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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 26
1,400 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 26 of 30.
The Little Review, May 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 3)
Various
This artifact of literary modernism captures the frantic, searching spirit of 1915, documenting a world on the brink of profound, violent transformation through the eyes of the era's most restless writers and thinkers.
The Unpopular Review, Number 19: July-December 1918
Various
This collection of essays, cultural critiques, and editorial commentary serves as a spirited, opinionated window into the intellectual anxieties and high-minded ambitions of American thinkers during the final months of the Great War.
The Water of Life, and Other Sermons
Charles Kingsley
These sermons offer a vigorous, muscular theology that finds the presence of a living God not in remote abstractions, but in the grime, sickness, and social duties of nineteenth-century London. They serve as a bridge between the traditional pulpit and the emerging demands of a modern, industrialized society.
Rebel women
Evelyn Sharp
The struggle for political enfranchisement is often depicted as a clash of grand ideologies, but the true pulse of the movement beats in the quiet, persistent defiance of ordinary women. Within these pages, the fight for the vote is revealed not as a distant revolution, but as a deeply personal transformation…
Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi
Jefferson Davis
An urgent and formal defense of political principle, these collected addresses capture a pivotal moment when the American Union teetered on the brink of fracture.
The Critic and the Drama
George Jean Nathan
The critic is the self-appointed chaperone of the arts, an egotist tasked with measuring the distance between a playwright’s ambition and the audience’s capacity for wonder. This work serves as an uncompromising manifesto on the mechanics of theater and the responsibilities of those who stand in judgment of it.
Watson Refuted: Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff
Samuel W. (Samuel Ward) Francis
This polemical work serves as a sharp-edged rejoinder to the theological defenses of the late eighteenth century, challenging the established authority of the church through the lens of radical rationalism.
Behind the Bungalow
Edward Hamilton Aitken
The domestic landscape of colonial India is brought to life through a series of vivid portraits, detailing the complex, often humorous, and deeply hierarchical relationships between British masters and their Indian household servants.
Hell: Warm Words on the Cheerful and Comforting Doctrine of Eternal Damnation
Robert Green Ingersoll
The doctrine of eternal damnation is an affront to human decency, a dark relic of barbarism that must be replaced by the light of science and the practical work of improving life on earth.
In the Track of the Bookworm
Irving Browne
The true book-worm is defined not by the size of his library, but by the depth of his devotion to the hunt and the quiet companionship of his shelves. This collection of essays and ballads offers an intimate look at the peculiar, often obsessive, and deeply rewarding life of the bibliophile.
Little Dinners With the Sphinx, and Other Prose Fancies
Richard Le Gallienne
This collection of lyrical, reflective prose sketches captures the fleeting beauty of romantic idealism, memory, and the bittersweet transition from youth to maturity. These vignettes serve as a meditation on the persistence of dreams in a world that demands practical compromise.
Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This collection of 1853 correspondence serves as a vibrant clearinghouse for Victorian intellectual curiosity, where antiquaries, linguists, and historians swap obscure facts to satisfy their restless, scholarly appetites.
State of the Union Addresses
William McKinley
These annual reports document a pivotal transformation in American life, tracing the nation’s rapid transition from an inward-looking republic to a global power at the dawn of the twentieth century.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 70, August, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This volume captures the intellectual and political pulse of 1863, blending immediate commentary on the American Civil War with literary essays, travel sketches, and historical inquiries. It serves as a vivid time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century thought.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 4, part 1: William Henry Harrison
Unknown
This archival record captures the abrupt transition of power following the sudden death of a President, illuminating the early constitutional uncertainties of the American Republic.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 425, March, 1851
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century British periodical captures a nation torn between technological pride and human misery, wrestling with economic collapse, moral responsibility, and the turbulent evolution of its culture.
Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A weekly Victorian journal transforms minor curiosities into serious debate, weaving Shakespearean textual analysis, folklore, and antiquarian preservation into a lively exchange of ideas.
Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage (1704)
Unknown
This polemic captures the fierce seventeenth-century cultural war against the London theater, arguing that the stage served as a primary source of national moral corruption. It remains a fascinating relic of early moral activism.
Revisiting the Earth
James Langdon Hill
A tender look backward, this reflection on small-town American life honors the places that shape us and the silent passage of time.
Small Talk at Wreyland. First Series
Cecil Torr
An old man picks up a pencil to rescue local memory from oblivion, only to find himself tracing the quiet, interconnected currents of a changing English landscape.
The Scientific Spirit of the Age, and Other Pleas and Discussions
Frances Power Cobbe
A passionate, lucid defense of human emotion, moral duty, and spiritual reverence against the cold encroachments of unbridled Victorian materialism.
A Book Without a Title
George Jean Nathan
A sharp edge cuts through human pretension in seventy-four brief fables, exposing the illusions people hold about love, art, fame, and vanity.
Letters of the Motor Girl
Ethellyn Gardner
Fourteen-year-old Elsie drives her beloved Franklin car through a whirlwind of early-twentieth-century road trips, outlandish family inventions, high-flying airship voyages, and comedic domestic misadventures.
State of the Union Addresses
James Buchanan
A leader presides over a nation rich in harvest and material wealth while watching its political fabric disintegrate beneath his feet.
Under the Trees and Elsewhere
Hamilton Wright Mabie
When a tired worker leaves a cluttered study, stepping into the outdoors reclaims a life lost to routine.
Discourse on Criticism and of Poetry: From Poems On Several Occasions (1707)
Samuel Cobb
True poetic genius demands total freedom, leaving slavish adherence to rules and pedantic critics behind in the mud.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, February 1849
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary mosaic captures the restless imagination, moral anxieties, and romantic longings of a rapidly changing American culture.
Henry Gally
Henry Gally
A refined critical manual details how to capture the living truths of human character without falling into exaggeration or cheap verbal wit.
Idle Hours in a Library
William Henry Hudson
A literary scholar invites readers on four distinct excursions into the past, wandering through London’s vibrant streets, private diaries, early romantic fiction, and the fragile, impoverished attics of Parisian artists.
Remarks of Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina on the bill to prevent the interference of certain federal officers in elections: delivered in the Senate of the United States February 22, 1839
John C. (John Caldwell) Calhoun
A fierce defense of state sovereignty frames federal overreach as an existential threat to constitutional liberty and economic fairness.
The historical novel
Herbert Butterfield
Fiction acts as a magnifying glass for time, rescuing human life from cold analytical charts and turning dead historical facts into vivid personal drama.
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
A vibrant mosaic of nineteenth-century American thought, this periodical captures a young nation wrestling with its literary identity, historical inheritance, and cultural ambitions.
Worrying Won't Win
Montague Glass
Taking down a nation's troubles over a cup of coffee and a newspaper, two garment traders offer a counterweight to wartime hysteria through common sense and sardonic wit.
Dialogue
Anthony Hope
Dialogue is a sophisticated inquiry into the mechanics of fictional speech, exploring how writers use talk to define character, advance plot, and resolve the paradox of authorship. It serves as a masterclass in literary craft.
Inaugural Presidential Address
Barack Obama
Delivered during a moment of profound national economic crisis and ongoing foreign wars, this speech offers a steady, disciplined reinterpretation of American purpose.
Intercession: A Sermon Preached by the Rev. B. N. Michelson, B.A
B. N. Michelson
In a moment of national devastation, a wartime sermon calls for moral balance, unity across faiths, and self-sacrifice grounded in eternal duty.
Slavery: What it was, what it has done, what it intends to do: Speech of Hon. Cydnor B. Tompkins, of Ohio
Cydnor Bailey Tompkins
Confronting the aggressive expansion of the slave power, an Ohio congressman marshals the foundational ideals of the American Revolution to defend free soil.
The Universal Reciter: 81 Choice Pieces of Rare Poetical Gems
Various
Whether facing down a battle, a burning volcano, or a stubborn plate of French food, these eighty-one dramatic recitations capture nineteenth-century public performance in all its high-flown, tragic, and absurd glory.
Books and Culture
Hamilton Wright Mabie
Great books do not demand endless leisure; they require only the deliberate, daily gathering of idle minutes.
Indian speeches (1907-1909)
John Morley
Preserving imperial control while expanding native representation creates a precarious balance between maintaining order and conceding power.
Ioläus: An Anthology of Friendship
Unknown
This collection gathers historical, poetic, and philosophical meditations to illuminate the profound, often romantic, role that deep friendship between men has played across diverse cultures and centuries. It serves as a scholarly but deeply felt archival project, intended to recover a lost or overlooked dimension…
Letters from Palestine: Written during a residence there in the years 1836, 7 and 8
J. D. (John D.) Paxton
An American traveler navigates the mountains, sacred sites, and ancient towns of the Ottoman Levant, recording the landscape with an eye split between biblical memory and practical observation.
Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A period periodical gathers scholars, antiquaries, and curious readers to unravel historical mysteries, etymological puzzles, and emerging Victorian technology.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
In the midst of the American Civil War, the March 1864 issue of the Atlantic Monthly gathers historical oddities, romantic fiction, philosophical musings, and urgent military analysis into a vivid portrait of a nation in crisis.
The Dance of Death
William (Author of The dance of death) Herman
A relentless moral crusade against the modern waltz, this scathing tract exposes the sensual perils hidden beneath the glittering surface of nineteenth-century high society.
The Feast of St. Friend
Arnold Bennett
Modern Christmas often feels like an exhausted obligation, but stripping away its ancient dogmas reveals a vital human necessity. By grounding the season in astronomical reality and active goodwill, we can reclaim its power to transform our daily relationships.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 542, April 14, 1832
Various
A miscellany of nineteenth-century British curiosities gathers landscape reviews, African exploration, American social critiques, and rural superstitions into a single continuous stream. It captures an expanding world through the lens of a newly literate, deeply inquisitive public.
An Estimate of the Value and Influence of Works of Fiction in Modern Times
Thomas Hill Green
Literature reveals its deepest power when it forces the reader to abandon trivial amusements and confront the fundamental laws governing human thought and spirit.