Entertaining Made Easy

At the parish-house door, admission costs one smile—and guests are asked to bring another in a pocket. Before long, a roomful of people is trying not to laugh as a grin gets passed from face to face.

In this early-twentieth-century guide, Emily Rose Burt takes on the familiar challenge of entertaining a crowd: how to turn a gathering of strangers, young and old, into good company. Her answer is playful and practical, from a “Smiles Social” with grin-marked ginger cookies to an aviation-themed party full of paper caps, balloon races, and backward sprints. The aim is not elaborate perfection, but a little planning that gives everyone something to share. Which simple idea could make your next gathering the one nobody wants to leave?

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.