Harvard Classics

Harvard Classics
Charles William Eliot, compiler and editor of the Harvard Classics anthology.

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

Contents

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.

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.

Notes on the Lectures by William Allan Neilson

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

  1. ^ a b c Adam Kirsch, The "Five-foot Shelf" Reconsidered, Harvard Magazine, Volume 103, Number 2. November-December 2001
  2. ^ 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


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Harvard Classics — Die Harvard Classics, ursprünglich bekannt als Dr. Eliot s Five Foot Shelf, ist eine 51 bändige Sammlung der klassischen Werke der Weltliteratur. Sie wurde zusammengestellt und herausgegeben vom Präsidenten der Harvard University Charles William… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Harvard classics — n [pl] a series of 50 famous works of literature chosen and edited by Charles W Eliot (1834–1926), President of Harvard University (1869–1909). He said they were ‘all the books needed for a real education’. The series was published in 1909–10. *… …   Universalium

  • (the) Harvard classics — the Harvard classics [the Harvard classics] noun [pl] a series of 50 famous works of literature chosen and edited by Charles W Eliot (1834–1926), President of ↑Harvard University (1869– …   Useful english dictionary

  • Harvard-Yenching Classification — Alfred Kaiming Chiu (1898–1977) was a pioneer of establishing a library classification system for Chinese language materials in the United States of America. The system devised by him was known as Harvard Yenching Classification System. The… …   Wikipedia

  • Universidad de Harvard — «Harvard» redirige aquí. Para la localidad estadounidense del estado de Massachusetts, véase Harvard (Massachusetts). «Harvard» redirige aquí. Para la localidad estadounidense del estado de Nebraska, véase Harvard (Nebraska). Harvard University… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Universidad Harvard — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Harvard University Universidad Harvard Lema Verdad (Latín …   Wikipedia Español

  • List of Harvard University people — The list of Harvard University people includes notable graduates, professors and administrators affiliated with Harvard University. For a list of notable non graduates of Harvard, see notable non graduate alumni of Harvard. For a list of Harvard… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Harvard Junior Fellows — List of Harvard Junior Fellows:Anthropology*Conrad M. Arensberg * *Manduhai Buyandelgeriyn *Rosemarie Bernard *Arthur Demarest *Virginia Dominguez *Robert H. Dyson, Jr. *Kim Gutschow *Henry Irwin * *John L. Jackson, Jr. *Daniel Lieberman *Morgan… …   Wikipedia

  • Classic book — Moby Dick   An example of a classic book …   Wikipedia

  • List of digital library projects — This is a list of projects related to digital libraries.General collections* AccessMyLibrary * AJOL African Journals OnLine free multidisciplinary database of peer reviewed, African published academic journals. * Arts and Humanities Data Service… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”