Practical Cogitator Pa

One of the editors of this anthology, Charles Curtis, had commanded a US Navy destroyer during WWI. Observing that soldiers are nearly always idle in war, Curtis conceived of an anthology of passages from the nonfiction of recent centuries, that soldiers could read while marking time between rare battles. Throughout his busy professional life, Curtis continued to read widely, copying passages he loved into notebooks by hand. He also wrote several books on the law and public affairs. When WWII broke out, Curtis approached Houghton Mifflin, which agreed to publish such an anthology; thus the Practical Cogitator was born. One of HM's editors, Ferris Greenslet, became a coeditor. The Practical Cogitator did not appear until the last months of WWII. A second edition came out just as the Korean War broke out. Greenslet's son-in-law prepared the 1962 third edition. The PC is the fruit of an awesome collaboration between two equally brilliant persons whose differences nicely complemented each other. Greenslet was a humanist and connoisseur educated at Columbia, rather the introvert. Curtis was a Harvard-educated lawyer who read in several languages, and who knew something about science and business; he was the more extroverted of the two. This book is no highbrow Bartlett's Quotations, and is not suited as an anthology for university instruction. But I would not hesitate to include on a course reading list essays that happen to be excerpted in the PC. Were a foreigner to ask me "What is American civilization and why might it be valuable?" I would reply: read the Practical Cogitator. If I were forced to spend the rest of my life with but one book, this would be it.

No other volume on my shelf has been taken down as often as this little gem of an anthology. It is full of stuff not found in any familiar collection to get one thinking, from an epigram of Archie the cockroach to three pages of a dissent by Justice Holmes. One can let it season on the shelf for years at a time, then stuff it into your carryon or backpack, open it at any page and become absorbed with the wit and wisdom of the ages. Buy it!

I first purchased this book in the Yale University bookstore as an enlisted sailor in the mid-'70s, hoping to someday go to college and looking for inspiration. This book has been with me ever since. The section entitled "He Lives With His Fellows" taught me more than any other single source about how to develop into an adult in the midst of conflict and indecision. This book led me into the Great Books Program at St John's College, and then two further degrees from Stanford. Now, as director of an Intensive Care Unit in an academic medical center, I recognize that this book is a measurable part of my success. I still have my original and well-worn copy, with milestones in my career noted inside the front cover. I've known how influential this book has been. This book went with me to Iraq for ten months, to central African refugee camps, to Bosnia three times, to the Katrina response in the floodwaters of New Orleans, to Korea and Columbia, and I'm here buying two more copies for my daughters. This small volume can change lives.

Pearls of wisdom wrapped in nuggets of gold--the best thoughts from the best of minds--find their home in this "must-have" collection of forward thinking and introspective thought. I read this as an adolescent, and it had a profound impact on the course of my life. I understood knowledge was power, and direction. This volume gives you plenty of both. The only question I have, is WHY hasn't anyone updated this volume since 1983?!! The computer revolution, and the many lessons learned from the 80's and 90's are but a few of the notably absent realities not finding a home in this priceless collection of history's mirror on humanity. Even without, to walk through Life without having read this book is like taking a journey with a patch over one eye.

Curtis's labor of love was compiled with the WWI trench soldier in mind, but we are all the beneficiaries. The idea was to bring together all the most important ideas and writings into one small volume that could fit into a coat pocket; to be included, a passage must be worthy of multiple readings, and be the best that Curtis could find on its topic. I discovered many little-known writers, thinkers, and scientists in this astonishing book. In addition to the mind-expanding coverage of philosophical topics, there are sections on the processes of science