Perhaps the best known classic book anthology of the 20th century was the Harvard Classics (a.k.a Harvard Universal Classics or Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf), compiled by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot in 1909. Published by P.F. Collier and Son, the anthology aimed to provide a complete liberal education in 51 volumes.


The list below is an overview of the works included in the 51 volume anthology. Individual poems are not listed due to sheer volume; instead the poets are listed.
Compared to the Great Books of the Western World series, the Harvard Classics skew more toward poems and historical documents rather than philosophy and science. The Harvard Classics also includes more works outside of western culture for a multicultural flavor. Such works include writings from Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.
The Harvard Classics set has evolved into several forms over its 100+ year history. Below are exterior and interior images highlighting the main features of three popular editions of the Harvard Classics.
Marked simply as “The Harvard Classics”, this set (copyright 1980) is one of the finest available, complete with gilded page edges, raised ridges along the spine, gold foil decorations and text on deep red covers and spine, red book ribbon, and easily legible font sizes.
Deluxe editions of the Harvard Classics set (here copyright 1937) is slightly less decorative than the newer edition above, but still boasts gold foil coat of arms and text on the front cover and spine upon a very dark green background (sometimes appears black).
The “Collector’s Edition” of the Harvard Classics set (here copyright 1980) displays goal foil decorations on the front and back covers and spine, one full page black and white artwork prior to the main text, gilded page edges, a yellow/gold ribbon, and easily readable font.
Looking to purchase the Harvard Classics set? See what’s for sale our there here: The Harvard Classics. Happy hunting!
- His Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin
- The Journal of John Woolman, John Woolman
- Fruits of Solitude, William Penn
- The Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Plato
- The Golden Sayings, Epictetus
- The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
- Essays, Francis Bacon
- Civil and Moral, Francis Bacon
- New Atlantis, Francis Bacon
- Areopagitica, John Milton
- Tractate of Education, John Milton
- Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne
- poems of John Milton
- Essays and English Traits, Ralph Waldo Emerson
- poems and songs, Robert Burns
- The Confessions, Augustine of Hippo
- The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis
- Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Furies; Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus
- Oedipus the King; Antigone, Sophocles
- Hippolytus; The Bacchae, Euripides
- The Frogs, Aristophanes
- On Friendship; On Old Age, and other letters, Cicero
- letters of Pliny the Younger
- The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
- The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
- Lives, Plutarch
- Aeneid, Virgil
- Don Quixote, Cervantes
- The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
- The Lives of Donne and Herbert, Izaak Walton
- stories from the Thousand and One Nights, translated by Edward William Lane
- Fables, Aesop
- Children’s and Household Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
- Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
- All for Love, John Dryden
- The School for Scandal, Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith
- The Cenci, Percy Bysshe Shelley
- A Blot in the Scutcheon, Robert Browning
- Manfred, Lord Byron
- Faust; Egmont; Hermann and Dorothea, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe
- The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
- I Promessi Sposi, Alessandro Manzoni
- The Odyssey, Homer
- Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
- On Taste; On the Sublime and Beautiful; Reflections on the French Revolution; A Letter to a Noble Lord, Edmund Burke
- Autobiography; On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
- Characteristics; Inaugural Address at Edinburgh; Sir Walter Scott, by Thomas Carlyle
- Life is a Dream, Pedro Calderon de la Barca
- Polyeucte, Pierre Corneille
- Phedre, Jean Racine
- Tartuffe, Moliere
- Minna von Barnhelm, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- William Tell, Friedrich von Schiller
- English essays [anthology]: Sidney to Macaulay
- Essays [anthology]: English and American
- The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin
- The Forces of Matter; The Chemical History of a Candle, Michael Faraday
- On the Conservation of Force; Ice and Glaciers, Hermann von Helmholtz
- The Wave Theory of Light; The Tides, Lord Kelvin
- The Extent of the Universe, Simon Newcomb
- Geographical Evolution, Sir Archibald Geikie
- The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
- Essays, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
- Montaigne; What is Classic?, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
- The Poetry of the Celtic Races, Ernest Renan
- The Education of the Human Race, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, Friedrich von Schiller
- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic or Morals, Immanuel Kant
- Byron and Goethe, Giuseppe Mazzini
- The Histories, Herodotus
- Germany, Tacitus
- Sir Francis Drake Revived, by Philip Nichols
- Sir Francis Drake’s Famous Voyage Round the World, by Francis Petty
- Drake’s Great Armada, Captain Walter Bigges
- Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Voyage to Newfoundland, Edward Haies
- The Discovery of Guiana, by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Discourse on Method, Rene Descartes
- Letters on the English, Voltaire
- On the Inequality among Mankind; Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, Jean Jacques Rousseau
- Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
- Chronicles, Jean Froissart
- The Holy Grail, Sir Thomas Malory
- A Description of Elizabethan England, William Harrison
- The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
- The Life of Sir Thomas More, William Roper
- Utopia, Sir Thomas More
- The Ninety-Five Theses; To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation; On the Freedom of a Christian, Martin Luther
- Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke
- Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists, George Berkeley
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
- The Oath of Hippocrates
- Journeys in Diverse Places, Ambroise Paré
- On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, William Harvey
- The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, Edward Jenner
- The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, Oliver Wendell Holmes
- On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, Joseph Lister
- Scientific papers, Louis Pasteur
- Scientific papers, Charles Lyell
- “Title, Prologue and Epilogues to the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy”, by William Caxton
- “Epilogue to Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers”, William Caxton
- “Prologue to Golden Legend”, William Caxton
- “Prologue to Caton”, William Caxton
- “Epilogue to Aesop”, William Caxton
- “Proem to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales”, William Caxton
- “Prologue to Malory’s King Arthur”
- “Prologue to Virgil’s Eneydos”, William Caxton
- “Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian Religion”, John Calvin
- “Dedication of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies”, Nicolaus Copernicus
- “Preface to the History of the Reformation in Scotland”, John Knox
- “Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on The Faerie Queene”, Edmund Spenser
- “Preface to the History of the World”, Sir Walter Raleigh
- “Prooemium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, etc.”, Francis Bacon
- “Preface to the Novum Organum”, Francis Bacon
- “Preface to the First Folio Edition of Shakespeare’s Plays”, Heminge and Condell
- “Preface to the Philosophiae Naturalis Pricipia Mathematica”, Sir Isaac Newton
- “Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern”, John Dryden
- “Preface to Joseph Andrews”, Henry Fielding
- “Preface to the English Dictionary”, Samuel Johnson
- “Preface to Shakespeare”, Samuel Johnson
- “Introduction to the Propylaen”, J.W. von Goethe
- “Prefaces to Various Volumes of Poems”, William Wordsworth
- “Appendix to Lyrical Ballads”, William Wordsworth
- “Essay Supplementary to Preface”, William Wordsworth
- “Preface to Cromwell”, Victor Hugo
- “Preface to Leaves of Grass”, Walt Whitman
- “Introduction to the History of English Literature”, H.A. Taine
- Selected Poetry of
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Sir Thomas Wyatt
- Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
- George Gascoigne
- Nicholas Breton
- Anthony Munday
- Richard Edwardes
- Sir Walter Rayleigh
- Sir Edward Dyer
- John Lyly
- Sir Philip Sydney
- Thomas Lodge
- George Peele
- Robert Southwell
- Samuel Daniel
- Michael Drayton
- Henry Constable
- Edmund Spenser
- William Habington
- Christopher Marlowe
- Richard Rowlands
- Thomas Nashe
- William Shakespeare
- Robert Greene
- Richard Barnfield
- Thomas Campion
- Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
- Sir Henry Wotton
- Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford
- Ben Jonson
- John Donne
- Joshua Sylvester
- William Alexander, Earl of Stirling
- Richard Corbet
- Thomas Heywood
- Thomas Dekker
- Francis Beaumont
- John Fletcher
- John Webster
- William Drummond
- George Wither
- William Browne
- Robert Herrick
- Francis Quarles
- George Herbert
- Henry Vaughan
- Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban
- James Shirley
- Thomas Carew
- Sir John Suckling
- Sir William D’Avenant
- Richard Lovelace
- Edmund Waller
- William Cartwright
- James Graham, Marquis of Montrose
- Richard Crashaw
- Thomas Jordan
- Abraham Cowley
- Alexander Brome
- Andrew Marvell
- Earl of Rochester
- Sir Charles Sedley
- John Dryden
- Matthew Prior
- Isaac Watts
- Lady Grisel Baillie
- Joseph Addison
- Allan Ramsay
- John Gay
- Henry Carey
- Alexander Pope
- Ambrose Philips
- Colley Cibber
- James Thomson
- Thomas Gray
- George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe
- William Collins
- George Sewell
- Alison Rutherford Cockburn
- Jane Elliot
- Christopher Smart
- John Logan
- Henry Fielding
- Charles Dibdin
- Samuel Johnson
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Robert Graham of Gartmore
- Adam Austin
- William Cowper
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- Anna Laetitia Barbauld
- Isobel Pagan
- Lady Anne Lindsay
- Thomas Chatterton
- Alexander Ross
- John Skinner
- Michael Bruce
- George Halket
- William Hamilton of Bangour
- Hector MacNeil
- Sir William Jones
- Susanna Blamire
- Anne Hunter
- John Dunlop
- Samuel Rogers
- William Blake
- John Collins
- Robert Tannahill
- William Wordsworth
- William Lisle Bowles
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Robert Southey
- Charles Lamb
- Sir Walter Scott
- James Hogg
- Robert Surtees
- Thomas Campbell
- J. Campbell
- Allan Cunningham
- George Gordon, Lord Byron
- Thomas Moore
- Charles Wolfe
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- James Henry Leigh Hunt
- John Keats
- Walter Savage Landor
- Thomas Hood
- Sir Aubrey de Vere
- Hartley Coleridge
- Joseph Blanco White
- George Darley
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Macaulay
- Sir William Edmondstoune Aytoune
- Hugh Miller
- Helen Selina, Lady Dufferin
- Charles Tennyson Turner
- Sir Samuel Ferguson
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Edward Fitzgerald
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton
- William Makepeace Thackray
- Charles Kingsley
- J. Wilson
- Robert Browning
- Emily Bronte
- Robert Stephen Hawker
- Conventry Patmore
- William (Johnson) Cory
- Sydney Dobell
- William Allingham
- George Mac Donald
- Edward, Earl of Lytton
- Arthur Hugh Clough
- Matthew Arnold
- George Meredith
- Alexander Smith
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Edward Brown
- James Thomson
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- Christina Georgina Rossetti
- William Morris
- John Boyle O’Reilly
- Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy
- Robert Williams Buchanen
- Algernon Charles Swinburne
- William Ernest Henley
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- William Cullen Bryant
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- John Greenleaf Whittier
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
- James Russell Lowell
- Sidney Lanier
- Bret Harte
- Walt Whitman
- American Historical Documents
- “The Voyages to Vinland” (c. 1000)
- “The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery” (1493)
- “Amerigo Vespucci’s Account of His First Voyage” (1497)
- “John Cabot’s Discovery of North America” (1497)
- “First Charter of Virginia” (1606)
- “The Mayflower Compact” (1620)
- “The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” (1639)
- “The Massachusetts Body of Liberties” (1641)
- “Arbitrary Government Described and the Government of the Massachusetts Vindicated from that Aspersion”, by John Winthrop (1644)
- “The Instrument of Government” (1653)
- “A Healing Question”, by Sir Henry Vane” (1656)
- “John Eliot’s “Brief Narrative” (1670)
- “Declaration of Rights” (1765)
- “The Declaration of Independence” (1776)
- “The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence” (1775)
- “Articles of Confederation” (1777)
- “Articles of Capitulation, Yorktown” (1781)
- “Treaty with Great Britain” (1783)
- “Constitution of the United States” (1787)
- “The Federalist”, Nos. 1 and 2 (1787)
- “Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland” (1819)
- “Washington’s First Inaugural Address” (1789)
- “Treaty with the Six Nations” (1794)
- “Washington’s Farewell Address” (1796)
- “Treaty with France (Louisiana Purchase)” (1803)
- “Treaty with Great Britain (End of War of 1812)” (1814)
- “Arrangement as to the Naval Force to Be Respectively Maintained on the American Lakes” (1817)
- “Treaty with Spain (Acquisition of Florida)” (1819)
- “The Monroe Doctrine” (1823)
- “Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain” (1842)
- “Treaty with Mexico (1848)
- “Fugitive Slave Act” (1850)
- “Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address” (1861)
- “Emancipation Proclamation” (1863)
- “Haskell’s Account of the Battle of Gettysburg”
- “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address” (1863)
- “Proclamation of Amnesty” (1863)
- “Lincoln’s Letter to Mrs. Bixby” (1864)
- “Terms of Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox” (1865)
- “Lee’s Farewell to His Army” (1865)
- “Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address” (1865)
- “Proclamation Declaring the Insurrection at an End” (1866)
- “Treaty with Russia (Alaska Purchase)” (1867)
- “Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands” (1898)
- “Recognition of the Independence of Cuba” (1898)
- “Treaty with Spain (Cession of Porto Rico and the Philippines)” (1898)
- “Convention Between the United States and the Republic of Panama” (1904)
- The Sayings of Confucius
- The Book of Job (Bible)
- The Book of Psalms (Bible)
- Ecclesiastes (Bible)
- The Gospel According to Luke (Bible)
- The Acts of the Apostles
- The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
- The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
- Hymns of the Christian Church [anthology]
- Buddhist Writings (I. The Buddha, II. The Doctrine, III. The Order)
- The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu)
- Mecca Suras (the Koran)
- Medina Suras (the Koran)
- Edward the Second, Christopher Marlow (drama)
- Hamlet; King Lear; Macbeth; The Tempest, William Shakespeare (drama)
- The Shoemaker’s Holiday, Thomas Dekker (drama)
- The Alchemist, Ben Jonson (drama)
- Philaster, Beaumont and Fletcher (drama)
- The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster (drama)
- A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Philip Massinger (drama)
- Thoughts, letters, and minor works, Blaise Pascal
- Beowulf
- The Song of Roland
- The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel
- The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs
- The Elder Edda
- [Specific to the Harvard Classics] Introduction, Reader’s Guide, Indexes
- Lectures on various fields (History, Poetry, Natural Science, Philosophy, Biography, Prose Fiction, Criticism and the Essay, Education, Political Science, Drama, Voyages and Travel, Religion) [anthology].