Charles W. Eliot, 21st President of Harvard University, edited this volume of prefaces ... authored by a Who's Who of World Literature: Bacon, Calvin, Caxton, Condell, Copernicus, Dryden, Fielding, Goethe, Heminge, Hugo, Johnson, Knox, Newton, Raleigh, Spenser, Taine, Whitman and Wordsworth. Eliot wrote in his preface to these prefaces, "No part of a book is so intimate as the Preface. Here, after the long labor of the work is over, the author descends from his platform, and speaks with his reader as man to man, disclosing his hopes and fears, seeking sympathy for his difficulties, offering defence or defiance, according to his temper, against the criticisms which he anticipates." (Summary by DSayers)
Chapters
1 Introductory Notes 8 min 2 Prologues & Epilogues to the History of Troy and other writings by William Caxton, Part 1 40 min 3 Prologues & Epilogues to the History of Troy and other writings, Part 2 35 min 4 Dedication of The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin 52 min 5 General Syllabus by John Calvin 10 min 6 Dedication of The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies by Nicolaus Copernicus 16 min 7 Preface to the History of the Reformation in Scotland by John Knox 6 min 8 Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser 15 min 9 Preface to The History of the World by Sir Walter Raleigh, Part 1 43 min 10 Preface to The History of the World, Part 2 46 min 11 Preface to The History of the World, Part 3 29 min 12 Preface to The History of the World, Part 4 25 min 13 Preface and Plan of The Instauratio Magna by Sir Francis Bacon, Part 1 36 min 14 Preface and Plan of The Instauratio Magna, Part 2 33 min 15 Preface and Plan of The Instauratio Magna, Part 3 14 min 16 Preface to the First Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Plays by John Heminge 6 min 17 Preface to The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton 9 min 18 Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern by John Dryden, Part 1 43 min 19 Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern, Part 2 42 min 20 Preface to Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding 20 min 21 Preface to the English Dictionary by Samuel Johnson 36 min 22 To the Earl of Chesterfield by Samuel Johnson 50 min 23 Preface to Shakespeare by Samuel Johnson, Part 1 50 min 24 Preface to Shakespeare, Part 2 52 min 25 Preface to Shakespeare, Part 3 31 min 26 Introduction to The Propylaen by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 47 min 27 Prefaces to Poems by William Wordsworth, Part 1 38 min 28 Prefaces to Poems, Part 2 41 min 29 Prefaces to Poems, Part 3 35 min 30 Prefaces to Poems, Part 4 36 min 31 Prefaces to Poems, Part 5 33 min 32 Preface to Cromwell by Victor Hugo, Part 1 47 min 33 Preface to Cromwell, Part 2 45 min 34 Preface to Cromwell, Part 3 38 min 35 Preface to Cromwell, Part 4 37 min 36 Preface to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Part 1 42 min 37 Preface to Leaves of Grass, Part 2 35 min 38 Introduction to The History of English Literature by H. A. Taine, Part 1 29 min 39 Introduction to The History of English Literature, Part 2 36 min
