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Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 051

Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include philosophy--Bertrand Russell, Spinoza, and Epictetus; science and invention--the Wright brothers, Leibniz, arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, spider webs, and cylindrical silos; plays and cinema--Lillian Gish and Friedrich Schiller; satire--selections from Ambrose Bierce, Robert Benchley, and Seneca; biographies--Aaron Burr, and Sophia Packard of Spellman College; the murder of Archbishop Charles Seghers in Alaska in 1886; and a history of Torre Abbey in England. Summary by Sue Anderson Against the Epicurean and Academics was translated by T. W. Rolleston. (3 hr 35 min)

Chapters

Against the Epicureans and Academics

Apocolocyntosis (or: The Pumpkinification of Claudius)

The Circular Snare

The Community Masque as a Substitute for War

The Cylindrical Silo

Did We Eat One Another?

Excerpt from Theodicy

The Fate of Sir John Franklin

The Nature of the Human Mind

A Noble Life-Work After Fifty-Seven: Sophia B. Packard

The Official Account of the Death of Archbishop Seghers

The Place of Science in a Liberal Education

Preface to The Robbers (1781)

The Story of a Daughter's Love

Torre Abbey

Way Down East

The Wright Brothers and Their Problem