Utilitarianism - achieving the greatest good for the greatest number. Well-known Western philosopher John Stuart Mill proposes the concept of utilitarianism as a moral standard by which to judge actions.

In Utopia (1516) Thomas More concocts a place, an island, with what he considers to be desirable religious, social and political practices - a place very unlike where he actually lived. It is a place "like Plato's Republic, only better". Utopia is often discussed for its political ideas and is seen as the seed for communist political thought, it is a great piece of work that continues to generate political discussion. Thought provoking through the ages.

1872 Best Seller.

In his day E. P. Roe was a bigger seller than Mark Twain.

A story of the Chicago fire.

"We accord a hearty commendation to this work. The narrative is vigorous, often intense, but rarely if ever melodramatic. Its language is usually no less chaste than forcible and impressive. It betrays a power of invention and description which is not met with every day in the best of writers of popular fiction." -- Dr. Ripley, in the New York Tribune (contemporary review)

1895 Best Seller.

Sketches of rural Scottish life based on the authors experiences as a minister in Perthshire.

1859 Best Seller.

The novel follows the orphaned Beulah from childhood in the Antebellum South through a troubled and stormy struggle for independence.

1898 Best Seller.

A new minister arrives at a mining and lumber boomtown in the 1880's West. He is determined to 'clean up the town' and win a few souls, but the task proves more challenging than he anticipated.

1899 Best Seller.

A novel full of wonderful character sketches. David Harum, a dry and somewhat excentric country banker, tells of a young man from a well to do family who finds himself in the small town of Homeville and begins a romance with a young lady.