If the surname “Dunmore” sounds familiar to you, you’ve probably read Isabella Alden’s novel, Miss Dee Dunmore Bryant.
In that book about the adventures of the Bryant family, Judge Dunmore was a kind and generous man who befriended the Bryant children and helped improve their fortunes.
Isabella must have liked the surname “Dunmore,” because six years earlier, she used the same name in a short story she published in The Pansy magazine. In the short story, the kindly and wise gentleman named Dunmore was a physician who went above and beyond his Hippocratic Oath to heal the heart of a badly injured patient.
“Doctor Dunmore’s Prayers” is this month’s free read.
When Mr. Greyson is badly injured at work, Dr. Dunmore does all he can to repair the man’s damaged body and orders him to bed. But with no income, the Greyson family is soon in dire straits and desperate for help. What else can the doctor do to help restore the man’s health and faith?
You can read “Doctor Dunmore’s Prayers” for free!
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It’s the time of year when many people make resolutions—to study their Bible more often, lose weight, or spend more time with family and friends. But how many people resolve to change their life in order to benefit a stranger? That’s the premise of our January free read.
Grace Livingston Hill wrote “The Weak Brother for Whom Christ Died” in 1897, and it was based on true events. At that time, French actress Sarah Bernhardt was a theatrical titan, who enjoyed world-wide fame.
Undated photo of Sarah Bernhardt in character.
She toured the globe in plays she produced and starred in. She was a master of self-promotion and cultivated a larger-than-life persona that the newspapers and magazines of the time eagerly reported to their readers. She was, arguably, the world’s first true international superstar.
Undated photo of Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra.
Bernhardt first performed in America in 1880, when Grace was fifteen years old. Bernhardt’s American tour lasted several months. She performed in cities across the country, and each performance was met with thunderous applause and critical acclaim.
Bernhardt performing onstage in Berkeley, California, 1906.
In 1897 Bernhardt toured England, where she was so much in demand that she sometimes appeared in multiple plays at once, performing a matinee in one theater, then playing the lead in an entirely different play in a different theater that same evening!
From The Times, London, June 16, 1897.
But not everyone embraced Sarah Bernhardt with open arms. Despite her talent and riveting performances, conservative members of society and many religious groups viewed the theater as a morally corrupting influence, especially for women.
A promotional poster for Bernhardt’s 1905/1906 American tour.
Female actors were frequently stigmatized as immoral or promiscuous. Sarah Bernhardt—with her unconventional lifestyle, her bold stage performances, and numerous love affairs both within and outside of her marriage—scandalized a good portion of the population.
Bernahrdt as Napoleon. Her costume, with its form-fitting pantaloons, was considered quite scandalous.
Grace Livingston Hill knew about Sarah Bernhardt and probably read many of the newspaper articles about her. She also had strong opinions about Bernhardt and theater entertainments, which she used as the theme of her story, “The Weak Brother for Whom Christ Died.”
“Did you go out to see Bernhardt last evening, Murray?”
When three young men meet to pass a Sunday afternoon together, they never imagine that such a simple question can spark a very complicated discussion! But Frank Murray has read his Bible, and he is willing to forego some of the world’s pleasures if it means he will never be a stumbling-block to fall in another Christian brother’s way. Will Frank be able to explain his position to his new friends so they, too, will strive to help a weak brother in Christ?
You can read “The Weak Brother for Whom Christ Died” for free!
Choose the reading option you like best:
You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.
Or you can select BookFunnel’s “email” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.
This month’s free read is a short story Isabella wrote about a young man who had the courage to live his convictions.
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Quiet and thoughtful, John Cameron has always been “different” than his brother and sisters. When an opportunity arises to improve their impoverished finances, the family is ready to jump at the chance. Only John—and his inconvenient convictions—stand in their way.
This month’s Free Read is a short story Isabella wrote about the consequences of judging people based on first impressions. The story was published in a Christian magazine in 1897.
Annoying, uncultured, and uneducated. That’s the impression Irwin Ford has of young Gardner, a college student who happens to live in the same boardinghouse. Irwin does his best to avoid all contact with Gardner, until one fateful evening when their chance conversation proves to be the catalyst for change in the lives of both men.
In Isabella Alden’s lifetime, women had to rely solely upon the men in their lives for the basic necessities of life—food, shelter, and clothing. She knew all too well that unmarried women had little choice when it came to securing a respectable job, and even then they barely earned enough to eke out a living (more about that in our next post).
That’s certainly the case for Miss Esther Beekman, the heroine of Isabella’s short story “Their Providence.”
Miss Esther Beekman would dearly love to find a place where she can work for her room and board while she finishes her education. Mrs. Richards is in desperate need of help to turn her topsy-turvy household back into the perfect, well-ordered home it once was. So when Mrs. Richards allows Esther to stay on a temporary basis, both ladies find themselves on trial and wondering if it was accident or providence that brought them together.
In 1877 a rural Pennsylvania minister named Willard Parsons and members of his congregation began a program that would later become The Fresh Air Fund. The idea behind the program was simple: members of the congregation opened their homes to the neediest of children from disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City, and provided the children with a few weeks of fresh air, healthy food, and new experiences.
Later, as the program expanded, The Fresh Air Fund opened summer camps that offered many inner-city children their first glimpse of a lake, green grass, and wide open fields.
Games on the playgrounds of the St. Vincent “Fresh Air” home for destitute children, Spring Valley, N.Y. about 1910 (courtesy the Library of Congress)
One such camp was The Salvation Army Home in Spring Valley, New York. Only 35 miles from New York City, the camp taught children to hike, grow fresh vegetables, and roam the great outdoors.
Childhood days at the Salvation Army home for destitute children, Spring Valley, N.Y. (courtesy, Library of Congress)
Isabella was a believer in the benefits of Fresh Air programs. She also believed individuals could impact the lives of destitute children just as well as large charitable organizations. That was the premise of her novel Monteagle (which you can read more about here). In the novel Mrs. Hammond helps poor Dilly West escape the summer heat by taking her along on a trip to the Monteagle Assembly in the cool Tennessee mountains.
It’s also the theme of this month’s free read, a short story Isabella wrote in 1897.
To escape the city heat, wealthy Miss Katherine Eaton spends the summer on a country farm, where she learns about the fresh air program for city waifs. Soon, her imagination takes hold of the idea, and she begins to plan her own program to teach a farm girl the benefits of city life. But it may be that Katherine is the one in need of a lesson.
In 1888 Isabella added a hint of romance to this short story about two little girls who wanted to give their favorite aunt a very merry Christmas.
Something is wrong with Aunt Mary, and Kate and Hattie are determined to find the perfect Christmas gift to make their dear aunt smile again. But with only ten cents to spend, the girls seek advice from the wisest man in town, and end up receiving a Christmas surprise of their own!
In 1893, when Isabella’s books were at the height of their popularity, a newspaper article about her mentioned that if forced to choose one word to describe Isabella’s work, that word would be “Help.”
The writer of the article made a very insightful observation. Typically, the main characters in Isabella’s books were, indeed, helpers. No doubt Isabella made them so as a reflection of her own belief that every effort counts. In her stories, no contribution was too small, and no effort was too little, as long as her characters did their best and made the most of what God had given them.
Today’s free read reflects that theme, when Mrs. Burns (one of the story’s main characters) asks the question, “How can I turn a small donation to help missions into a large and meaningful contribution?”
When Mrs. Burns is given a five-cent budget with which to help the cause of church missions, she can’t believe her ears. Five cents! What could she possibly accomplish with a small, insignificant nickel?
But with God’s help and a little imagination, Mrs. Burns soon discovers that her five-cent investment can accomplish great things.
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Reader Tip: As you read the story, be on the look-out for one of Isabella’s most beloved characters from The Chautauqua Girls series to make a brief “cameo” appearance!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for another fun drawing, giveaway or free read!
If you’ve read Isabella’s novel The Little Card, you’ll remember that Teenie Burnside used her artistic talents to draw and embellish a little card on which she had written one of the Bible’s Golden Texts. Teenie hoped that by sharing the cards she could encourage someone to read God’s Word.
But when Teenie’s health prevented her from fulfilling that dream, the girls in her Sunday-school stepped in and began to make more cards. Some were exact copies of the one Teenie made; others were embellished and colored with paint. But no matter their design, the cards all included a Bible verse of God’s promises to us.
Today’s giveaway is a collection of ten Golden Text Bible verses you can color and embellish, just as Teenie and her friends did.
Isabella Alden and Theodosia Foster were not just best friends—they were writing partners, too.
Like Isabella, Theodosia was a prolific writer, and published her work under the pen name “Faye Huntington.”
When they got together to write a story, their styles were so similar, and they were so in tune with each other’s talents, it’s impossible for us to tell which of them wrote what chapter or scene.
Today’s free read is a novel they wrote together about the love of money and how it can change (or reveal) someone’s true colors.
Lawrence Brenholz always knew he would inherit his grandfather’s millions once he satisfied the provisions of the will. But on the eve of that momentous day, when all the Brenholz millions would be his, Lawrence’s ornery old Uncle Amos—long thought to have died in the wilds of Colorado—makes a shocking appearance that threatens Lawrence’s inheritance.
With Uncle Amos’ unreasonable demands disrupting every area of his life, how can Lawrence ever again find peace for himself and those he loves?
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Isabella Alden 