Rare Books Elizabethan Drama Marlowe - Shakespeare 1969 The Harvard Classics w intro and notes used books for readers gift Hamlet King Lear

This is a very good hardcover. 1969 P.F. Collier New York Edition, 1969. This copy is still crisp and clean inside and out. The pages are clean with no markings seen. Binding tight and olive green faux leather hardcover boards are also very good and clean with barely a hint of shelf wear. Gold design with veritas shield front cover and gold lettering along spine. Crown octavo book size or 5.5" x 8.25".

The P.F Collier Editions of The Harvard Classics were published in 1969-70 and were the 62nd printing of the series. The Harvard Classics were all edited by Charles W. Eliot in a 50 volume set originally published in 1909 and 1910. Charles W. Eliot was the President of Harvard at the time and spoke about the Harvard Classics in speeches, making references to a "3 foot shelf of books" that could afford any reader an education were he to read them all. He was pressed to expand on exactly what books would be included in that "3 foot shelf" and he concluded that one would actually need a 5 foot shelf. No titles were defined at that time, but Colliers implored Eliot to chose 50 books for a 5 foot shelf, they would publish if Eliot would define the books. So The Harvard Classics was born. At the time they were often referred to as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf of Books. Reprinted many times, the final print run from Collier was the 62nd printing.

This copy contains: Edward the Second by Christopher Marlowe, Hamlet Prince of Denmark by Shakespeare, King Lear by Shakespeare, MacBeth by Shakespeare, and The Tempest by Shakespeare. Includes intro and notes.

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