Our mission
The Literary Heritage Library gathers the books that have most shaped how we read, write, and think, and makes them available to everyone with open study notes beside them. We believe a great novel or poem is not a museum piece to be admired at a distance but a living conversation you can join at any age.
We were founded in 1919 by the retired schoolteacher Eleanor Marston, who had watched too many young readers give up on difficult books for lack of a guiding hand. Her answer was a lending room stocked with classics and the study guides to go with them, a model the library still follows today.
A founding letter
Let no reader be afraid to open an old book, for the voice inside is as young as the reader who turns the page.
Library facts
| Founded | 1919 |
| Founded by | Eleanor Marston, teacher and bibliographer |
| Titles held | Over 40,000 volumes and study guides |
| Reading room | Open to all ages and levels of experience |
| Special collection | English and American classics through the nineteenth century |
| Study services | Guided reading paths, essays, and discussion questions |
| Named for | Its founding principle, that literary heritage is common property |
Terms every reader should know
A short glossary of terms used throughout the study guides in our collection.
Definitions
Protagonist is the central character whose fortunes, choices, and growth carry the main action of a story or play.
Foil is a character who contrasts with the protagonist, throwing the protagonist's qualities into sharper relief.
Motif is a recurring image, symbol, or phrase that helps unify a work and reinforce its themes.
Satire uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to expose and criticize folly or vice in people and institutions.
Allegory is a narrative in which characters and events stand for abstract ideas or moral meanings beyond the literal story.
Aside is a short speech spoken directly to the audience that other characters on stage are not meant to hear.