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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 11
598 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 11 of 13.
Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It
Unknown
Veiled figures, locked doors, and broken lives across continents reveal a hidden world where millions of women endure systemic oppression, waiting for hope to pierce their isolation.
The Appetite of Tyranny: Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
A home burns down, but the disaster is not caused by the victims' small vices; it is caused by the arsonist who lit the torch.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850
Various
An eclectic snapshot of mid-nineteenth-century thought, this periodical captures a world rapidly transforming through industrial labor, scientific observation, revolutionary politics, and literary genius.
India for Indians: Enlarged Edition
Chitta Ranjan Das
A passionate plea for Indian self-determination, this collection of speeches exposes the injustice of colonial rule and calls for unified national action.
Atlantic Classics, Second Series
Unknown
The everyday observation of an era becomes the enduring wisdom of the next when caught by reflective minds. These collected voices from early twentieth-century America turn personal experience into quiet philosophy.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
Various
A lively mix of intellectual critique, historic narrative, high romance, and social satire gives voice to nineteenth-century British literary culture.
Humanity in the City
E. H. (Edwin Hubbell) Chapin
Under the rushing noise and blinding display of urban commerce lies a single human soul, searching in crowded thoroughfares for the divine purpose of its daily struggles.
Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
A relentless commitment to clear thinking can strip away comforting illusions and reveal the rigorous, unified order of the natural world.
Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)
G. W. (George William) Foote
Stripping away centuries of pious decoration, a militant freethinker subjects religious dogma to the unrelenting cold light of historical fact and secular reason.
Readers and Writers (1917-1921)
A. R. (Alfred Richard) Orage
Cultural judgment requires the same disciplined continuity as political criticism, grounded in a tireless quest for an ideal prose style that harmonizes the full vitality of the English tongue.
Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt
Franz Liszt
An intense artistic rescue mission unfolds in intimate letters between a exile in despair and a virtuoso willing to move mountains to bring revolutionary music to the world.
Simon Magus: An Essay on the Founder of Simonianism Based on the Ancient Sources With a Re-Evaluation of His Philosophy and Teachings
G. R. S. (George Robert Stow) Mead
A figure long demonized as the archetype of Christian heresy receives a rigorous, sympathetic re-examination that untangles ancient smearing campaigns to expose a profound system of early mystical philosophy.
The Footpath Way: An Anthology for Walkers
Unknown
The act of walking is more than simple movement; it is a profound method of reclaiming one’s humanity from the artificial constraints of modern life.
Celtic Literature
Matthew Arnold
To understand the English character, one must look beyond the Saxon and the Norman to the overlooked, spirit-rich influence of the Celt. This cultural inquiry seeks to trace the threads of a forgotten heritage.
Books and Persons
Arnold Bennett
This collection of journalistic commentary offers a sharp, witty, and uncompromising lens into the literary culture and intellectual atmosphere of London between 1908 and 1911. It captures the friction between artistic ambition and the stifling conventions of the Edwardian era.
Letters from China and Japan
John Dewey
An American philosopher and his wife travel to the East for a quiet vacation, only to find themselves embedded in the profound political and social awakenings of two rapidly changing nations.
Christmas
Unknown
A carefully curated treasury of seasonal reflections, this collection gathers the finest poetry, prose, and legend to illuminate the enduring spirit of Christmas across the ages.
The California Birthday Book: Prose and Poetical Selections from the Writings of Living California Authors with a Brief Biographical Sketch of each
Unknown
A celebration of the Golden State, this collection gathers the voices of early twentieth-century California to map the landscape through prose and verse. It serves as both a literary anthology and a cultural time capsule.
Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions
George S. (George Sewall) Boutwell
Education is the bedrock of a stable republic, a vital, living process that transforms the raw potential of youth into the disciplined, productive, and moral citizens required for a thriving, free society.
Curiosities of Impecuniosity
H. G. Somerville
Lacking coin can be a catalyst for greatness or a path to ruin, revealing the strange, desperate, and often ingenious ways human beings navigate the crushing weight of poverty.
Impressions and Comments
Havelock Ellis
These collected musings capture the scattered observations of a curious mind, tracing the intersections of art, nature, and the human condition. They offer a contemplative journey through the facets of a seasoned thinker’s life.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection captures the urgent, searching pulse of a nation in the summer of 1865, weaving together the heavy realities of post-Civil War reconstruction and the timeless curiosities of the literary mind.
Anti-Suffrage Essays
Unknown
Polished arguments, statutory evidence, and fierce civic conviction unite in a historical broadside against altering the American electorate.
The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII, Complete: The Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life, and Criticism
John Greenleaf Whittier
The conscience of a nation finds its voice in these collected essays, which trace the moral struggle to abolish slavery and the relentless pursuit of social reform in the nineteenth century.
The Unity of Western Civilization
Unknown
A shared heritage of law, science, and faith survives even the most destructive conflicts, offering a foundation for a future commonwealth of nations.
Immortal Memories
Clement King Shorter
A collection of spirited literary tributes and bibliophilic advice, these essays celebrate the enduring influence of great writers upon the modern mind.
A Plea for Captain John Brown: Read to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts on Sunday evening, October thirtieth, eighteen fifty-nine
Henry David Thoreau
A fierce and urgent defense of a man branded a fanatic, this address demands that we weigh the moral courage of an individual against the hollow legality of a nation.
Animal Ghosts
Elliott O'Donnell
The silent, watchful gaze of a household pet may hold more than mere affection; it may be a bridge to an unseen world where the loyalties of the living persist long after death.
The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2
Samuel Adams
American independence begins in the ink of colonial dissent, where sharp political debate and tireless correspondence forged a new nation’s resolve against imperial overreach.
Leaves in the Wind
A. G. (Alfred George) Gardiner
These reflections, penned in the shadow of the First World War, find grace in the small, enduring rhythms of nature and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.
Men, Women, and Gods
Helen H. (Helen Hamilton) Gardener
Individual liberty for women is a moral imperative that requires breaking free from the suffocating, irrational constraints of religious tradition. This challenge to patriarchal dogma demands that women reclaim their intellectual autonomy and human dignity.
American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
Unknown
The foundational debates of a nation unfold through the voices of those who shaped its trajectory, capturing a volatile century of constitutional struggle, industrial transition, and the painful pursuit of a more perfect union.
Hodge and His Masters
Richard Jefferies
This collection of sketches provides a panoramic view of late 19th-century English rural life, where the traditional agricultural order buckles under the pressure of shifting economics and social change. It documents the fragile, interconnected world of the laborer, the tenant farmer, and the landlord.
Chapters on Spanish Literature
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly
A sweeping, clear-sighted tour through centuries of Spanish letters, uncovering the human lives and artistry behind medieval epics, golden-age plays, and modern prose.
Individuality: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'
Robert Green Ingersoll
To forfeit one's independent thought at the command of custom or authority is a form of self-annihilation. True human progress relies entirely on the rare courage of those who dare to think, speak, and stand alone.
The Philosophy of Style
Herbert Spencer
An elegant reduction of literary expression to a single governing principle: the conservation of the reader's mental energy.
The Author's Craft
Arnold Bennett
Observation requires active engagement, yet most people pass through the world in a haze, noticing nothing of the life unfolding around them.
Nuggets of the New Thought: Several Things That Have Helped People
William Walker Atkinson
To cultivate a mind of confidence, strength, and inner peace, one must cast aside fear and learn to resonate in harmony with universal law.
The Powder of Sympathy
Christopher Morley
A lighthearted look at life turns everyday suburban commutes, literary discoveries, and odd corner-store encounters into quiet moments of humor and delight.
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12)
Edmund Burke
A relentless prosecutor lays bare the systemic abuse of imperial power in India, demanding that Parliament hold its highest officials accountable to human decency.
Ways of wood folk
William J. (William Joseph) Long
Deep in the wilderness, wild animals live lives of distinct individuality, intelligence, and unexpected humor if watched with patience.
Faces in the Fire, and Other Fancies
Frank Boreham
An hearthside observer reflects on life’s quiet turns, watching how ordinary moments—a bowl of fruit, a pair of boots, or a child’s toy—unfold into profound revelations.
Acres of Diamonds
Russell H. Conwell
Real wealth and greatness are not hidden in distant lands or official titles; they lie waiting in your own backyard, accessible to anyone willing to see and serve local human needs.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844
Various
A single issue of a Victorian literary periodical opens a window onto mid-nineteenth-century British politics, romantic fiction, political philosophy, and historical biography. Across its pages, sharp political commentary sits beside eerie tales, collegiate reminiscences, and deep engagements with European thought.
Exotics and Retrospectives
Lafcadio Hearn
An encounter with a world where mountain dust, insect song, and ghostly memories converge, this collection bridges delicate Japanese observation and the vast, unsettling depths of evolutionary psychology.
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 12
Unknown
A desperate, cash-strapped young nation fights to survive the tail end of its War of Independence using paper promises, borrowed French gold, and sheer administrative willpower.
The Jews
Hilaire Belloc
A persistent friction between two distinct nations living within the same borders cannot be resolved by forced assimilation or enforced silence. Lasting peace demands total candor, mutual recognition, and the courage to abandon outworn conventions before antagonism turns to violence.
Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science
Simon Newcomb
In an era of rapid technological transformation, a master observer measures the vast machinery of the cosmos while questioning the limits of human ingenuity and invention.