B. D. Farrands

Now Streaming on Booklyn: Glen or Glenda (1953)

“Weird! Startling! Transsexuality!” Few films in the history of cinema have opened with a tagline quite like that.

Directed by legendary cult filmmaker Ed Wood, Glen or Glenda is one of the strangest, boldest, and most unforgettable movies of the 1950s. Part documentary, part social message film, and part surreal fever dream, it tackles the subject of gender identity and cross-dressing at a time when American cinema barely dared whisper about such topics.

The story centers on Glen, a man terrified that revealing his love of wearing women’s clothing will destroy his relationship with his fiancée. Through dramatic scenes, moral lectures, hypnotic narration, and some truly bizarre dream imagery, the film attempts something surprisingly sincere: explaining and humanizing people who live outside traditional gender expectations.

Originally released as an “educational” film, Glen or Glenda has since become a legendary cult classic. Its earnest intentions collide with its wildly unconventional storytelling, creating a film that is equal parts fascinating, baffling, and historically significant.

Today it stands as both a piece of outsider cinema and an unexpectedly early exploration of gender identity on screen.

Free eBook!

Loafing Along Death Valley Trails: A Personal Narrative of People and Places, William Caruthers

Loafing Along Death Valley Trails: A Personal Narrative of People and Places by William Caruthers is a vivid 1951 memoir of adventure, legend, and life in one of America’s most mysterious landscapes.

Part travel narrative, part frontier history, and part campfire storytelling, this book captures the human drama of Death Valley and the surrounding Panamint and Amargosa regions. Caruthers writes from firsthand experience, drawing on friendships with prospectors, desert wanderers, old-timers, and larger-than-life characters whose lives were shaped by heat, isolation, hope, and the eternal lure of gold.

Inside are stories of:

Ghost towns and vanished boom camps

Lost mines and desert fortunes

Prospectors, outlaws, and desert philosophers

The discovery of borax and the famous 20-mule teams

Native history, geology, and the harsh beauty of the valley

The romance, comedy, and tragedy left along forgotten trails

Caruthers blends careful research with personal observation, preserving a world that was already fading when he wrote it. As he notes, many of the people who made Death Valley history were his friends, and their voices and adventures live on in these pages.

A fascinating read for fans of Western history, desert exploration, ghost towns, and the enduring mythology of the American frontier.

Originally published in 1951. Public domain edition.

Now Streaming on Booklyn: Glen or Glenda (1953)

“Weird! Startling! Transsexuality!” Few films in the history of cinema have opened with a tagline quite like that.

Directed by legendary cult filmmaker Ed Wood, Glen or Glenda is one of the strangest, boldest, and most unforgettable movies of the 1950s. Part documentary, part social message film, and part surreal fever dream, it tackles the subject of gender identity and cross-dressing at a time when American cinema barely dared whisper about such topics.

The story centers on Glen, a man terrified that revealing his love of wearing women’s clothing will destroy his relationship with his fiancée. Through dramatic scenes, moral lectures, hypnotic narration, and some truly bizarre dream imagery, the film attempts something surprisingly sincere: explaining and humanizing people who live outside traditional gender expectations.

Originally released as an “educational” film, Glen or Glenda has since become a legendary cult classic. Its earnest intentions collide with its wildly unconventional storytelling, creating a film that is equal parts fascinating, baffling, and historically significant.

Today it stands as both a piece of outsider cinema and an unexpectedly early exploration of gender identity on screen.

Free eBook!

The Salem Horror, Henry Kuttner

Originally published in Weird Tales in May 1937, The Salem Horror is one of Henry Kuttner’s most chilling early works—a tightly woven New England nightmare that blends witchcraft folklore, occult science, and the creeping dread of something unspeakable stirring beneath old floorboards. Set in Salem’s shadowed “witch district,” the story follows Carson, a popular novelist who rents an ancient, gabled house on Derby Street to secure some peace and focus. Instead, he discovers a hidden subterranean chamber known as the Witch Room, linked to the infamous Abigail Prinn, a 17th-century figure shrouded in malignant legend.

At first it’s only rats… then whispers… then dreams Carson cannot quite remember. When a mysterious occultist arrives with dire warnings about the room’s mosaic floor, its black stone focal point, and a presence known only as Nyogtha, the unease becomes terror. And when a Salem grave is found violated and a man dies of pure fright, Carson is forced to confront the possibility that Abigail Prinn—buried with a stake through her heart—is not done with Salem… or with him.

What follows is a classic Weird Tales escalation: a nightmarish reanimation, an underground confrontation, and an eruption of cosmic horror beneath ordinary American soil. Kuttner mixes Gothic atmosphere with early Cthulhu-mythos concepts, producing a tale that is both brisk and claustrophobic. By the end, Carson’s life and work are irrevocably changed, leaving one unforgettable image burned into both his mind and the reader’s.

This eBook edition preserves the complete original text as published in 1937, offering modern readers a chance to experience one of Henry Kuttner’s most effective early horrors—an essential piece for collectors of Golden Age pulp fiction, occult literature, and Salem-themed supernatural tales.

Free eBook!

Joe Strong on the High Wire, Vance Barnum

Joe Strong on the High Wire; or, Motor-Cycle Perils of the Air by Vance Barnum is a thrilling 1916 adventure from the golden age of circus daring and early motor-age spectacle.

Joe Strong, former trapeze artist and circus performer, leaves the familiar world of the big top to pursue a bold new dream: performing death-defying stunts on a motor-cycle high above the ground. What begins as an ambitious idea soon becomes a test of courage, ingenuity, and nerve as Joe designs new apparatus, survives dangerous accidents, and risks everything to create a sensation unlike anything audiences have seen before.

Along the way, Joe encounters mysterious strangers, near-disasters, mechanical challenges, and the constant question faced by every performer: how far should one go to chase applause?

Filled with circus life, early 20th-century technology, and breath-holding moments of peril, this classic juvenile adventure captures the era’s fascination with speed, innovation, and fearless showmanship.

Perfect for readers who enjoy vintage adventure stories, circus history, and the spirit of early daredevil culture.

Originally published by Hearst’s International Library Company in 1916.