This volume is designed to present a selection of the greater part of the English Bible as literature. It is intended for all readers, of whatever belief, opinion, or bringing-up. It is not the first attempt, but the selection and arrangement of it are new. Ernest Sutherland Bates is the editor and arranger.

The following purposes are given:

1. To afford a conservative narration from the creation to the exile, supplementing it with a selection from 1 Maccabees to complete the story down to the times of Jesus;
2. To emphasize the greatest of the Prophets and minimize the others;
3. To rearrange the drama, poetry, and fiction, adding parts of the Apocrypha;
4. To give the basic biography of Jesus found in the Gospels;
5. To restrict the utterances of Paul to those that have immortal value and to omit entirely the unimportant pseudonymous epistles;
6. To print all the works in order of their composition, as far as possible.

There is an introduction to each book. Within this is described the literary type of the book. At the back are two short appendices: "A Note on Translations" and "Dates of the Books."

It contains much of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and part of the Apocrypha.

William Heinemann (1930??)

[Tyndale House, Cambridge, United Kingdom]