The HARVARD CLASSICS,Complete Set,50 Books&More, 1st Ed

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

HARVARD CLASSICS COMPLETE SET OF BOOKS Six Large Images, Please Wait Description Harvard Classics The Five-Foot Shelf of Books! (Similar To Britannica's Great Books Of the Western World!) Complete 50-Volume Set! (Five Foot Shelf) we have a full set of The Harvard Classics, a First Edition Set, the 1909 printing. T are 50 numbered books of the Five-Foot Shelf Of Books, which is the complete set. Also included are ten bonus pamphlets...the original Lectures Series (but we are missing pamphlet number one, we have numbers two through eleven in the pamphlets). This is a beautiful set....the bindings are red cloth books with gold gilt on the top edge of the pages. T is gold embossment on the bindings as well. These red cloth books are in excellent, fine condition. The covers show very little wear. A few of the books have a very little bit of wear at the tips of the corners, and a few books have some very light marks on the page edges due to handling. The gold on top is in great shape. T are no odors. All the bindings are solid and the books display well. T may be a little sun-fading to the spines. We noticed one book has a loose page with some small writing in the margin, and one book has a slight tear on the paper glued to the inside front cover. We did not notice any other flaws in the red books. All the inside pages are clean. The books realy shine in the bookcase. As you can see in the photos, this set is stunning!! The ten pamphlets are in slighlty worn condition. These pamphlets are softcover items printed in 1913 (in later years these pamphlets were bound into a "Lectures" book). These softcover pamphlets do show quite a bit of wear. One of the covers is loose, some of the covers are slightly wrinkled, and we noticed some small tears on the edges of a few as well. All the inside pages are clean. The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, was a fifty-volume anthology of works selected by Charles W. Eliot. It was originally published in 1909. Dr. Eliot, then President of Harvard University, had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending fifteen minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. What naturally followed was a debate, discussion, and decision as to what books would make up this collection. The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity, and challenged him make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works; the Harvard Classics was the result. The collection was widely advertised by Collier and Son, in Collier's Magazine and elsew, with great success. As Adam Kirsch, writing in 2001 Harvard Magazine, 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. 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." Malcolm X read the entire set when he was in prison. The Five Foot Shelf Of Books Set includes the following 52 books: Volume 1 Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, William PennVolume 2 Plato, Epictetus, Marcus AureliusVolume 3 Bacon, Milton's Prose, Thomas BrowneVolume 4 Complete Poems in English, MiltonVolume 5 Essays and English Traits, EmersonVolume 6 Poems and Songs, BurnsVolume 7 The Confessions of St. Augustine, The Imitation of ChristVolume 8 Nine Greek Dramas (by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes)Volume 9 Letters and Treatises of Cicero and PlinyVolume 10 Wealth of Nations, Adam SmithVolume 11 Origin of Species, DarwinVolume 12 Plutarch's LivesVolume 13 Aeneid, VirgilVolume 14 Don Quixote, Part I, CervantesVolume 15 Pilgrim's Progress, Donne and ... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.