The Harvard Classics, a 50-volume collection of literature, was created by Charles Elliott, the longest-serving president of Harvard University, to provide a liberal education to the masses. The collection, which includes works by authors such as Plato, Cicero, and Shakespeare, was marketed as a way for people to become cultured and educated through reading, and it became incredibly popular, selling over 350,000 full sets in the first two decades of its publication.
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