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Samuel Davies (1723-1761) was an evangelist, Presbyterian minister, composer of hymns, and prolific author. Davies was one of the first Puritan preachers in Virginia, and one of earliest missionaries to slaves in the British colonies. Davies’ sermons were infused by eschatological fervor as he proclaimed the need for the liberation of the soul from the claws of sin. Sins like avarice, prodigality, evil diversions, vanity, sensuality, and popery had for 150 years afflicted the land, he complains....

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943) was an English author of short stories and novels, well known for his comedies involving rural Essex characters. His most famous story, "The Monkey's Paw" (1902) is a tale of intense psychological horror. "The Old Man of the Sea" is a farcical comedy about a young man, George Wright, who tries to win a lady’s hand by pretending to be the only heir of a rich uncle.

Xenophon of Athens (c. 430 BC - 354 BC) was an Athenian historian, philosopher, and soldier. "Hiero", one of Xenophon’s minor works, is a dialogue between Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, and the lyric poet Simonides, as a response to the assumption that a tyrant's life is more pleasant than that of a commoner. "On Horsemanship" is one of his two treatises on horsemanship. Military training and the duties of the cavalry commander are dealt with in the other, "Hipparchicus", while "On Horsemanship" deals with the selection, care, and training of horses in general.

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and Renaissance humanist. Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about an imaginary island society and its religious, social, and political customs. While imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534, he wrote A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. It is a fictional dialogue focusing on the comfort of God in distress, the benefits of suffering, atonement for evil acts, faintheartedness and the temptation to suicide.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was a short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat. The short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is about a miserly man who makes a deal with the devil. Irving’s fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker is a Dutch-American historian and narrator of "The Conspiracy of the Cocked Hats" and the “golden age” of Wouter van Twiller, the Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. Fathers and Sons (1862), one of the most acclaimed Russian novels of the 19th century, deals with the growing cultural divide between two generations or mindsets of Russians. Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals (the "fathers") sought Western-style social change. "Mumu" (1854) is the story of Gerasim, a deaf-mute serf whose life of poverty is thrown into stark relief by his rescue of the dog Mumu.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1858-1919), the 26th president of the United States, was a conservationist and writer. Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail - published in 1888 - is the account of his adventures as a cowboy, hunter, herder, and deputy sheriff. The Rough Riders was the nickname given to the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War. The Rough Riders are best remembered for their charge up San Juan Hill, east of Santiago de Cuba, on July 1, 1898.

Robert William Dale (1829-1895) was an English Congregational church leader based in Birmingham. In "Christian Worldliness" he explores the endless conflict between Christianity and worldliness. He warns of "the bitter melancholy, this profound discontent with all things in Heaven above and on the earth beneath". Rejecting the idea of "the sanctity of misery" he criticizes the Book of Ecclesiastes and the image of the traditional "Romish Saint", and concludes by stating that for the miseries which we cannot avoid, Divine love offers infinite consolation.

John Locke (1632 - 1704), the English philosopher and physician, is widely regarded as one of the Enlightenment's most influential thinkers. "A Letter Concerning Toleration" (1689) addresses the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. In the "Second Treatise", Locke claims that civil society was created for the protection of life, liberty, and estate.

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was a Louisiana-based author of short stories and novels, and is considered a forerunner of 20th-century feminist authors from the South. In "The Storm", a man seeks shelter at the home of his former lover, a visit which reignites their passion, while "Her Letters" is a story about the husband of a woman who dies before she is able to destroy the letters written to her by a lover. In "Unexpected", Randall and Dorothea fall in and out of love; "The Locket" tells the tale of two young lovers during the American Civil War; and "Kiss" has a humorous twist.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a prominent sociologist, novelist, and writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. In the short story "If I Were a Man", a married woman named Mollie Mathewson yearns with all her heart to be a man and is suddenly transported into the body and mind of her husband, Gerald. Through the character of Mollie, Gilman illustrates the roles and attitudes of women in early 19th-century society. The utopian novel Herland describes an isolated society composed entirely of women, with an ideal social order free of war, conflict, and domination.

Daniel Defoe (c. 1660-1731) was an English trader, author, and journalist. Defoe was a prolific writer, publishing more than 300 works on a range of topics including economics, politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719).

Arrian of Nicomedia (c. 86/89-c. after 146/160 AD), was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. Although written more than 400 years after Alexander's death, Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander is the most reliable account of Alexander from antiquity.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was a writer, a minister’s wife, and mother of four daughters who worked among the poor and traveled widely. In the novel The Moorland Cottage, Maggie Browne, the daughter of a deceased clergyman, gives up her own life to devote herself to her brother, Edward. The nonfiction work An Accused Race is Gaskell’s reformist treatise on the oppression of the Cagots in Europe.

Edith Nesbit (Edith Bland,1858-1924) was an English author and poet. She authored or collaborated on more than 60 books of fiction for children, many of which have been adapted for film and television. She wrote tales of fantasy, magic, and misadventure in which children in normal circumstances are faced with extraordinary characters or events.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) had a profound influence on the shape of 19th-century thought and political discourse. His view of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to the unrestricted state. Mill favoured decentralised forms of socialism because he thought that a centralised model would discourage competition, neglect talent, and disregard freedom.