Journey through Harvard University president Charles Eliot’s “five-foot shelf” of classics. This collection, first published in the early 1900s, remains one of the most comprehensive and well-researched anthologies of all time. Making good on earlier claims that he could fit the elements of a liberal education on a five-foot shelf, Eliot gathered this collection of key works, together with English professor William Neilson—who selected editions and wrote introductions. The massive collection covers major literary figures, philosophers, theologians, folklore, and historical subjects through the end of the nineteenth century. Originally published as a 51-volume collection of classics, the rise of modernism prompted Dr. Eliot to create an additional 20-volume collection of fiction—“The Shelf of Fiction”—to supplement his first collection. These two collections come together to create The Harvard Classics and Fiction Collection (71 vols.). Among...

The Dead Sea. Bethlehem. The Sea of Galilee. Jericho. Babylon. Cairo. These are but a few of the places visited by these courageous writers in the Travels through the Bible Lands Collection (15 Vols.). During the turn of the nineteenth century, traveling to and across the Holy Land was a dangerous and arduous journey for a Westerner. These diverse explorers–missionaries, writers, cartographers, theologians, ethnographers, diplomats, archeologists–risk the danger to trek the deserts between Egypt and Turkey, survey the caves of the Dead Sea, dig in the dirt of Babylon, fight disease in Beirut, spread the gospel in Turkey, and stand in awe of the pyramids of Egypt.

Teach and train the next generation with this library of resources devoted to helping young people become better grounded in Scripture and the classics. Build on the foundation laid by those who came before using digital tools that enhance the great deposit of the past.

Stanley Lane-Poole’s succinct but detailed survey of Egyptian society examines life in the city and life in the country, its schools and universities, its museums and mosques, its art and architecture, and Europe’s influence on it after a recent European campaign there. With over 100 illustrations and pictures included, Poole’s interesting analysis of Egypt includes his thoughts on their system of government, the nature of religion in the everyday life of an Egyptian, and the treatment and role of women in Egyptian society.

Explore pieces from the collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales known as The Thousand and One Nights. Various editions of these stories—compiled over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, South Asia and North Africa—are united by their use of an initial frame story, in which the character Scheherazade narrates tales to the Sultan Shahriyar over many nights. The Harvard Classics Journey through “Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf.” This massive collection, designed to provide the elements of a liberal education, was compiled by distinguished Harvard University president Charles Eliot in the early 1900s. Packed with the essential works of the Western classical tradition, the Harvard Classics collection remains one of the most comprehensive and well-researched anthologies of all time—a must-have library for students and lovers of the classics. Check out the complete The Harvard Classics and Fiction Collection. Keep...