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 (Saki), and Emerson's advice to Thoreau to clear his brain by writing poetry.<br /><br />Aphorisms by Diderot was translated by <a href="https://librivox.org/author/12714">Margaret Jourdain</a><br />Petrarch's Secret was translated by <a href="https://librivox.org/author/12715">William H. Draper</a><br />The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep was translated by <a href="https://librivox.org/author/12664">Battiscombe G. Gunn</a>
