The Home Library in 1836–what did it include?

[.Michelle.]

This map shows the mean center of population from 1790 to 2010: http://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/050/

Okay, as I'm reading through the original Mott Media McGuffey's Readers, I'm wanting to view these in context of what else children were reading and listening to. What books were in the homes in the 1830's and 1840's when children were reading the original McGuffey's in school?

 

Keep in mind that in 1830, something like half the US population was literate.

[Hunter]

Keep in mind that in 1830, something like half the US population was literate.

 

When and why did the literacy rate drop so low? Or are the high colonial literacy rates a myth?

[Hunter]

This is all so interesting. Thanks everyone! :grouphug:

[Hunter]

Did the towns where Puritans locked up parents for not catechizing children have higher literacy rates?

[dsmith]

This looked like it may have some interesting information, but I only looked through it briefly:

 

http://www.merrycoz.org/kids.htm

[.Michelle.]

When and why did the literacy rate drop so low? Or are the high colonial literacy rates a myth?

 

Unless the early 1800s were an anomaly, the majority of people were literate from colonial times on.  This page has info on illiteracy from the 1870s on.  In 1870, only 20% of the population over 14 were deemed illiterate.  For whites over 14, it was 11.5%.  For minorities, though, it was just shy of 80%.

 

http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/lit_history.asp

[Hunter]

This looked like it may have some interesting information, but I only looked through it briefly:http://www.merrycoz.org/kids.htm

This from 1850 was interesting

http://www.merrycoz.org/cabinet/ARABIAN.HTM

I must confess that the stories in the "Arabian Nights" amused me very much when I was a boy. But I must confess, at the same time, that I think such reading did me more hurt than good. The tales are, all of them, too strange and marvelous. And that is not the worst of it, neither. Some of them--like the one which is illustrated in this picture, for instance--have not a very good moral influence. They tend to make the heart worse, instead of better. A thousand times, since I have grown older, I have wished that I had not read these tales in my childhood; and I hope that all my little friends will find something to read a great deal better than the "Arabian Nights," and books of that sort. I should be glad to hear that none of the boys and girls of my acquaintance had read the stories in the "Arabian Nights."

 

We ought to be very thankful that, now-a-days, there are plenty of good, interesting books for young people, besides those tales which have not a word of truth in them, and have no good moral about them, from beginning to end. When I was a boy, it was very different in this respect from what it is now. Good books, which children could understand, were very scarce. I do not think that people knew as well how to write for children as they do now. At this day, there are scores and hundreds of books, which you can buy at the book-stores, or borrow at the Sabbath school, any one of which will instruct you and do you good, at the same time that it entertains and delights you. There is no excuse now for reading fairy tales, and stories about Bluebeard, and giants, and eastern monarchs, with palaces full of gold, and fifty wives apiece.

[Hunter]

Do you think Cruden's was the concordance used in the 1830's?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruden's_Concordance

[FO4UR]

This from 1850 was interesting

http://www.merrycoz.org/cabinet/ARABIAN.HTM

I must confess that the stories in the "Arabian Nights" amused me very much when I was a boy. But I must confess, at the same time, that I think such reading did me more hurt than good. The tales are, all of them, too strange and marvelous. And that is not the worst of it, neither. Some of them--like the one which is illustrated in this picture, for instance--have not a very good moral influence. They tend to make the heart worse, instead of better. A thousand times, since I have grown older, I have wished that I had not read these tales in my childhood; and I hope that all my little friends will find something to read a great deal better than the "Arabian Nights," and books of that sort. I should be glad to hear that none of the boys and girls of my acquaintance had read the stories in the "Arabian Nights."

 

We ought to be very thankful that, now-a-days, there are plenty of good, interesting books for young people, besides those tales which have not a word of truth in them, and have no good moral about them, from beginning to end. When I was a boy, it was very different in this respect from what it is now. Good books, which children could understand, were very scarce. I do not think that people knew as well how to write for children as they do now. At this day, there are scores and hundreds of books, which you can buy at the book-stores, or borrow at the Sabbath school, any one of which will instruct you and do you good, at the same time that it entertains and delights you. There is no excuse now for reading fairy tales, and stories about Bluebeard, and giants, and eastern monarchs, with palaces full of gold, and fifty wives apiece.

 

I'm glad he's not in charge of my home library. What an old Fuddy-Duddy!

 

This sort of thing is what Charlotte Mason wrote against...sermonizing twaddle.  

[Laura Corin]

Town and village are terms with specific definitions. The town I live in includes a lot of farmland and a few hamlets. A hamlet is unincorporated and has no official boundaries and no local government. A village is incorporated and has a local govt. And is located in one or more towns. In NY, one lives in a city or a town or on an Indian Reservation.

 

I've always wondered about this, because what I hear described as 'towns' in the US would be 'villages' in the UK.

 

I just looked it up, and the designation here is based (as you might expect) on history rather than logic: apparently to be a town here, you have to have a town charter, or to have traditionally held a market.  The biggest 'villages' in Britain have almost 20,000 inhabitants.

[Ausmumof3]

I did some quick scanning to see what was being read in Australia at the time. I can't come up with much in the way of books but there are lots of records of newspapers, letters and diaries. I guess a lot of reading and writing was about keeping in touch with news and families and friends when there was no phone and no tv.

[Ausmumof3]

I realise this is more about America but am finding it interesting to look from an Australian perspective. I found two children's books published in 1830 which mentioned Australia. One was called Alfred Dudley, and the other looks like a book of short stories with one set in Australia called "the happy grandmother and her happy grandchildren who went to Australia".

 

It also seems like in small towns people subscribed to different newspapers or magazines then past them around.

 

Tennyson was published in 1830 as was the Book of Mormon.

 

I wonder how different the reading material was between England, America and Australia?

[Ausmumof3]

Thanks! I wouldn't have thought of the Birds of America by Audobon!

http://www.amazon.com/Foxes-Book-Martyrs-Pure-Classics/dp/0882708759/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FXNW7JT5M7Q6TPSCMED

John Goulds bird books were published around this time too...

[Ausmumof3]

http://www.accessible-archives.com/2015/02/tips-building-household-library-1838/

 

Link with tips on building a home library which seems to imply that it was achievable even on a lower income.

[Hunter]

I think it's really interesting to compare the different countries, and the cities and villages to the frontiers. It's funny because here in the USA the readers focus on the cities and villages but the history books/chapters about that time all focus on the frontier. It makes for an odd contrast. The literature and history books of England are more consistent. I'll bet the history books of British village life are more more like American village life than American frontier life.

 

Was Australia still more frontier than settled villages in the 1830s and 1840s? Did they even really ever have the village stage? I don't think most of the Western USA ever had villages. When I become fascinated with something like this, and study around a key event, I get such a better understanding of a much wider part of history.

 

The 1830's McGuffey's readers provide a snapshot of American life that is entirely in contrast to the chapters about the 1830's in any children's American histrory text.

 

4blessingmom, :lol: I felt that blurb illustrated the types of books available and that the bolded part gave a glimpse of the considerable volume of books available to some children.

[Hunter]

http://www.accessible-archives.com/2015/02/tips-building-household-library-1838/

 

Link with tips on building a home library which seems to imply that it was achievable even on a lower income.

Thank you! Wow! How perfect to this conversation. This is the exact impression I was getting from the readers, as the children were being instructed on how to care for their books, and which ones they should choose and so on.

[isaac_megan]

I have an extensive collection of books that were my grandmother's ranging from the late 1800's to 1930's. The intros all seem to reference the 1830's and 1840's so it seems to me that at the turn of the century, at least, this was a type of golden age in literature. I will look at them and write a list for you of what I find. As for her own personal history, she was born in the 1890's to well educated parents who settled on the Texas frontier during the civil war. They lived in "town" however, prior to the (hasty) relocation to Texas, lived rurally in Alabama. My grandfather was a doctor, the son and grandson of preachers (Baptist), born in the 1880's. They also lived rurally- I actually do not note in our family archives that anyone lived in cities after immigrating to America, until very recently. I find the collection of books from their home very interesting with this considered. I do not have a family bible (but my dad says there was one), however, I have Shakespeare, Poe, Eliot, Stevenson, Burke, Emerson, etc. These were all given to me as a young child while she was still alive. I remember her taking them out of her cedar chest that she was giving to me along with her life's keepsakes. They were very treasured possessions.

[FO4UR]

I have an extensive collection of books that were my grandmother's ranging from the late 1800's to 1930's. The intros all seem to reference the 1830's and 1840's so it seems to me that at the turn of the century, at least, this was a type of golden age in literature. I will look at them and write a list for you of what I find. As for her own personal history, she was born in the 1890's to well educated parents who settled on the Texas frontier during the civil war. They lived in "town" however, prior to the (hasty) relocation to Texas, lived rurally in Alabama. My grandfather was a doctor, the son and grandson of preachers (Baptist), born in the 1880's. They also lived rurally- I actually do not note in our family archives that anyone lived in cities after immigrating to America, until very recently. I find the collection of books from their home very interesting with this considered. I do not have a family bible (but my dad says there was one), however, I have Shakespeare, Poe, Eliot, Stevenson, Burke, Emerson, etc. These were all given to me as a young child while she was still alive. I remember her taking them out of her cedar chest that she was giving to me along with her life's keepsakes. They were very treasured possessions.

 

What a treasure to have those books!

 

I have a small collection from my grandparents who were raised in KY in the 1930s. The books from their school years suggest that they had a Classical/Charlotte Mason style education even if they didn't use those terms.  Narrative history, mythology, Old Testament History, Jane Austin...and I know they did nature study, and they still remember scripture and poetry memorized when children. Lots of jokes are made about uneducated people in rural KY, but they had excellent educations.  But that's 1930s,,,much later than what you are asking about.

[isaac_megan]

 

What a treasure to have those books!

 

I have a small collection from my grandparents who were raised in KY in the 1930s. The books from their school years suggest that they had a Classical/Charlotte Mason style education even if they didn't use those terms.  Narrative history, mythology, Old Testament History, Jane Austin...and I know they did nature study, and they still remember scripture and poetry memorized when children. Lots of jokes are made about uneducated people in rural KY, but they had excellent educations.  But that's 1930s,,,much later than what you are asking about.

 

 

Yes, a true treasure. I have her notes from school written in them as well. Some of the books were published specifically for school use and include a reference to "the requirements of the Committee of Ten" with a list of curricular requirements.

 

My grandfather's family came to Texas from rural KY as well.

[isaac_megan]

Here are the works mentioned in the introductions of the books I can readily access. These are works that rate as widely read from 1830-1851. It seems to be, from my small sample, that literary magazines were quite popular. Most of the collections of poems were published and distributed in their own volumes.

 

Classical Works Mentioned as Widely Read:

Pilgrim’s Progress Milton

The Miller’s Tale Chaucer

The Ancient Mariner Coleridge

 

Acclaimed Contemporary texts:

Nature Emerson (not exactly highly acclaimed at the time)

Concord Hymn Emerson

Outre Mer Longfellow

Hyperion Longfellow

Voice of the Night Longfellow

Ballads and Other Poems Longfellow

The Spanish Student Longfellow

The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems Longfellow

Evangeline Longfellow

Kavanagh Longfellow

The Seaside and Fireside Longfellow

The Golden Legend Longfellow

The Prose Romances of Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven Poe

Froissart Ballads, and Other Poems Cooke

Orta-Undis and Other Poems Legare

Hymns to the Gods Pike

 

Lectures/Addresses:

Man Thinking; or the American Scholar Emerson

 

Literary Publications Mentioned:

North American Review

New England Magazine

Baltimore Saturday Visitor

Southern Literary Messenger

The Marylander

The New England Review (Prentice/Whittier)

Gentleman’s Magazine (Poe)

Blackwood’s Magazine

Baltimore Exchange

 

Other Authors Mentioned for Study: (no specific works mentioned)

John Shaw

George Tucker

Edward Coate Pickney

Dante

Tasso

[LibraryLover]

Very cool thread.

[ElizabethB]

The book was written later, but the quote I reference from around that time frame shows that many families only had a Bible, I think you will appreciate the whole section on education in that era from this book, there are also literacy stats on page 474:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/historyofwayneco.html

[Hunter]

I just realized that the older McGuffey's were written in TWTM rotation 3 and the newer ones were written in TWTM rotation 4.

 

At least some of TWTM booklist must have been on the shelves.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/great-books/

[Hunter]

The book was written later, but the quote I reference from around that time frame shows that many families only had a Bible, I think you will appreciate the whole section on education in that era from this book, there are also literacy stats on page 474:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/historyofwayneco.html

Thanks! Am I misunderstanding? To me this is saying that the New Testament was sometimes the only book that everyone had in COMMON?

 

Can you imagine even today, trying to find a book that all the children in the class owned?

[Hunter]

Here are the works mentioned in the introductions of the books I can readily access. These are works that rate as widely read from 1830-1851. It seems to be, from my small sample, that literary magazines were quite popular. Most of the collections of poems were published and distributed in their own volumes.

 

 

Magazines and subscriptions were far more important back then? I think I can see the appeal without TV, radio, phone, or internet. It must have provided a sense of connection.

[ElizabethB]

Thanks! Am I misunderstanding? To me this is saying that the New Testament was sometimes the only book that everyone had in COMMON?

 

Can you imagine even today, trying to find a book that all the children in the class owned?

No, that was the ONLY book some families owned. They learned to read by going through the Speller two or three times, so they could use any book as a Reader, they were discussing which books families owned and used as Readers.

[Hunter]

I didn't know that English version of the Arabian Nights were so late in being published.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

 

There was nothing at all until 1840, and the Burton edition that I have which sounds so 1600's was written in 1885.

 

This really changes how I view the book's impact on Western Civilization. I know that there was an earlier version in French, but still, this book was not available to the extent that I previously assumed.

[Hunter]

No, that was the ONLY book some families owned. They learned to read by going through the Speller two or three times, so they could use any book as a Reader, they were discussing which books families owned and used as Readers.

I'll have to reread if I have time. Thank you!

[Hunter]

I'm becoming very interested in what was actually published in ENGLISH before 1800 and 1830.

 

The Perrault Fairy Tales were available in 1729

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/perrault.html

 

Grimms in 1823

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm-engl.html

 

Joseph Jacobs wasn't published until 1890! But we are told that these tales were told orally for much longer than that. Would they have been maybe published in some form in all those periodicals?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jacobs

 

Anderson is 1872, and they are mostly his original tales and not written accounts of oral tradition.

http://hca.gilead.org.il

[Hunter]

It look's like Garth's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses might have been popular.

http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html

 

I'm not sure what else was available for Greek myths. Was there anything in prose before Bullfinch in 1855?

[Hunter]

Something for Le Morte D'Arthur would have been in English, but I'm just confused about some of this. Was it originally written in English or French in the 1400's?

[brehon]

Something for Le Morte D'Arthur would have been in English, but I'm just confused about some of this. Was it originally written in English or French in the 1400's?

 

I believe Le Morte d'Arthur was originally written in Middle English (as Le Morte Darthur in Old French - I believe only the title was in French). If I recall my Brit Lit classes, the original publication still made use of the thorn and eth. (Sorry, I don't know how to type them on this computer.)

 

 

I'm wondering, Hunter, if you're confusing what was available (in English) in the 1800-1830 range v. what many (most?) families could afford. The maternal side of my family came to the US prior to the Revolution, but were never rich. At best, some of the family were what we would now call lower to mid middle class. Based on the diaries & letters of various ancestors my family tended to have a Bible and maybe a book of Shakespeare. The Shakespeare was not, I believe, compleat (ha! see what I did there?), but rather a slim volume of a couple of plays and some of the more well known sonnets. Other members of my maternal line at that time had a more extensive home library; though, this should not be understood to mean a lot of books. Maybe 5-10 generally? At least one ancestor was rich enough to own lots of books and lived in an area where books were easier to come by. I think his library was on the order of 10s of books, certainly under 30, though. All of my family had a strong tradition of literacy even if an individual family didn't own many books.

 

Of course, as you and others alluded to/said up thread, there was probably a geographical variable as well. People in the rural or frontier areas wouldn't have had as many books or the opportunity to purchase books as those who lived in the bigger towns and cities. Space was also an issue. Rural/frontier cabins tended to be smaller and there simply wasn't enough room for shelves of books.

[Hunter]

There are a couple issues I'm exploring here that sometimes overlap and sometimes not.

 

I'm just becoming aware that some books that I thought were available just were not available at all.

 

I am VERY interested in libraries that contained 5-10 books. What were those books. Really a Bible and 4-9 more books, if they are good ones isn't a bad education. And if multiple neighbors and relatives have a different 5-10 books that they were willing to share, that would have even been better.

 

If YOU were in 1836 and you could pick 10 books for YOUR home library, what would they be? I'm thinking:

 

KJV Bible

Westminster Catechism

Metrical Psalter

Webster Dictionary

Encyclopedia Britannica (3 volumes)

Aesop

Pilgrim's Progress

Grimms

 

I'll bet with a 10 book library a person would have been more likely to have a couple recently published novels or biographies rather than the encyclopedias, but I really really would want those. I could have survived with that.

 

If I could have another 10, it would be:

 

Atlas

Matthew Henry Commentaries (2 volumes?)

Cruden's Concordance

Le Morte D' Arthur

Robinson Crusoe

Mother Goose

Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb

Of Plimoth Plantation

Autobiography of Ben Franklin

[Hunter]

We forgot about cookbooks!

http://savoringthepast.net/2014/08/28/18th-and-early-19th-century-cookbooks-digital-searchable-and-free/

[Sahamamama]

Interesting articles about early children's lit.

 

http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/themes/childhood-and-childrens-literature

 

 

Thanks for posting this, Laura. I plan to go back and read the article about the prevalence of orphans in 19th century fiction, since this has been a bit of a problem here. A few years ago, my girls actually got to the point where they refused to read or listen to "another Dead Mother story," let alone yet another story about an orphan. I had not noticed how many parents were missing, but my children did.

 

The Jungle Book (Mowgli is an orphan)

Anne of Green Gables (orphan)

Little Orphan Annie (orphan)

Oliver Twist (orphan)

Adventures of Tom Sawyer (orphan)

Huckleberry Finn (orphan)

The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy is an orphan)

Little Lord Fauntleroy (Cedric is fatherless)

The Little Princess (Sara Crewe's mother is dead, and her father is absent [eventually dies, too, contrary to the movie version])

The Secret Garden (Mary Lennox is an orphan, Colin Craven is motherless and practically fatherless)

Cinderella (mother dies, father dies)

Snow White (mother dies, father remarries)

Peter Pan (lives without any parents)

Heidi (orphan)

Pollyanna (orphan)

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (dead father)

Ballet Shoes (Fossil sisters are orphans)

James and the Giant Peach (loving parents killed by a rhinoceros, ends up with awful aunts)

The Moffats (dead father)

 

In light of this, it's no wonder my children preferred Little House in the Big Woods, in which Pa plays his fiddle while Ma tucks the children in bed.

 

But adult fiction has its share of famous orphans, too. Jane Eyre, Pip and Estella, Heathcliff, David Copperfield, Frodo Baggins.

[Targhee]

I am reading David Copperfield right now, and as a boy the character mentions a reading primer, book of martyrs, THE dictionary (Webster's), Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, the Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe. There were his school books as well (at home, before going to boarding school), from which he was expected to learn his lessons (memorize, narrate, etc.). This period of David's boyhood is early 1800s (written in 1848). Of course it's fictional, but likely representative of a typical not-so-rich gentleman's house.

[Hunter]

I'm adding Of Plimoth Planation to this list, as I have reason to believe that was a popular book.

[Kat w]

I agree Of Plimoth Plantation.

 

To speak to what you brought up earlier about the books about the frontier, yet, we know through writings, there were books in homes...my personal take on that is this.

 

The frontier movement was so vicious ( things and people they encountered), such a long treacherous haul made by large numbers of people...they had alot if experiences going on at the time.

If you look back at the settling of the colonies, you could see the same thing. Diaries they wrote, many journal entries had they been 'published' would be the equivalent to the short stories we see from England in the same time frame.

 

The colonists wrote alot, alot got lost due to famine, disease, Indians burning villages.

 

By the time America headed west, Benjamin Franklin had est his paper, and the East coast had relative wealth.

 

The colonies had been established , now...it was the West that was being conquered much like the colonies being established .

 

The colonies/States were old news lol. The excitement shifted to the westward ho.

 

The books of which they write, I believe would have been on the new States private home bookshelves.

 

They fought the fight, the good fight to est our nation. They were tired lol. Kids that were now adults, heard the stories passed down and journal entries that were written, they were concerned with making sure they didn't visit the same perils their immediate ancestors endured.

 

So, IMO , I believe the middle class and books were on the coast households.

 

The history books focus on the westward settling BC of the monumental undertaking that was. Huge masses of lands, thst first, had to conquer the mountains, wide open fields, more Indians than the colonists probably encountered.

 

The coast was also settled by a large majority of Christians. You had States like the Quacker's and Puritans that, if you didn't conform to their way of thinking...you were out lol.

 

The West has many accounts of Christians , but not the dogmatic sort of Christianity.

 

They probably alot of them, felt like outsiders on the coast so...West they went lol.

 

Then of course the gold rush. I mean. How alluring and sexy if that? Gold, always gets big news :)

 

Just my take on it all :)

 

Awesome thread Hunter :)

Edited August 10, 2016 by Kat w

[Kat w]

Plus...I believe that was the time period (pretty sure) that homesteading was big.

 

If you worked the land for varying amount of years ( usually 10) you got to 'own' the land.

That would draw huge numbers of people. George Washington Carver's account of this is fascinating.

Those coming from foreign lands were destitute. They NEEDED thst land for them and their families .

 

That's all big news, partly BC it drew large amounts of people.

 

History books will focus in the happenings of the times.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Kat w

[Hunter]

Reading vintage books has been so eyeopening. They contradict so much of what I have been told second hand about the times. I learned so much by reading the Mott Media readers and specifically seeking out other books published at the same time.

 

This thread is a bit old. I think it was soon after this that some of us first learned about the term "chronological snobbery". Just in case this is new to you, I wanted to post it.

 

 

Chronological snobbery is an argument that the thinking, art, or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its temporal priority. The term was coined by C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield.^[when?]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery

[Hunter]

Contrasts in one culture to another at certain points of history is fascinating.

 

The Pilgrims compared to France and England at the time. The coasts and the interior and north during the 1800's.

 

In the very late 60's and early 70's, I still remember the contrast in the small British colony I was born in compared to the USA, when I traveled back and forth. And heard teachers and other grownups talking about England.

[Hunter]

A book of home remedies?

Middle/upper class Catholics might also have had "The Imitation of Christ" and the "Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary."

 

Thank you for adding those!

 

I'm really interested in what the catholic church was publishing as the 1800s progressed. The textbooks are so Protestant based, that this is another area where reading the original books is likely to be enlightening.

[Kat w]

Reading vintage books has been so eyeopening. They contradict so much of what I have been told second hand about the times. I learned so much by reading the Mott Media readers and specifically seeking out other books published at the same time.

 

This thread is a bit old. I think it was soon after this that some of us first learned about the term "chronological snobbery". Just in case this is new to you, I wanted to post it.

 

 

Chronological snobbery is an argument that the thinking, art, or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its temporal priority. The term was coined by C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield.^[when?]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery

That's interesting that you would bring that up.

As I was talkin to vaquitita earlier( I must have just missed you on her post) we were talking about the McGuffey s , Free Treadwell's, and Elsons.

Afterwards I thought, wow, I maybe kinda sound like a possible book snob lol.

 

Which would be the inverse of the chronological snobbery.

 

Thinking what is old is inferior.

I sure could be guilty of being a book snob I suppose. I adore the old books. The new ones? IMO, jus dint compare, well most of them.

We have watered down our literature .

 

I did read if C.S.Lewis and this line if thinking ( I didn't remember the verbage on the title of it) , but I have read quite a bit by and about C.S. Lewis.

I love him. I raised my big 3 on him.

 

I especially enjoy hearing quotes by him before his conversion. Kind of reminds me of Paul a little bit. Not that Lewis persecuted Christians, but he sure wasbt a fan of them was he? Makes me chuckle a tad.

 

Lewis IMHO is probably one of the greatest contemporary writers we have. An to think....he was a staunch atheist.

 

I haven't read all the pages of this thread...I think I read about 1 and a half pages. I'm going g to go back and read more.

Fascinating.

Good thread Hunter :)

[Hunter]

Well, this is a guess based on St Therese in France had The Imitation memorized as a child and I know it is supposed to be one of the best selling books of all time, and Marie Antoinette had a copy if the Little Office at the time of her death (it was a shorter version of what we now call the Liturgy if the Hours that was very popular among middle/upper class laity). I'm not sure when it became common to have personal missalettes, but by the early nineteen hundreds they seem to have been very widespread (Poor people would often get them as wedding or First Communion presents). The Baltimore Catechism was published in 1885 I think? It was used in all the Catholic schools, so it probably would've been in home libraries as well for those who could afford it.

 

Thank you so much for this input!

[Hunter]

Kat, I don't think either old or new is superior. Old is often free though. So I look there first.

[Hunter]

And finding the best of the best among the old is now a hobby. And especially tracking down what old has been republished with a modern ISBN number.

 

[rose]

Hmmm...I wish I knew. I know that almost all Mennonite and Amish families own a copy, even if they have little else. I think that might has skewed my ability to think accurately of it's widespread appeal.

A little correction here. Maybe someone else brought this up down thread. Most Anabaptist families own another, similar book called The Martyr's Mirror. It covers the martyrs of the Anabaptist tradition rather than the regular protestant martyrs that Foxes' covers. I'm currently working with the distributed proofreaders to get a good version on Project Gutenberg. You can get a copy on archive.org or just view the wikipedia article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_Mirror

 

Source: basically being a fringe Anabaptist myself and having been in many Anabaptist homes.

 

[rose]

I know that that Tolstoy isn't exactly representative but you might like this list: http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/leo-tolstoy-creates-a-list-of-the-50-books-that-influenced-him-most-1891.html

[Hunter]

Rose, I don't think I ever noticed they were different books. Thank you!

 

That Tolstoy list is going to make someone I know very happy. :lol: Awesome.

 

This forum has the most interesting people on it! You all teach me so much!