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.

1863 Best Seller.

Whitney was an opponent of women's suffrage, although in keeping with her philosophy she took no part in public life. Her message of then merely conservative values meant that her books sold very well to the parents of girls.