Category - Literary Collections

He was an ordained minister, renowned orator, and beloved author and poet whose ideas on nature, philosophy, and religion influenced authors such...

Nature was a form of religion for naturalist, essayist, and early environmentalist Henry David Thoreau (1817–62). In communing with the natural w...

In an era of revolutions demanding greater liberties for mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an ardent feminist who spoke eloquently for...

When she was 19 months old, Helen Keller (1880–1968) suffered a severe illness that left her blind and deaf. Not long after, she also became mute...

Remarkable for their eloquence, depth of feeling, and oratorical mastery, these 82 compelling speeches encompass five centuries of Indian encount...

The great Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross became a Carmelite monk in 1563 and helped St. Teresa of Avila to reform the Carmelite order — end...

Although dour in appearance and formidable in reputation, Friedrich Nietzsche was an ardent practitioner of the art of poetry—known in twelfth-ce...

One of the most important and controversial figures in the history of race relations in America and the world at large, Marcus Garvey was the fir...

A towering figure in African-American history, W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) created a substantial literary legacy beyond such seminal works as The ...

This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) played a key role in developing the strategy...

Edited by the first African American Rhodes Scholar, this landmark anthology of fiction, poetry, essays, drama, music, and illustration is widely...

The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among t...

Author, abolitionist, political activist, and philosopher, Frederick Douglass was a pivotal figure in the decades of struggle leading up to the C...

The stories of hundreds of African Americans who lived in bondage are preserved in this powerful 1839 chronicle. Compiled by a prominent abolitioni...