of how the captain of a blockade-runner carried out his job, including both daring the Union Navy and dealing with sharp businessmen ashore. We have no first hand accounts as yet for the Denbigh, but Watson's trips in and out of Galveston from Havana and other ports were very, very similar. Watson brings the past to life.

Rob Watson is probably the greatest mind in America. There is very little else I can say

With his sword, Macbeth hacks a passage through the enemy and unseams the traitor Macdonwald from the nave to the chops. He emerges from the battle like a man newborn (but into what?) and gets a new title: Thane of Cawdor. In *Coriolanus* Caius Martius runs through the gates ("gates" are a familiar Renaissance term for female genitalia) of Corioles, emerges very bloody and very triumphant and gets a new name: Coriolanus. Thus, goes Watson's provocative and compelling argument, both men cut themselves off from family names and through the violent action reminiscent of a self-inflicted C-section (remember Macbeth's hacking away at that fleshly passage) make themselves anew. Problems follow. Not merely because these men are ambitious, but because, as endless numbers of Elizabethan prodigal son tales point out (Watson has really done his research), you just can't get away from family. You're linked whether or not you like it, and, for that matter, whether or not you're a tragic hero or a college student who has to go home for Thanksgiving. Watson deals with other plays, but his treatment of these is most compelling and far more subtle than I can indicate here. This book won a prize when it came out: best book produced by Harvard University Press. The prize is well-deserved. Having read *Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition*, I have never been able to teach these plays in the same way again. This book almost lets the reader see too much -- it gives me the shivers. And it belongs on every serious scholar's shelf.

As a doctoral candidate in classical philology, I strongly urge all serious Greek students to obtain this priceless book - one of the cheapest of the essential shelf of books for the classical scholar. No work comes close. This volume makes Smyth's monumental Greek grammar look childish on the subject of treatment of subordinate clauses in indirect discourse.

If you've gotten this far, then you know Moods and Tenses is a must-have. The question is: should I buy the William H. Allen edition now, or trust to luck in finding one in a used bookstore? The answer is: buy now. Get two. The quality of the printing, paper, and binding is first-rate. At $26, the book is severely underpriced. With the demise of classical education, it might never be this available again.

Dr. Watson is an impeccable gentleman who is also an excellent professor. Thus, it came as no surprise to me when I uncovered the depth and scope of his research on the collapse of Soviet communism. Dialectical materialism and Sovietology are clearly presented and I came away with a profound understanding as to why the great experiment of the twentieth century failed.

Discusses the common names of the "celtic" breeds of dogs, complete with pronunciation "crash course" regarding the gaelic language. Very thorough, very fun attitude.

Although Watson's work is now over half-a-century old, it is still irreplacable as a starting point for the study of Scottish place-names. Scholars disagreeing with Watson still have to give very cogent reasons for doing so. Despite the regrettable exclusion of Scottish place-names of "teutonic" origin (Scandinavian, English, Anglo-Norman), this is an essential item for any etymologist with an interest in British place-name studies. In a word, a classic!

I came across this book by accident and didn't have any idea what to expect. By the end of the first absurdly beautiful chapter, I realised that I was reading one of the best books that I have ever put my hands on.

William Watson takes the reader into the world of a rundown castle in Mediaeval Provence. The world of a noble family gone mad. A knight whose terrible history of glory in battle gone wrong has left him in a state of permanent flight from reality. His beautiful wife, still strangely attached and in love, though possibly more with herself than with anyone else. The captain of the guards who would do almost anything for her. Their daughter, budding, immature and for the most part ignored. It will take the arrival of a young murderer, a rare guest at their table, to bring the sleeping insanity of the castle to its senses, though, by the end of the book, it is difficult to tell what is sane and what is not.

We are dragged through leaps of logic and labyrinthine psychological games of an absurdity only rivalled by their lucidity. We laugh, but sometimes only because of the ridiculous reality of a situation. We smell Provence and we hold our noses at the stench from inside a coat of armour. We luxuriate in his vocabulary and metaphor.

We want to read more, but we find, somehow, William Watson's other novels out of print!

An old reviewer, with a sour look

Went out looking for his favorite book.

It was full of fairies, brownies, too.

But it couldn't be found, So what to do?

I spent years looking for the original, which commands $200-300. (It's worth it, too. I just don't have it.)

What do the readers do, when a book is out of print?

As they go through the years, and never see,

The Cannery Bear, or the house tomte,

Or the Littlest Mermaid again. Oh, gee!

I wouldn't be one - would you?

Well, now you don't have to be - it's back. That's all I need to tell the people who read it before, when it was called The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies.

For the rest of you, please understand that it's hard to describe this book objectively. Seeing it again is an incredibly joyous reunion. Garth Williams paints elves so that the sense of wonder is palpably displayed. The stories and poems are exciting, moving, pensive, and fun. The children in your life will love it. The grown-ups won't mind reading it to them. I do not know anybody who had this book as a child who isn't in love with it.

So the Elves and Fairies now live on my shelf.

And I read it all day, and I like myself.

My sister and I formed all our mental images of fairies and elves from this marvelously enchanting book. Our mother gave us the 1951 edition, which we treasured throughout our childhood. My sister has the original, and I was prepared for a lengthy search of used bookstores. But, lo and behold, Amazon had the reissued edition at a discount! Once again I'll be able to read about the magic scarves and mourn the Fairy Queen, whose body lies in the stream. Garth Williams drew pictures that emblazon themselves in the minds of children, who forever after remember the magic of the things unseen and unbelieved by most adults. The stories cultivate the imagination and expand the conscience. This is one book that no child should ever miss and one that no adult should ever forget.

I've held my childhood memories of the illustrations from this beautiful book for years, and I've periodically searched for another copy. I was thrilled to see it re-issued, and prayed that the illustrations hadn't been "modernized". What a thrill when it arrived! My five year old daughter is as entranced with it as I was at her age, and will ask to replace her night-time tv program with the "magic fairy book". The stories are somewhat long for small children, but they hold the attention of my daughter very well. When we've finished reading, we keep the book open to look at the beautiful illustrations. Every picture in my mind of "Elves or Fairies" is drawn from this book, and there isn't a better place to find them.