Hanover Browsing
Suggestions of Time-Proven Classics as Valuable and Enjoyable Volumes for a Dartmouth Book Shelf
REQUESTS FROM STUDENTS AND ALUMNI for a list of good books which they >- might profitably have on their shelves frequently come to me. But let it be understood from the beginning that what follows is not a list of one hundred best books. Such a list might well extend into the thousands. Nor have I put in classics which are embalmed by Time. These are books which you can read for profit and PLEASURE. All of them belong on any Dartmouth Book Shelf! And, of course, many more besides. I have read these books and have reread many of them. They might be said to be among my own favorite tomes, but I have others, too, so please don't say "How could you exclude Poe? de Maupassant? Jane Austen? Hemingway? etc.?" I don't exclude them, but I do include the following titles on any must list.
Adams, Henry The Education of HenryAdams. Houghton, 1918.
Audubon, J. J. The Birds of America. Macmillan, now only $4.95.
Barbellion, W. N. P. The Journal of aDisappointed Man. Chatto & Windus,
London. Bell, Gertrude Letters of Gertrude Bell.
2 volumes. Ernest Benn, London, 1927. Bennett, Arnold The Old Wives' Tale.
(Best bargain here is to buy Somerset Maugham's anthology Traveller's Library published by Doubleday which
contains this novel and many other fine things besides.)
BIBLE, preferably the King James' version.
Blunden, Edmund Undertones of War. Cobden-Sanderson, London.
Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen My Diaries, 18881914. 2 vols. Knopf.
Bone, David Merchantmen-At-Arms. Chatto & Windus. Borrow, George Lavengro and Romany
Rye. 2 vols. Oxford. Burns, Robert Complete Poems. Houghton, Mifflin.
Burton, Richard A Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah andMeccah. Any edition available.
Cather, Willa A Lost Lady. Knopf. Catlin, George North American Indians.
2 vols. Best edition available. John Grant; Edinburgh, 1926.
Cervantes Don Quixote. (Nonesuch Press or Everyman Library depending on your purse.)
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley The Worst Journey in the World. 2 vols. Penguin Books.
Chapelle, H. I. The History of AmericanSailing Ships. Norton, 1935.
Cobbett, William Rural Rides. 2 vols. Everyman Library.
Conrad, Joseph Typhoon, A Mirror ofthe Sea, Youth, Lord Jim, etc. Doubleday.
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage. Appleton.
Diaz, Bernal de Castillo The Conquestof Mexico. Harper.
Dostoievsky. The Brothers Karamazov. Macmillan. (In all of Dostoievsky's books insist on Constance Garnett's translations. Same for Turgenev, Gogol, etc.)
Doughty, C. M. Travels in Arabia Deserta. Random House. 2 vol.
Douglas, Henry Kyd. I Rode with Stonewall. Chapel Hill, 1940.
Douglas, Norman South Wind, Old Calabria, Siren Land. Seeker.
Doyle, A. C. The Complete SherlockHolmes. Doubleday.
Eliot, T. S. The Wasteland. Knopf. Fabre, Jean Henri Social Life in the Insect World. Dodd, Mead.
Finger, Charles Seven Horizons. Doubleday, Doran.
Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. Arnold, London.
Fortescue, Sir John The Story of a RedDeer. Macmillan.
Fowler's English Usage. Oxford Press. Frost, Robert Collected Poems. Holt. Galsworthy, John The Forsyte Saga, AModern Comedy. Scribners.
Graham, R. B. Cunninghame Rodeo (anthology of his best stories and sketches) Doubleday, Doran.
Graves, Robert Goodbye To All That. Cape, London.
Grey of Fallodon Fly Fishing. Dutton. Hakluyt's Voyages 10 volumes. Dutton, New York.
Hardy, Thomas The Dynasts. Macmillan.
Herzen, Alexander The Diary of Alexander Herzen. 6 vols. Knopf.
Hills, J. Waller A Summer on the Test. London, Alan & Co.
Homer The Odyssey. Translation by T. E. Lawrence. Oxford.
Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life, Talesof the Pampas, and any others. Dutton and Knopf.
Jefferies, Richard The Story of MyHeart. Longmans.
Jewett, Sarah Orne The Country of thePointed Firs. Houghton.
Kalm, Peter Peter Kalm's Travels inNorth America. Wilson-Erickson, Inc. New York, 1937. Latest edition in print.
King, Clarence Mountaineering in theSierra Nevada. Scribners.
Kinglake, Alexander Edthen. Oxford World's Classics.
Lawrence, T. E. The Seven Pillars ofWisdom. Doubleday.
Lowes, John Livingstone The Road toXanadu. Houghton.
Machiavelli, Nicolo The Prince. Everyman Library.
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Voyages. Recent Reprint: 1927.
Mackenzie, Compton Sinister Street. Appleton.
Madariaga, Salvador de The Genius ofSpain. Oxford.
Manning, Frederick The Middle Partsof Fortune. Peter Davies.
Masefield, John Collected Poems. Macmillan.
Maugham, Somerset Of Human Bondage, and almost any other book of his will prove excellent reading. Doubleday.
Melville, Herman Moby Dick. Any edition. Mencken, Henry L. The American Language. Knopf. 4th Edition.
Mill, John Stuart Liberty. Oxford World Classics.
Montague, C. E. Disenchantment. Brentanos.
Montaigne, Michel de Essays. Trechmann translation. Oxford. 2 vols.
Munthe Axel The Story of San Michele. Dutton.
Nansen, Fridiof Farthest North. Harper, 1897.
Nesbitt, L. M. The Hell Hole of Creation. Knopf.
Nevinson, Henry W. Changes and Chances, More Changes, More Chances, LastChanges, Last Chances. 3 vol. (Autobiography) Nesbit.
Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford Press.
Parkman, Francis The Oregon Trail. Farrar and Rinehart.
Passos, John Dos U.S.A. Modern Library Giant.
Pepys' Diary 3 vols. Harcourt. Philby, H. St. John The Empty Quarter. Holt, 1933.
Pike, Warburton The Barren Ground ofNorthern Canada. Dutton.
Random House Edition of The CompleteGreek Drama. 2 vols.
Roberts, Morley The Western Avernus. Everyman Library.
Rolland, Romain Jean Christophe. Holt. Runyon, Damon The Best of Runyon. Stokes.
Schuster, Claud Peaks and Pleasant Pastures. Oxford, 1911.
Scott, Robert Falcon Scott's Last Expedition. 2 vol. Smith, Elder.
Shackleton, Sir Ernest South, 1914-1917. Macmillan.
Shakespeare, Complete Works. Oxford Shakespeare Head Edition.
Smith, Alexander Dreamthorp. Oxford World Classics.
Smith, Logan Pearsall Trivia, Re-Perusals and Recollections.
Smythe, F. S. Kamet Conquered (Gollancz), Camp Six (Hodder).
Stark, Freya Baghdad Sketches. Dutton, 1938
Steffansson, Vilhjalmur The FriendlyArctic. Macmillan.
Still, John The Jungle Tide. Houghton, 193°-
Thomas, Bertram Arabia Felix. Cape. Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. Any edition.
Tilman, H. W. The Ascent of NandaDevi. Macmillan, 1937.
Tolstoy, Lyof War and Peace. Oxford World Classics, 3 vols.
Tomlinson, H. M. The Sea and the Jungle. Harper.
Trelawney, E. B. The Story of a YoungerSon. Oxford.
Turgenev, Ivan A Sportsman's Sketches. Dutton.
Twain, Mark Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Waley, Arthur Translations from theChinese. Knopf, 1941.
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Webb, Mary Gone to Earth. Cape. Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass. Whymper, Edward Scrambles Amongstthe Alps. Blackwells, Oxford.
Wodehouse, P. G. The Week End Wodehouse. Garden City Press.
Wolfe, Thomas Look Homeward, Angel. Scribners.
Worsly, Frank First Voyage. Bles, London, 1938.
