“It was about the month of May…that I received information …that two photographs of fairies had been taken in the North of England under circumstances which seemed to put fraud out of the question.” (Arthur Conan Doyle 1920). Differing foundational beliefs and the varied ways men and women seek truth, whether through science, faith, philosophic speculation or political involvement, are highlighted in the selections for vol 079: The Cottingley Fairies; Scientific Ghosts; Matter and Memory; A Village Discussion; The Early Narratives of Genesis; The Connection Between Church and State; The Prince; Miss Morrison’s First Visit to the Petit Trianon; The Scientific Work of Miss N.M. Stevens; Homicide; Religion and Philosophy in Germany; The Public Bath Movement; The Right to Work; and Rivers of the Nameless Dead. People and places are the subject of The Pinehurst Tea Gardens; Sights and Tastes in Tripoli; and William Coppin and Marine Salvage. For respite, there are essays featuring nature and solitude: In the Christmas Woods and A Lazy Morning. Finally, cats win out, when governor Adlai Stevenson vetoes a legislative proposal banning roaming felines in Illinois. Summary by Sue Anderson     [chương_files]  

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. “Not one of us actually thinks for himself, or in any orderly and scientific manner. The pressure of environment, of mass ideas, of the socialized intelligence… is too enormous to be withstood.” (H. L. Mencken, 1919) The individual and society were central to several vol. 080 reads: The Genealogy of Etiquette; A Lounge on the Lawn; Alexander Pushkin; Princess Zizianoff; The Hanseatic League; and The Limits of Atheism. Science and the inventive mind were covered in “On the Science of Experiments; Coffey’s Science of Logic; Medicine and It’s Subjects; How a Fast Train is Run; and The Telephone. Travel and customs were explored in Rupert Brooke & Skyros; Lundy Island; and An Unfamiliar Naples. Nature studies included Wildflowers of the Farm; Birds in the Calendar; Trees in Landscape Painting, and A Tame Rook. Finally, a dog’s life received favorable comparison with our own in The Superior Animal. Summary by Sue Anderson The authorship of Lundy Island, originally ascribed to Anonymous has been determined through genealogical research to be Amelia Ann Heaven, a member of the family which owned the island from 1834 to 1918. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundy Roger Bacon’s On the Science of Experiments was translated by Andrew George Little (1863-1945)     [chương_files]  

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. “Our constitution is color-blind… the law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights…are involved.” Justice Harlan’s eloquent defense of equal rights for Black citizens in his 1866 dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson is one of several Vol. 076 selections which explore social issues and politics: John Adams; Gettysburg Address; Civil Rights Bill (1866); First Philippic of Demosthenes; Manifesto of the Humanitarian League; and Acadian Reminiscences. The multitudinal dimensions of human diversity are displayed in other selections: On Leveling from Amiel’s Journal; Sufism; The Discovery of Witches; The Cruise of the Wasp; Nanook of the North; Fossil Hunting in the Permian of Texas; The Nation’s Capital: What to See; Underground London; Poisons Used by Ancient Races; Genetically Engineered Crops; and Recipes for Ice Creams and Ices. Summary by Sue Anderson.     [chương_files]