Our latest Digital Library item to make its way through the Distributed Proofreaders project into Project Gutenberg is George Barton’s The Mystery of Cleverly, a juvenile novel from 1907.

While the title contains the word “mystery,” and there is indeed a mysterious event which drives part of the plot, this is much more of a “success story” than a mystery. The plot revolves around Herbert Harkins, a youth from the small town of Cleverly who grows up to pursue a career in newspaper reporting, motivated in part by a desire to clear his father’s tarnished reputation.

If you would like to learn more about Herbert and his adventures, you can read the complete novel online (or download it in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg.