Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include philosophy and thought--Phtah-Hotep, Petrarch, Diderot, Bertrand Russell, and the Weymouth New Testament; adventure and travel--a survival story by Mark Twain and a woman's sojourn in Saltillo, Mexico; immigration and war--Benjamin Franklin on the assimilation of German speakers, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the League of Nations, and an essay on potatoes and war; geology--on the origins of chalk; a critique of one-act plays, a biography of H.H. Munro , and Emerson's advice to Thoreau to clear his brain by writing poetry. Aphorisms by Diderot was translated by Margaret Jourdain Petrarch's Secret was translated by William H. Draper The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep was translated by Battiscombe G. Gunn