Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract
In common with most readers, excepting the fanatical
culture seekers, the concept of a list of "great books, " which
every educated man or woman must read, strikes me as dreary
and dull. Despite Robert Hutchins 1 and Clifton Fadiman's exhortations,
nothing could induce me to wade through such
sleep-producers as a majority of the titles urged upon us in
The Lifetime Reading Plan and the Great Books Foundation
list.
Far more rewarding, significant, and exciting, in my
view, is to try to single out those books that over the centuries
have made the most profound impact on the history, economics,
culture, civilization, and science of our time. Admittedly,
some works of prime importance are intangible in their influence.
That is especially true in such fields as literature, philosophy,
and religion.
Most measurable in their effect are certain seminal
works in sciencethe trail-blazers, creating new frontiers,
often dramatically extending man's knowledge of the visible and
invisible universe around him. Often these books represent
the culmination of the efforts of many minds. William Harvey
on blood circulation built upon the researches of sixteenthcentury
anatomists and physiologists; Linneaus came at the end
of two centuries of systems of classifying plants. Sir Isaac
Newton, after acknowledging his indebtedness to Copernicus,
Kepler, Galileo, and other predecessors, remarked, "If I
have seen further than other men, it is by standing on the shoulders
of giants."published or submitted for publicatio