ALUMNI
New York City Chapter
The New York City Chapter of the St. John's College Alumni Association facilitates social, educational and professional contact among alumni living in the New York metropolitan area.
Great Books News
NPR has reported the discovery of an Archimedes text hidden in a 13th century prayerbook, the .
The archeologists involved provide more details on
, and here's the
of the story.
The Great Books Movement
by W. B. Carnochan (Stanford Humanities Review - Volume 6.1, 1998). Traces the century-old passtime of drawing up top-100 lists.
. Traces the great book movement in Chicago.
. Also solves the age-old mystery of why St. John's has tutors instead of professors.
. John Van Doren reflects on the visionary thinking that inspired his father and his colleagues to bring the Great Books to Columbia College more than eighty years ago.
Great Books Online
. Your gateway to the great books online.
The . Offers many online editions.
. The first internet project to distribute fulltexts for free. Even predates the web.
. Classical Greek and Latin texts in English as well as the original languages (if you have the right fonts).
. Founded in 1990 at Carnegie Mellon University as The English Server. The EServer's primary function is to publish texts in the arts and humanities. Our collections include art, architecture, drama, fiction, poetry, history, political theory, cultural studies, philosophy, women's studies and music.
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The preeminent publisher of literature, reference and verse providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information on the web, free of charge.
. The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume '5-foot shelf of books' and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century.
has a number of interesting articles relating to great books, including
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. A new project to create a repository of source texts.
The . Links to over 20,000 free books on the web.
The publish the Great Books and Junior Great Books series.
The . Offers online discussion groups and bulletin boards.
The webring. Links to almost 100 great books sites.
Great Reference Books
Many wonderul references have come online in recent years. The following public domain works can now be accessed for free.
was an encyclopedia published by Ephraim Chambers in London in 1728, and reprinted in numerous editions in the 18th Century. The Cyclopaedia was one of the first general encyclopedias to be produced in English, and was the inspiration for the landmark Encyclopedie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, which owed its inception to a French translation of Chambers' work begun in 1743 and finished in 1745.
The ten-volume was one of the largest and most highly regarded dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by the Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions (originally issued in 24 fascicles) in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations.
The , was contended by supporters to represent "the sum of human knowledge" at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. The edition is still often regarded as the greatest edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, many articles being up to 10 times the length of those in other encyclopædias.
The , edited by Philip P. Wiener, was published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1973-74 but has been out of print for many years. Aware of the new potential offered by electronic access to texts, the Directors and Board of Editors of the Journal of the History of Ideas authorized a grant to support digitization of the DHI. Substantial support has also been provided by the University of Virginia Library through its Electronic Text Center. The project has been undertaken with the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons and of The Gale Group, of which Scribner's is a part.
Great Books Lists
. The reading list that since 1937 has served as the core of the curriculum had its beginnings at Columbia College, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Virginia. Here are the two latest lists: the
, and the
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. Reprints book lists from Sir John Lubbock's Choice of Books (1896) to the appendix of Harold Bloom's The Western Canon (1994).
Books About Great Books
The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought, by
(Macmillan, 1992, 958 pages). Lengthy essays on 102 pivotal concepts. Intended to introduce, and originally published as part of, the 1952 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World series.
The Great Treasury of Western Thought: A Compendium of Important Statements and Comments on Man and His Institutions by Great Thinkers in Western History, edited by Mortimer J. Adler and
(R. R. Bowker, 1977). At 1771 pages, this is unlike any other quotation collection you have ever seen. Incredibly rich and thorough.
A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future, by Charles Van Doren, A'46 (Carol Publishing Corporation, 1991, 422 pages). A one-voume reference to the history of ideas that is a compendium of everything that humankind has thought, invented, created, considered, and perfected from the beginning of civilization.
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View, by
(Harmony Books, 1991, 543 pages).
The most lucid and concise presentation I have read of the grand lines of what every student should know about the history of Western thought. — Joseph Campbell
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, by
(Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994, 578 pages). Bloom's tome reinvigorates and re-examines Western Literature, arguing against the politicization of reading.
Great Books: My Adventures With Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World, by David Denby (Simon & Schuster, 1996, 492 pages).
David Denby, New York city movie critic and journalist, entered Columbia University in 1991 to take the university's famous course in "Great Books."
He has produced a cry from the heart in favor of the classics of western civilization, relaying with infectious enthusiasm how literature touched his soul.
The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World, by
(Random House, 1998, 298 pages). Boorstin says our Western culture has seen three grand epics of Seeking. First there was the heroic way of prophets and philosophers — men like Moses or Job or Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as those in the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation — seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each of us. Then came an age of communal seeking, with people like Thucydides and Thomas More and Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally, there was an age of the social sciences, when man seemed ruled by the forces of history. Here are the absorbing stories of exceptional men such as Marx, Spengler, and Toynbee, Carlyle and Emerson, and Malraux, Bergson, and Einstein.
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded, by
and John S. Major (HarperResource, 1999, 400 pages). In print for almost 40 years, The Lifetime Reading Plan has long been a worthy addition to any serious reader's bookshelf, providing entertaining and informative introductions to the great works of Western civilization.
How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization, by Mortimer J. Adler (Open Court, 2000, 530 pages). Transcripts of 52 half-hour segments from Adler's 1953 TV show, The Great Ideas. Adler's essays offer a remarkable and contemplative distillation of the Great Ideas of Western Thought.
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time, by
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edited by John R. Little (Simon & Schuster, 2002, 144 pages). This engaging, accessible book of essays from Pulitzer Prize-winning philosopher and historian Durant, author of the authoritative 11-volume Story of Civilization, should be essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of thought.
Other Great Books Programs
, Macon, Georgia.
, Notre Dame, Indiana.
, Santa Paula, California.
A more complete list of Great Books programs can be found at 's . An even is published by Mercer University.
The is a nonprofit organization in Annapolis, created by St. John's tutors, which seeks to bring discussion-based learning and teaching and critical thinking skills to elementary through high schools.
Great Books Dealers
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Advanced Book Exchange and Alibris will let you upload your want list and notify you when any book you're looking for appears in the catalog of any of their hundreds of associated dealers.
Please feel free to contact any of us at the following email addresses. And remember that we're only one chapter of the — so don't forget to visit their site as well.
Click this button to pay your dues using PayPal, or if you prefer to pay by check. Suggested donations are only $10 a year for the five most recent graduating classes, $20 for those who have been out from five to ten years, and $30 if you've been out of school for more than ten years.