The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, was a fifty-volume anthology of works selected by Charles W. Eliot. It was originally published in 1909. Dr. Eliot, then President of Harvard University, had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending fifteen minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. What naturally followed was a debate, discussion, and decision as to what books would make up this collection. The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity, and challenged him make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works; the Harvard Classics was the result. The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction was selected by Charles W. Eliot, LLD (1834-1926), with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson. It also features an index to Criticisms and Interpretations.

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