Family Library

[Brother John]

One of the goals of my wife and I is to build a large family library (that we could leave for our children/descendants in a large library in our family home on an estate/retreat in the North GA mountains for our descendants to use as a meeting and relaxing place, but I digress...). I am looking for PBers recommendations on what are good solid books outside of theology. I have several excellent "must have" theology list but can not seem to come across anything recommended from a reformed perspective on everything else in life. I want to have a true "Reformation Man" library to read, study and pass to the next generation to do the same. I know that each of you are an expert in some area so I am hoping that you can offer your expertise. Everything from farming skills to philosophy and everything between. I am interested in the top must have books for a multi-generational reformed family library.

 

[greenbaggins]

English and World literature is a must. Get C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Dickens, Austen, Melville, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hawthorne, Walter Scott, Sabatini, Dumas, Hugo, Shakespeare, Milton, Balzac, Harding, Thackeray, and Twain. Since you are looking for an heirloom library, I would highly recommend Easton Press. The books are expensive, but not when you consider how long they will last, and how solidly and beautifully they are made.

 

[Kevin]

Easton Press.

Also consider making a list of several authors that you consider worthwhile, outside of the cannon, and start collecting their works.

John Buchan is my personal favorite. He was a son of the manse, an elder in the C of S, an MP, a col. in WWI, a partner in Thomas Nelson pub, a best selling novelist, a well respected historian, a lay preacher, Gov. Gen. of Canada, a peer of the realm, a father of 4, etc., etc.

The point is I have been collecting his books since George Grant first turned me on to him about 13 years ago. I now have a very nice collection of Firsts, good readable, and signed editions.

Unlike my collection of theology books, my medieval shelves, my political bios, and my economics collection, these ones actually are worth real money!

 

[Ezekiel3626]

I must agree with Lanes post, those authors and their works would benefit anyone willing to open them up. I would like to add a small list that I compiled from my own library. These volumes have proved valuable to me.

The West Point Way of Leadership
Col. Larry R. Donnithorne, (Ret.)
Once an Eagle
Anton Myrer
"Every-Man Series"
Arterburn and Stoeker
How to read a book
Mortimer J. Adler
The Reagan Diaries
Ronald Reagan
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[py3ak]

English and World literature is a must. Get C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Dickens, Austen, Melville, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hawthorne, Walter Scott, Sabatini, Dumas, Hugo, Shakespeare, Milton, Balzac, Harding, Thackeray, and Twain. Since you are looking for an heirloom library, I would highly recommend Easton Press. The books are expensive, but not when you consider how long they will last, and how solidly and beautifully they are made.

I'm guessing Lane was in a hurry when he made that list.

Tolkien's translation of Pearl is of more importance than any writing by Tolkien himself. This says more for the value of Pearl than the unimportance of Tolkien, naturally.

If it's an either or, it would be better to leave off some of the novelists in favor of some of the poets (without going back to classic antiquity): Dante; Dryden; Pope; Shelley (you could replace Hawthorne, Thackeray and Balzac, for instance, with no great loss). I would also have thought Flaubert to be of more importance than Dumas.
Sabatini?
Harding?

And there's a lot to add: classics aside (not because they are unimportant, but because they can be taken for granted: a library without Homer, Aeschylus, et al is hardly worthy of the name) there is: Beowulf; Chaucer; Malory; Spenser; Donne; Addison; Swift; Johnson; Fielding; Sterne; Coleridge; Chesterton; Orwell. There are books you should have for sheer charm value, like the Grossmiths' The Diary of a Nobody. There are far more than two Russian authors, and I would be so bold as to say that Gogol and Pushkin may be and Chekhov certainly is more rewarding than Tolstoy. Don Quixote should not be left aside. There are the authoresses: Emily Bronte; Virginia Woolf; Katherine Mansfield; Kate Chopin. There are people from whose larger work perhaps one book emerges as worth preserving, as seems to me to be the case with Edith Wharton, the book in question being Ethan Frome, or perhaps (translation work on the Bestiary not being taken into account) T.H. White with The Once and Future King (with The Book of Merlyn.

And then there are people who are relatively minor and unknown, yet whose absence would be a real loss, such as Arthur Lindsay Gordon. And there are authors against whom there is something of a stigma, like Kipling (in part deserved, think of If and the jingoism), whom are yet tremendously worthwhile.

The period in between the world wars was rather insanely fertile: to be sure, much of what was produced was not of remarkable tendency if one regards its heirs: but the achievements of Joyce, of Lawrence, of Huxley, of Russell, even of Eliot are themselves worth preserving, whatever malformed moon children they may have spawned.

And we haven't even come to the abundant ground of children's books: Carroll, Nesbit, Potter, Marshall, Barrie, Milne....

 

[Tim]

Now this is what I am talking about!

You are planning for the spiritual future of your family. This is wonderful. I was talking about this with someone the other day (in more general terms), but he didn't seem to get the point.

If I may ask (not to hijack the thread), does anyone know of any threads regarding this in a general sense (creating a family Christian legacy, etc)?

 

[moral necessity]

As a reformed person, I personally have gleaned enjoyably from Johnny Cash stuff now and then. I know of his differential upbringing, and so I filter it very much, but I think he experienced the Gospel in his life more than most. His experience w/ real sin and real self condemnation made his experience w/ the gospel that much more profound later on in his life.

 

[greenbaggins]

English and World literature is a must. Get C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Dickens, Austen, Melville, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hawthorne, Walter Scott, Sabatini, Dumas, Hugo, Shakespeare, Milton, Balzac, Harding, Thackeray, and Twain. Since you are looking for an heirloom library, I would highly recommend Easton Press. The books are expensive, but not when you consider how long they will last, and how solidly and beautifully they are made.

I'm guessing Lane was in a hurry when he made that list.

Tolkien's translation of Pearl is of more importance than any writing by Tolkien himself. This says more for the value of Pearl than the unimportance of Tolkien, naturally.

If it's an either or, it would be better to leave off some of the novelists in favor of some of the poets (without going back to classic antiquity): Dante; Dryden; Pope; Shelley (you could replace Hawthorne, Thackeray and Balzac, for instance, with no great loss). I would also have thought Flaubert to be of more importance than Dumas.
Sabatini?
Harding?

And there's a lot to add: classics aside (not because they are unimportant, but because they can be taken for granted: a library without Homer, Aeschylus, et al is hardly worthy of the name) there is: Beowulf; Chaucer; Malory; Spenser; Donne; Addison; Swift; Johnson; Fielding; Sterne; Coleridge; Chesterton; Orwell. There are books you should have for sheer charm value, like the Grossmiths' The Diary of a Nobody. There are far more than two Russian authors, and I would be so bold as to say that Gogol and Pushkin may be and Chekhov certainly is more rewarding than Tolstoy. Don Quixote should not be left aside. There are the authoresses: Emily Bronte; Virginia Woolf; Katherine Mansfield; Kate Chopin. There are people from whose larger work perhaps one book emerges as worth preserving, as seems to me to be the case with Edith Wharton, the book in question being Ethan Frome, or perhaps (translation work on the Bestiary not being taken into account) T.H. White with The Once and Future King (with The Book of Merlyn.

And then there are people who are relatively minor and unknown, yet whose absence would be a real loss, such as Arthur Lindsay Gordon. And there are authors against whom there is something of a stigma, like Kipling (in part deserved, think of If and the jingoism), whom are yet tremendously worthwhile.

The period in between the world wars was rather insanely fertile: to be sure, much of what was produced was not of remarkable tendency if one regards its heirs: but the achievements of Joyce, of Lawrence, of Huxley, of Russell, even of Eliot are themselves worth preserving, whatever malformed moon children they may have spawned.

And we haven't even come to the abundant ground of children's books: Carroll, Nesbit, Potter, Marshall, Barrie, Milne....

Great additions, Ruben. I certainly did not mean my list to be exhaustive, but rather representative. They were the authors who came to mind at the moment. I'd have to disagree, however, with your assessment of Tolkien. I regard Tolkien's work as perhaps the single greatest literary achievement of the 20th century.

 

[FenderPriest]

Leland Ryken would be a good reference in getting not only good referrals, but a good Reformed perspective on literature. I.e. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Realms-Gold-Classics-Christian-Perspective/dp/0877887179]Amazon.com: Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective (Wheaton Literary Series): Leland Ryken: Books[/ame]

 

[py3ak]

Tolkien's translation of Pearl is of more importance than any writing by Tolkien himself. This says more for the value of Pearl than the unimportance of Tolkien, naturally.

Great additions, Ruben. I certainly did not mean my list to be exhaustive, but rather representative. They were the authors who came to mind at the moment. I'd have to disagree, however, with your assessment of Tolkien. I regard Tolkien's work as perhaps the single greatest literary achievement of the 20th century.

I like Tolkien and have read him numerous times, but I am surprised by that assessment. I've found that Tolkien stands up to re-reading less well than, say, Perelandra. He certainly had a capacity for the terrible, as is seen in the tale of Hurin's children. He can pull off the grand style rather well, although his technique for doing it is more obvious than Malory's. It's not that one would forget what he has written, or not have been permanently impacted by it; but he does not seem to me nearly as coherent as Lewis. In the sense that he made fantasy possible again, to be sure, he is significant for publishing: but given the abysmal quality of most of the fantasy that's been published, perhaps that's not something to be very proud of!
All of his remarkable verbal skills are called upon in translating Pearl: so that there you can see his craftsmanship in combination with a poem intrinsically great in its own right.

 

[LawrenceU]

The West Point Way of Leadership
Col. Larry R. Donnithorne, (Ret.)

A hearty 'Second!' to this volume. It is a must read and one that you will want to retain. Another fantastic often overlooked volume is Man of Steel and Velvet: A Guide to Masculine Development by Aubrey Andelin. It will challenge you and if a feminist reads it she will most likely either die of a heat explosion or burn the book.

 

[Brother John]

Now this is what I am talking about!

You are planning for the spiritual future of your family. This is wonderful. I was talking about this with someone the other day (in more general terms), but he didn't seem to get the point.

If I may ask (not to hijack the thread), does anyone know of any threads regarding this in a general sense (creating a family Christian legacy, etc)?

Tim I am about to start one.....

And here it is.... http://www.puritanboard.com/f25/creating-multigenerational-family-christian-legacy-44626/#post560244