Browse Items (882 total)

This book, put together with a pin and complete with color illustrations, chronicles the actions of Eathan Allen and his family. Arthur introduces the other Allen family members (Eathan’s wife Mary, his 10 year-old son Jimmy, and his 9 year-old daughter Alice) before focusing on Eathan and his presidency on Big Continent.

History of Long Continent is a rudimentary and brief account of the continent's history written by one of the boys at a young age. It is likely that Arthur, "the worlds historian" and leader of Long Continent under the alias "William Little," wrote this particular piece. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is the material the boys used to write the story...

History of the Wourld is another example of a story written by Arthur Nelson at a very young age. The intricacies of the boys' imaginary world are not yet developed completely and the cohesive world history explained in the brothers' future works is only beginning to formulate within the young mind of Arthur Nelson.

The Mountain Fighter contains six chapters that follow Captain William Little's adventures, and include other key figures of the imaginary World especially Ethan Allen. Yet  set in 1861 this military tale seems to draw on U.S. Civil War history. Captain Little defeats the rebel army at "Philippi" and participates in the capture and hanging of John Brown.  Some of this history is cast as "stories about war" that William Little tells to young Jimmy Allen. The collaboration of these imaginary World antagonists in US. Civil War events leads Arthur Nelson to note that "now the heroes are good firiends."

The Prospect City Savings Bank is a deposit book kept by Arthur Nelson, documenting monetary transactions for Prospect City. This publication highlights the boys' socioeconomic knowledge and ability to apply real-world practices to their imaginary play. The accounts run into the surely fictional tens of thousands of dollars.

The Voyage of the Francis is a short story about a sailboat that embarks on a fishing trip. The story-telling technique used by Arthur can be attributed to his young age. There are certainly elements of plot – a storm, fishing, jumping overboard, sleeping on a rock, playing an odd game of tag, etc. – but they seem to form only a skeletal story, made up primarily of movement from big event to big event, without much imagined emotion or transition in between.  

The World is an illustrated periodical with adventure stories signed by both Elmer and Arthur Nelson. It contains two boating adventures, “Whaling” and “Surrounded,” as well as the longer story “Out Hunting” in which the brothers leave the boat and hunt deer. 

In March of 1897, Elmer, Arthur, and Walter state that they wrote Sketches of Our Home Life Vol. 2  to “get in some of [their] later adventures.” These adventures include accounts of hunting and camping trips around New Hampshire, descriptions of the Nelsons’ “ideal camera,” “The Three Great Snow Storms of 1898,” and their perspective of the Spanish-American War.

The actions and events in American Family Robinson Vol. 1, especially the children's encounter with a shark, move through all the functions of adventure storytelling, but in an additive manner that seems to miss the logic of the survival narrative. Clearly inspired by works like Swiss Family Robinson (1812) and Robinson Crusoe (1719), this story describes the excitement of navigating wild territory, but without any real sense of risk.

My Library is a school essay written by Elmer Nelson and corrected by his teacher, describing his personal collection of books and his passion for travel and adventure.