Emerson's Addresses and Essays.
Lowell's Essay on Democracy.
Lincoln's Inaugural Addresses.
Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery."
Jacob Riis' "The Making of An American."
Higginson's "The New World and the New Book."
Brander Matthews' "Introduction to American Literature."
Whittier's "Snow-Bound."
Louise Manley's "Southern Literature."
Thomas Nelson Page's "The Old South."
E. J. Turner's "The Rise of the New West"
Churchill's "The Crossing."
James Bryce's "American Commonwealth."
Some of the Best Biographies
"Life of Sir Walter Scott," Lockhart.
"Life of Frederick the Great," Carlyle.
"Alfred Lord Tennyson," by his son.
"Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley," by his son.
Plutarch's "Lives."
"Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects," Vasari.
"Cicero and His Friends," Boissier.
"Life of Samuel Johnson," Boswell.
Autobiography of Leigh Hunt.
"Memoirs of My Life and Writings," Gibbon.
Autobiography of Martineau.
"Life of John Sterling," Carlyle.
"Life and Times of Goethe," Grimm.
"Life and Letters of Macaulay," Trevelyan.
"Life of Charles James Fox," Trevelyan.
"Life of Carlyle," Froude.
Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography.
Boswell's "Johnson."
Trevelyan's "Life of Macaulay."
Carlyle's, "Frederick the Great."
Stanley's, "Thomas Arnold."
Hughes', "Alfred the Great."
Mrs. Kingsley's, "Charles Kingsley."
Lounsbury's, "Cooper."
Greenslet's, "Lowell," and "Aldrich."
Mims', "Sidney Lanier."
Wister's, "Seven Ages of Washington."
Grant's Autobiography.
Morley's, "Chatham."
Harrison's, "Cromwell."
W. Clark Russell's, "Nelson."
Morse's, "Benjamin Franklin."
Twenty-four American Biographies
"Abraham Lincoln," Schurz.
"Life of George Washington," Irving.
"Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect," Eliot.
"Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife," Hawthorne.
"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow," Higginson.
"James Russell Lowell," Greenslet.
"Life of Francis Parkman," Farnham.
"Edgar Alien Poe," Woodberry.
Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson.
"Walt Whitman," Perry.
"Life and Letters of Whittier," Pickard.
"James Russell Lowell and His Friends," Hale.
"George Washington," Wilson.
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
"Story of My Life," Helen Keller.
"Autobiography of a Journalist," Stillman.
"Autobiography of Seventy Years," Hoar.
"Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich," Greenslet.
"Life of Alice Freeman Palmer," Palmer.
"Personal Memoirs," Grant.
"Memoirs," Sherman.
"Memoirs of Ralph Waldo Emerson," Cabot.
"Sidney Lanier," Mims.
"Life of J. Fenimore Cooper," Lounsbury.
The books enumerated have been selected as examples of the best in their respective classes. Even those books of fiction chosen, primarily, for entertainment, are instructive and educational. Whether the reader's taste runs to history, biography, travel, nature study, or fiction, he may select any one of the books named in these respective classifications and be assured of possessing a volume worthy of reading and ownership.
It is the author's hope and desire that the list of books he has given, limited as it is, may prove of value to those seeking self-education, and that the books may encourage the disheartened, stimulate ambition, and serve as stepping stones to higher ideals and nobler purposes in life.