Books in the Thrift Editions series

The great documents in this important collection helped form the foundation of American democratic government. Compelling, influential, and often inspirational, they range from Patrick Henry's dramatic "Give me liberty or give me death" speech at the start of the American Revolution to Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, issued in the closing weeks of the Civil War. Also included are the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson's classic rationale for rejecting allegiance to the government of King George III; the Monroe Doctrine, the cornerstone of American foreign policy; and other landmark statements: The Constitution of the United States; James Madison's The Federalist, No. 10; George Washington's First Inaugural Address and Farewell Address; Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address; Andrew Jackson's Veto of the Bank Bill; and Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, Emancipation Proclamation, and Gettysburg Address.An introductory note precedes the text of each document, providing fascinating background history and information about the author.

It was with this first version of "Song of Myself," from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, that Whitman first made himself known to the world. Readers of revised editions will find this version surprising, and often superior. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Composed in a golden age of Celtic storytelling in the 13th century or earlier, this collection of 12 Welsh prose tales is a masterpiece of European literature. This unabridged republication of a stand edition includes a Publisher's Note and the original Introduction.

Dostoyevskys masterpiece introduces a world filled with greed, passion, depravity, and complex moral issues, as three brothers become involved in the brutal murder of their own father. This edition features an Afterword by bestselling author Sara Peretsky. Revised reissue.

Four outstanding works by great 19th-century Russian author: "The Nose," "Old-Fashioned Farmers," "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," and "The Overcoat."

The tale of a waif's unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves, this novel offers a realistic portrait of the correlation between poverty and crime.

One of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer, songwriter, and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame. Among his most famous works, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in many ways parallels Johnson's own remarkable life. First published in 1912, the novel relates, through an anonymous narrator, events in the life of an American of mixed ethnicity whose exceptional abilities and ambiguous appearance allow him unusual social mobility--from the rural South to the urban North and eventually to Europe. This pioneering work not only probes the psychological aspects of passing for white but also examines the American caste and class system. The human drama is powerful and revealing--from the narrator's persistent battles with personal demons to his firsthand observations of a Southern lynching and the mingling of races in New York's bohemian atmosphere at the turn of the century.

Six essays and one address outline Emerson's moral idealism and hint at later scepticism. In addition to title essay, this volume includes "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet" and "Experience," plus the Harvard Divinity School Address.