Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include philosophy--Bertrand Russell, Spinoza, and Epictetus; science and invention--the Wright brothers, Leibniz, arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, spider webs, and cylindrical silos; plays and cinema--Lillian Gish and Friedrich Schiller; satire--selections from Ambrose Bierce, Robert Benchley, and Seneca; biographies--Aaron Burr, and Sophia Packard of Spellman College; the murder of Archbishop Charles Seghers in Alaska in 1886; and a history of Torre Abbey in England. Summary by Sue Anderson

Against the Epicurean and Academics was translated by T. W. Rolleston.