Harvard Classics
The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909.[1]
Eliot had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. (Originally he had said a three-foot shelf.) The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity and challenged Eliot to make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works, and the Harvard Classics was the result.
Eliot worked for one year with William A. Neilson, a professor of English; Eliot determined the works to be included and Neilson selected the specific editions and wrote introductory notes.[1] Each volume had 400-450 pages, and the included texts are "so far as possible, entire works or complete segments of the world's written legacies."[2] The collection was widely advertised by Collier and Son, in Collier's Magazine and elsewhere, with great success.
Contents
- Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN
- Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
- Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON'S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE
- Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON
- Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON
- Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS
- Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATIONS OF CHRIST
- Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS
- Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY
- Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH
- Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN
- Vol. 12. PLUTARCH'S LIVES
- Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL
- Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, Part 1 only, CERVANTES
- Vol. 15. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON
- Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
- Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON
- Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA
- Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE
- Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE
- Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI
- Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER
- Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA
- Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE
- Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE
- Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA
- Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY
- Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
- Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN
- Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC
- Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI
- Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
- Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
- An account of Egypt from The Histories, by Herodotus
- Germany, by Tacitus
- Sir Francis Drake Revived, by Philip Nichols
- Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, by Francis Pretty
- Drake's Great Armada, by Captain Walter Bigges
- Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, by Edward Haies
- The Discovery of Guiana, by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, DESCARTES, VOLTAIRE, ROUSSEAU, HOBBES
- Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE, FROISSART, MALORY, HOLINSHEAD
- Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER
- Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELEY, HUME
- Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR
- Vol. 39. FAMOUS PREFACES
- Vol. 40. ENGLISH POETRY 1: CHAUCER TO GRAY
- Vol. 41. ENGLISH POETRY 2: COLLINS TO FITZGERALD
- Vol. 42. ENGLISH POETRY 3: TENNYSON TO WHITMAN
- Vol. 43. AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
- Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1
- Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2
- Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1
- Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2
- Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL
- Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA
- Vol. 50. INTRODUCTION, READER'S GUIDE, INDEXES
- Vol. 51. LECTURES
- The last volume contains sixty lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, travelogues, and religion.
The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction
The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction was selected by Charles W. Eliot, LLD (1834-1926), with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson. It also features an index to Criticisms and Interpretations.
- Vol. 1. HENRY FIELDING 1
- Vol. 2. HENRY FIELDING 2
- The History of Tom Jones, part 2, by Henry Fielding
- Vol. 3. LAURENCE STERN, JANE AUSTEN
- Vol. 4. SIR WALTER SCOTT
- Vol. 5. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 1
- Vol. 6. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 2
- Vanity Fair, part 2, by William Makepeace Thackeray
- Vol. 7. CHARLES DICKENS 1
- Vol. 8. CHARLES DICKENS 2
- David Copperfield, part 2, by Charles Dickens
- Vol. 9. GEORGE ELIOT
- Vol. 10. HAWTHORNE, IRVING, POE, BRET HARTE, MARK TWAIN, HALE
- The Scarlet Letter and "Rappaccini's Daughter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", by Washington Irving
- "Eleonora", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Purloined Letter", by Edgar Allan Poe
- "The Luck of Roaring Camp", "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", and "The Idyl of Red Gulch", by Francis Bret Harte
- "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog", by Samuel L. Clemens
- "The Man Without a Country", by Edward Everett Hale
- Vol. 11. HENRY JAMES, JR.
- Vol. 12. VICTOR HUGO
- Vol. 13. BALZAC, SAND, DE MUSSET, DAUDET, DE MAUPASSANT
- Vol. 14. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
- Vol. 15. GOETHE, KELLER, STORM, FONTANE
- Vol. 16. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 1
- Vol. 17. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 2
- Vol. 18. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
- Vol. 19. IVAN TURGENEV
- Vol. 20. VALERA, BJØRNSON, KIELLAND
Enduring success
As Adam Kirsch, writing for Harvard magazine in 2001, notes, "It is surprisingly easy, even today, to find a complete set of the Harvard Classics in good condition. At least one is usually for sale on eBay, the Internet auction site, for $300 or so, a bargain at $6 a book. The supply, from attics or private libraries around the country, seems endless — a tribute to the success of the publisher, P.F. Collier, who sold some 350,000 sets within 20 years of the series' initial publication."[1]
Currently, a hardcover set of the Harvard Classics (now in the public domain) is published by Easton Press and a paperback version by Kessinger Publishing.
“ |
The Five-Foot Shelf, with its introductions, notes, guides to reading, and exhaustive indexes, may claim to constitute a reading course unparalleled in comprehensiveness and authority. |
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—Notes on the Lectures by William Allan Neilson
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Similar compendia
The concept of education through systematic reading of seminal works themselves (rather than textbooks), was carried on by John Erskine at Columbia University, and, in the 1930s, Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago, carried this idea further with the concepts of education through study of the "great books" and "great ideas" of Western civilization. This led to the publication in 1952 of Great Books of the Western World, which is still in print and actively marketed. In 1937, under Stringfellow Barr, St. John's College introduced a curriculum based on the direct study of "great books". These sets are popular today with those interested in homeschooling.
References
- ^ a b c Adam Kirsch, The "Five-foot Shelf" Reconsidered, Harvard Magazine, Volume 103, Number 2. November-December 2001
- ^ Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books: Toward a Centennial of The Harvard Classics, Papers on Language and Literature - Find Articles
Further reading and external links
- Harvard Classics (all volumes) at the Internet Archive (Archive.org)
- Harvard Classics (Bookshelf) Online version at Project Gutenberg
- Complete Harvard Classics at MobileRead free downloads in Sony BBeB/LRF, Mobipocket/PRC, and eBookwise/IMP formats
- Metafilter: Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf
- David Mehegan, "The reading of life: A story about a grandfather, a box of old books, and the meaning of success," Boston Globe, December 23, 2006. Viewed Sept. 26, 2007
- From the History Files: A Love of Libraries - Harvard Classics
- An Ongoing Review and Discussion of the Harvard Classics
- Eliot, Charles W., ed. The Harvard Classics and Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. 1909–1917 Online version at Bartleby.com