Marse Henry

Henry Watterson longed to be “one of those damned literary fellows.” His poems went unpublished, his grand American novel lost its chance, and the Kentucky trail drew him into journalism instead.

Looking back from old age, Watterson recalls a youth spent between Washington and the family homes in Tennessee, amid revival meetings and the fierce politics of the Jacksonian era. A born observer, he watched public life at close quarters, yet his first ambition was literary: when the laurel crown eluded him, he turned to newspapers—and guarded the independence he prized. In a voice by turns wry, candid and deeply moved, he sets down the people and convictions that shaped him, without pretending to be either a grand historian or a flawless hero. What did a life in the thick of events teach him to see?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.