Tonight, we’ll be reading “Jack and the Beanstalk”, from the 1918 Mother’s Nursery Tales by Katherine Pyle. Born in 1863, Pyle was an American artist, poet and children’s book writer. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is the best known of the “Jack Tales”, a series of stories featuring the archetypal hero and stock character “Jack.” According to researchers, the story originated more than five millennia ago.