Plutarch's Lives: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics Vol XII (in 51 Volumes): 12

Translator name not noted above: Arthur Hugh Clough Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name Harvard Classics this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature philosophy history and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926) Harvard Universitys longest-serving president. Also known as Dr. Eliots Five Foot Shelf it represented Eliots belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XII features selections from the biographical writings of the Greek historian PLUTARCH (c. 46 A.D.-120 A.D.) which offer us the only sources of information that have survived for some personages and exerted a profound influence on the literature to come particularly throughout the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Included are Plutarchs biographies of Themistocles Pericles Aristides Coriolanus Demosthenes Cicero and others.