A recent article in The New York Times notes that between 1900 and 1914—the outbreak of World War I—an amazing number of now-classic English children’s books were published.

There’s so much more to read than any of us could read in a lifetime, so why would anyone want to reread books?

Drawing on the Puritan legacy of the Protestant work ethic, Ben Franklin established one of the major American myths: the rags-to-riches story which he tells in his Autobiography.