Six years ago, the Modern Library of the World's Best Books made its appearance with twelve titles. It was immediately recognized, to quote the New York Times, "as filling a need that is not quite covered by any other publication in the field just now." The Dial hastened to say "The moderns put their best foot forward in the Modern Library. There is scarcely a title that fails to awaken interest and the series is doubly welcome at this time." A week or so after the publication of the first titles, The Independent wrote: "The Modern Library is another step in the very right direction of putting good books into inexpensive form," and the clever Editor of the Chicago Daily News, in a long review, concluded: "The Modern Library astonishes the cynical with the excellence of its choice of titles. You could stand before a stack of these books, shut your eyes and pick out the right one every time." Despite this enthusiasm, in publishing circles it was considered impossible to continue the sale of these attractive Hand Bound Limp books, printed in large clear type on good paper, at any price under the usual and prevailing price charged for the more cheaply made current fiction, which is now about Two Dollars a volume. But the large number of intelligent book buyers, a much larger group than is generally supposed has not only made possible the continuation of this fine series at the low price of Ninety-five Cents a volume, but has enabled us progressively to make it a better and more comprehensive collection. There are now over a hundred titles in the series and a new one is added each month except during the three Summer months. And in mechanical excellence, too, the books have been constantly improved. Many distinguished American and foreign authors have said that the Modern Library is one of the most stimulating factors in American intellectual life. Practically everybody who knows anything about good books owns a number of copies and generally promises himself to own them all.... One of the largest book stores in the country reports that more copies of the Modern Library are purchased for gifts than any other books now being issued. The sweep of world events has, of course, been a contributing influence to our success. Purposeful reading is taking the place of miscellaneous dabbling in literature, and the Modern Library is being daily recommended by notable educators as a representative library of modern thought. Many of our titles are being placed on college lists for supplementary reading and they are being continuously purchased by the American Library Association for Government camps and schools. The list of titles on the following six pages (together with the list of introductions written especially for the Modern Library), indicates that our use of the term "Modern" does not necessarily mean written within the last few years. Voltaire is certainly a modern of moderns, as are Samuel Butler, Francois Villon, Theophile Gautier and Dostoyevsky.