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{{Short description|Book series}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} The '''Thinker's Library''' was a series of 140 hardcover books published between 1929 and 1951 for the [[Rationalist Press Association]] by [[Watts & Co. (publishing firm)|Watts & Co.]], London, a company founded by the brothers John and [[Charles Watts (secularist)|Charles Watts]] and then run by the latter's son [[Charles Albert Watts]]. The name was suggested by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]], a member of the company's board of directors, who took an active interest in setting up the series and was later to write several volumes himself.<ref name=Cooke>{{cite book |title=The Blasphemy Depot: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association| first=Bill| last=Cooke| publisher=RPA| year=2003}}</ref> The Thinker’s Library was intended as a successor to the cheap paperback “Sixpenny Reprints” from the same publisher, the aim being to bring humanist, philosophical and scientific works to as wide an audience as possible.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Humanism in 100 Objects: The Thinker's Library |url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/the-thinkers-library/|website=Humanist Heritage|access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> Unlike the previous series, the volumes in the Thinker’s Library were small hardbacks (6 ½ x 4 ¼ inches) bound in brown clothette, with grey dustjackets, priced at one shilling. The covers of the early editions featured title, author’s name and a brief description of the book between Doric columns, with the image of [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin]]’s [[The Thinker]] at the foot. The design would change several times over the course of the series, but the figure of the Thinker remained ever-present.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thinker's Library|url=https://seriesofseries.com/thinkers-library/|website=seriesofseries.com|access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> The library covered a wide range of subjects with a broadly humanist slant. The lists of titles occasionally published in individual volumes were arranged under these headings: General Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, General Science, Religion, History, Fiction and Miscellaneous. The last group included collections of essays by several writers, drama (a volume containing two plays by [[Euripides]]), poetry ([[James Thomson (poet, born 1834)|James Thomson]]’s ''[[The City of Dreadful Night]]'') and memoirs (the Autobiography of [[Charles Darwin]]). The focus was initially on reprints, often abridgements of, or selections from, longer works from well-known free-thinking writers; [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[John Stuart Mill|J. S. Mill]], [[H. G. Wells]] and [[Herbert Spencer]] were among those represented in the first ten volumes. However, as the series continued it focused more and more on original titles. The first of these to be published in the series was [[Ernest Mander|A. E. Mander]]’s ''Psychology for Everyman (And Woman)'' in 1935; reprinted several times, it was to sell over 400,000 copies, and was followed by the same author’s ''Clearer Thinking: Logic for Everyman'' the following year.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alfred Ernest Mander (1894-1985) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mander-alfred-ernest-14893 |website=Australian Dictionary of Biography|date=2012}}</ref> Further original titles were contributed by J. A. C. Brown, Adam Gowans Whyte, [[Sir Arthur Smith Woodward]] and [[George Godwin]], among others, and it was Godwin's ''The Great Revivalists'' that brought the series to a close in 1951. ==List of titles== Dates given are of first publication in the Thinker's Library. Abridgements of longer works are indicated by an asterisk. # ''[[First and Last Things|First and Last Things: A Confession of Faith and Rule of Life]]'' by [[H. G. Wells]] (1929) # ''Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical'' by [[Herbert Spencer]] (1929) # ''The Riddle of the Universe'' by [[Ernst Haeckel]]. Translated by [[Joseph McCabe]] (1929) # ''Humanity's Gain from Unbelief, and Other Selections from the Works of [[Charles Bradlaugh]]''. With prefatory note by [[Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner]] (1929) # ''[[On Liberty]]'' by [[John Stuart Mill]] (1929) # ''[[A Short History of the World (Wells book)|A Short History of the World]]'' by [[H. G. Wells]] (1929) # ''[[The Autobiography of Charles Darwin]]''. With two appendices by his son [[Francis Darwin|Sir Francis Darwin]] (1929) # ''[[Origin of Species|The Origin of Species]]'' by [[Charles Darwin]]. Last (sixth) edition (1929) # ''Twelve Years in a Monastery'' by [[Joseph McCabe]]. Third and revised edition (1929) # ''History of Modern Philosophy'' by [[A. W. Benn]] (1930) # ''[[Edward Gibbon|Gibbon]] on Christianity: being the 15th and 16th chapters of Edward Gibbon's ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]. With an introduction by [[J. M. Robertson]] (1930) # ''[[The Descent of Man]]'' by [[Charles Darwin]]. Part 1 and the concluding chapter of Part 3, with a preface by [[Leonard Darwin|Major Leonard Darwin]] (1930) # ''History of Civilization in England (Vol. I)'' by [[Henry Thomas Buckle]] (1930)* # ''Anthropology (Vol. I)'' by [[Edward Burnett Tylor|Sir Edward B. Tylor]]. With an introduction by [[Alfred Cort Haddon|A. C. Haddon]] (1930) # ''Anthropology (Vol. II)'' by [[Edward Burnett Tylor|Sir Edward B. Tylor]] (1930) # ''Iphigenia: Two plays by [[Euripides]]''. Translated by [[Charles Bradlaugh Bonner|C. B. Bonner]]. Contains the plays ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' and ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]'' (1930) # ''Lectures and Essays'' by [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] (1931) # ''The Evolution of the Idea of God'' by [[Grant Allen]] (1931)* # ''An Agnostic's Apology, and Other Essays'' by [[Leslie Stephen|Sir Leslie Stephen]] (1931) # ''The Churches and Modern Thought: An Inquiry into the Grounds of Unbelief and an Appeal for Candour'' by [[Vivian Phelips]] [Philip Vivian] (1931) # ''[[Penguin Island (novel)|Penguin Island]]'' by [[Anatole France]]. Translated by A. W. Evans (1931) # ''The Pathetic Fallacy: A Study of Christianity'' by [[Llewelyn Powys]] (1931) # ''Historical Trials: A Selection'' by [[John Macdonell (jurist)|Sir John MacDonell, K. C. B.]] Edited by R. Lee, with a preface by [[Thomas Shaw, 1st Baron Craigmyle|Lord Shaw of Dunfermline]] (1931)* # ''A Short History of Christianity'' by [[J. M. Robertson]] (1931) # ''The Martyrdom of Man'' by [[Winwood Reade]] (1931) # ''Head-hunters: Black, White, and Brown'' by [[Alfred Cort Haddon|A. C. Haddon]] (1932)* # ''The Evidence for the [[Supernatural]]: A Critical Study made with 'Uncommon Sense''' by [[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett|Ivor Ll. Tuckett]] (1932)* # ''[[The City of Dreadful Night]] and Other Poems: A selection from the Poetical Works of [[James Thomson (B.V.)]]''. With a preface by Henry S. Salt (1932) # ''In the Beginning: The Origin of Civilisation'' by [[G. Elliot Smith]] (1932) # ''[[Adonis]]: a Study in the History of Oriental Religion'' by [[James George Frazer|Sir James G. Frazer]]. From Part IV of ''[[The Golden Bough]]'' (1932)* # ''Our New Religion'' by [[H. A. L. Fisher]] (1933) # ''On Compromise'' by [[John Morley]] (1933) # ''A History of the Taxes on Knowledge: Their Origin and Repeal'' by [[Collet Dobson Collet]]. Introduction by [[George Holyoake|George Jacob Holyoake]] (1933)* # ''The Existence of God'' by [[Joseph McCabe]] (1933) # ''The Story of the Bible'' by [[MacLeod Yearsley]] (1933)* # ''Savage Survivals: The Story of the Race Told in Simple Language'' by [[J. Howard Moore]] (1933) # ''[[The Revolt of the Angels]]'' by [[Anatole France]]. Translated by Mrs Wilfrid Jackson (1933) # ''The Outcast'' by [[Winwood Reade]] (1933) # ''Penalties Upon Opinion: or Some Records of the laws of Heresy and Blasphemy'' by [[Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner]]. Revised and enlarged by F. W. Read (1934) # ''Oath, Curse, and Blessing: and other Studies in Origins'' by [[Ernest Crawley]]. Edited by [[Theodore Besterman]] (1934) # ''Fireside Science'' by Sir [[E. Ray Lankester]]. Selected and prepared by [[Charles Marsh Beadnell|C. M. Beadnell]] (1934) # ''History of [[Anthropology]]'' by [[Alfred Cort Haddon|A. C. Haddon]] (1934) # ''The World's Earliest Laws'' by [[Chilperic Edwards]] (1934) # ''Fact and Faith'' by [[J. B. S. Haldane]] (1934) # ''Men of the Dawn: The Story of Man’s Evolution to the End of the Old Stone Age '' by [[Dorothy Davison]] (1934) # ''The Mind in the Making'' by [[James Harvey Robinson]]. With an introduction by [[H. G. Wells]] (1934) # ''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'' by [[Charles Darwin]]. Revised and abridged by [[Charles Marsh Beadnell|C. M. Beadnell]] (1934)* # ''Psychology for Everyman (and Woman)'' by [[A. E. Mander]] (1935) # ''The Religion of the Open Mind'' by [[Adam Gowans Whyte]]. Foreword by [[Eden Philpotts]] (1935) # ''Letters on Reasoning'' by [[J. M. Robertson]] (1935)* # <li value=''51''>''The Social Record of Christianity'' by [[Joseph McCabe]] (1935) # ''Five Stages of [[Ancient Greek religion|Greek Religion]]: Studies Based on a Course of Lectures Delivered in April 1912 at [[Columbia University]]'' by [[Gilbert Murray]] (1935) # ''The Life of Jesus'' by [[Ernest Renan]] (1935) # ''Selected Works of [[Voltaire]]''. Translated with an introduction by [[Joseph McCabe]] (1935) # ''What are we to do with our lives?'' by [[H. G. Wells]] (1935) # ''Do What You Will: Essays'' by [[Aldous Huxley]] (1936) # ''Clearer Thinking ([[Logic]] for Everyman)'' by [[A. E. Mander]] (1936) # ''History of [[Ancient Philosophy]]'' by [[A. W. Benn]] (1936) # ''Your Body: How it is Built and How it Works'' by [[D. Stark Murray]] (1936) # ''What is Man?'' by [[Mark Twain]]. With an introduction by [[Samuel Kerkham Ratcliffe|S. K. Ratcliffe]] (1936) # ''Man and His Universe'' by [[John Langdon-Davies]] (1937) # ''First Principles'' by [[Herbert Spencer]]. Sixth and final edition, with an introduction by T. W. Hill (1937) # ''[[Rights of Man|Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution]]'' by [[Thomas Paine]]. Edited by [[Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner]], with an introduction by [[G.D.H. Cole]] (1937) # ''This Human Nature: A History, A Commentary, An Exposition'' by [[Charles Duff]] (1937)* # ''Dictionary of Scientific Terms as Used in the Various Sciences'' by [[Charles Marsh Beadnell|C. M. Beadnell]] (1938) # ''A Book of Good Faith'' by [[Montaigne]]. Chosen and arranged by [[Gerald Bullett]] (1938) # ''The Universe of Science'' by [[Hyman Levy|H. Levy]]. Revised and expanded edition (1938) # ''Liberty To-day'' by [[C. E. M. Joad]]. Revised edition (1938) # ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' by [[Thomas Paine]] (1938) # ''The Fair Haven'' by [[Samuel Butler (1835-1902)|Samuel Butler]]. With an introduction by [[Gerald Bullett]] (1938) # ''A Candidate for Truth: Passages from [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]]''. Chosen and arranged by [[Gerald Bullett]] (1938) # ''A Short History of Women'' by [[John Langdon-Davies]] (1938)* # ''Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings'' by [[Henry Maudsley]] (1939)* # ''Morals, Manners, and Men'' by [[Havelock Ellis]] (1939) # ''Pages from a Lawyer's Notebooks'' by [[E. S. P. Haynes]] (1939) # ''An Architect of Nature: The autobiography of [[Luther Burbank]]''. With a biographical sketch by Wilbur Hall (1939) # ''Act of God'' by [[F. Tennyson Jesse]] (1940) # ''The Man versus The State'' by [[Herbert Spencer]] (1940) # ''[[The World as I See It (book)|The World as I See It]]'' by [[Albert Einstein]]. Translated by Alan Harris (1940) # ''Jocasta's Crime: An Anthropological Study'' by [[Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]] (1940) # ''The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales'' by [[Richard Garnett (writer)|Richard Garnett]] (1940)* # ''Kingship'' by [[Arthur Maurice Hocart|A. M. Hocart]] (1941)* # ''Religion Without Revelation'' by [[Julian Huxley]] (1941)* # ''Let the People Think'' by [[Bertrand Russell]] (1941) # ''The Myth of the Mind'' by [[Frank Kenyon]] (1941) # ''The Liberty of Man and Other Essays'' by [[Robert G. Ingersoll]] (1941) # ''Man Makes Himself'' by [[V. Gordon Childe]] (1941) # ''World Revolution and the Future of the West'' by [[W. Friedmann]] (1942) # ''The Origin of the Kiss and Other Scientific Diversions'' by [[Charles Marsh Beadnell|C. M. Beadnell]] (1942) # ''The Bible and its Background (Vol. I: The Old Testament and More Important Books of the Apocrypha)'' by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1942) # ''The Bible and its Background (Vol. II: The New Testament)'' by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1942) # ''The Conquest of Time'' by [[H. G. Wells]]. Written to replace his ''[[First and Last Things]]'' (1942) # ''The Gospel of [[Rationalism]]'' by [[Charles T. Gorham]] (1943) # ''Life's Unfolding'' by Sir [[Charles Sherrington]] (1943) # ''An Easy Outline of [[Astronomy]]'' by [[M. Davidson]] (1943) # ''The God of the Bible: A Searching Study of the Christian Creed'' by [[Evans Bell]] (1943). First published as “Task of To-day” (1852) # ''Man Studies Life: The Story of Biology'' by [[G. N. Ridley]] (1944) # <li value=''98''>''[https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.46389/2015.46389.In-Search-Of-The-Real-Bible#page/n7/mode/2up In Search of the Real Bible]'' by [[A. D. Howell Smith]] (1944)</li> # ''The Outlines of [[Mythology]]'' by [[Lewis Spence]] (1944) # <li value=''100''>''Magic and Religion: Being chapters I to VII of the abridged edition of ''[[The Golden Bough]] by [[James George Frazer|Sir James G. Frazer]]. With foreword by [[G. M. Trevelyan|Prof. G. M. Trevelyan]] (1944)*</li> # ''Flight from Conflict'' by [[Laurence Collier]] (1944) # ''Progress and Archaeology'' by [[V. Gordon Childe]] (1944) # ''The Chemistry of Life: An Easy Outline of Biochemistry'' by [[J. S. D. Bacon]] (1944) # ''Medicine and Mankind'' by [[Arnold Sorsby]] (1944)* # ''The Church and Social Progress: An Exposition of Rationalism and Reaction'' by [[Marjorie Bowen]] (1945) # ''The Great Mystics'' by [[George Stanley Godwin|George Godwin]] (1945) # ''The Religion of Ancient Mexico'' by [[Lewis Spence]] (1945) # ''Geology in the Life of Man: A Brief History of its Influence on Thought and the Development of Modern Civilization'' by [[Duncan Leitch (geologist)|Duncan Leitch]] (1945) # ''A Century for Freedom: A Survey of the French "Philosophers"'' by [[Kenneth Urwin]] (1946) # <li value=''110''>''[https://archive.org/details/jesusmythorhisto035413mbp Jesus: Myth or History?]'' by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1946)</li> # ''The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays'' by [[William Kingdon Clifford]]. Edited by [[Leslie Stephen|Sir Leslie Stephen]] and Sir Frederick Pollock (1947) # ''Human Nature, War and Society'' by [[John Cohen (psychologist)|John Cohen]]. With a foreword by [[Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]] (1946) # ''The Rational Good: A Study in the Logic of Practice'' by [[L. T. Hobhouse]]. With a foreword by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1947) # ''Man: The Verdict of Science'' by [[G. N. Ridley]] (1946) # ''The Distressed Mind'' by [[J. A. C. Brown]] (1946) # ''The Illusion of National Character'' by [[Hamilton Fyfe]] (1946)* # ''Population, Psychology, and Peace'' by [[J. C. Flugel]]. With an introduction by [[C. E. M. Joad]] (1947) # ''Friar's Lantern'' by [[G. G. Coulton]] (1948) # ''Ideals and Illusions'' by [[L. Susan Stebbing]]. With an introduction by Prof. A. E. Heath (1948) # ''An Outline of the Development of Science'' by [[Mansel Davies]] (1947) # ''Head and Hand in Ancient Greece: Four Studies in the Social Relations of Thought'' by [[Benjamin Farrington]] (1947) # ''The Evolution of Society'' by [[J. A. C. Brown]] (1947) # ''Background to Modern Thought'' by [[C. D. Hardie]] (1947) # ''The Holy Heretics: The Story of the [[Albigensian Crusade]]'' by [[Edmond Holmes]] (1947). First published as “The Albigensian or Catharist Heresy” (1925) # ''Man His Own Master'' by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1948) # ''Men Without Gods'' by [[Hector Hawton]] (1948) # ''The Earliest Englishman'' by Sir [[Arthur Smith Woodward]]. With a foreword by [[Arthur Keith|Sir Arthur Keith]] (1948) # ''[[Astronomy]] for Beginners'' by [[Rev. Martin Davidson|Martin Davidson]] (1948) # ''The Search for Health'' by [[D. Stark Murray]] (1948) # ''The Mystery of Anna Berger'' by [[George Stanley Godwin|George Godwin]] (1948) # ''Wrestling Jacob: A Study of the Life of [[John Wesley]]'' by [[Marjorie Bowen]] (1948)* # ''The Origins of Religion'' by [[Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]] (1949) # ''The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth, and Drama'' by [[Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]] (1949) # ''The Life of [[John Knox]]'' by [[Marjorie Bowen]] (1949) # ''The [[French Revolution]]'' by [[Archibald Robertson (atheist)|Archibald Robertson]] (1949) # ''The Art of Thought'' by [[Graham Wallas]] (1949)* # ''Literary Style and Music: Including Two Short Essays on Gracefulness and Beauty'' by [[Herbert Spencer]] (1950) # ''[[On the Origin of Species|The Origin of Species]]'' by [[Charles Darwin]]. A Reprint of the First Edition. With a foreword by [[C. D. Darlington|Dr C. D. Darlington, F. R. S.]] (1950) # ''The Science of Heredity'' by [[J. S. D. Bacon]] (1951) # ''The Great Revivalists'' by [[George Stanley Godwin|George Godwin]] (1951) ==Bibliography== *Cooke, Bill (2003). ''The Blasphemy Depot: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association''. London: Rationalist Press Association. {{ISBN|0-301-00302-5}}. Republished as: ''The Gathering of Infidels: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association'', Amherst, New York: Prometheus Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-591-02196-0}}. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070626194449/http://www.rationalist.org.uk/thinkerslibrary/index.shtml Rationalist Press Association – The Thinker's Library] – The [[Rationalist Press Association]]'s relevant page includes extracts from some volumes. [[Category:Series of non-fiction books]] [[Category:Philosophy essays]] [[Category:Essay collections]]
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