“These four hundred pages are packed full of high matters which no one solicitous of the future of American culture can afford to overlook.” — Jacques Barzun

“It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight.” ― The New Yorker

“‘There is the book; and here is your mind.’ Adler and Van Doren’s suggestions on how to connect the two will make you nostalgic for a slower, more earnest, less trivial time.” — Anne Fadiman

Dr. Mortimer J. Adler was Chairman of the Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Honorary Trustee of the Aspen Institute, and authored more than fifty books. He died in 2001.

Dr. Charles Van Doren earned advanced degrees in both literature and mathematics from Columbia University, where he later taught English and was the Assistant Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research. He also worked for Encyclopedia Britannica in Chicago.