| The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories | |
| Editor: | William Bennett |
| Genre: | Anthology |
| Subject: | Morality |
| Pages: | 831[1] |
| Isbn: | 0-684-83577-0 |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Pub Date: | November 1993[2] |
The Book of Virtues (subtitled A Treasury of Great Moral Stories) is a 1993 anthology edited by William Bennett. It consists of 370 passages across ten chapters devoted to a different virtue, each of the latter escalating in complexity as they progress. Included in its pages are selections from ancient and modern sources, ranging from the Bible, Greek mythology, Aesop's Fables, William Shakespeare, and the Brothers Grimm, to later authors such as Hilaire Belloc, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, and Oscar Wilde.
A former Secretary of Education for the United States, Bennett began developing the book around 1988 at the behest of teachers who pointed out the deficiencies of moral education in their schools. Work on the project was paused during his tenure as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and resumed by 1990 after he turned down an offer to lead the Republican National Convention. Speech writer and friend John Cribb assisted him in collecting the passages for the collection.
The Book of Virtues received its first printing of 40,000 copies through Simon & Schuster in November 1993. Despite the publisher's lack of faith and advertising, concerns from industry skeptics, and mixed reviews, it became a New York Times Best Seller for over 80 weeks (peaking at #1 in January 1994), and sold up to three million within six months in print. Though intended as a one-off title, Bennett followed it up in 1995 with The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey and two spin-offs for younger readers, in response to audience demand and feedback. The following year, it was adapted as the PBS animated series Adventures from the Book of Virtues. A 30th anniversary edition, which kept the virtue list intact and updated the contents, was published in 2022.
Intended for the moral education of the young,[3] The Book of Virtues collects 370 passages of various types and provenance[4] across ten chapters,[5] each of the latter devoted to a specific virtue: self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, and faith.[5] The chapters begin with simple texts, and escalate in complexity as they progress.[6] According to John Allen Paulos of The New York Times Book Review, "Many of the stories are adaptations of the originals, a few are from non-Western sources, and most are only a few pages long."[5] A Los Angeles Times story from February 1995 estimated that public-domain material constitutes 85% of Bennett's collection.[7]
The anthology opens with an extract from Plato's Republic:[8]
Notable stories told or excerpted in this collection include:
The book also contains four poems by Robert Frost: "The Pasture", "A Time to Talk", "Mending Wall", and "The Road Not Taken".[12] Washington's Farewell Address, as printed in the book, omits the final segment mentioning "the insidious wiles of foreign influence" and "the need to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world".[13] The shortest passage in the collection[14] is Ernest Shackleton's apocryphal, early-1910s recruitment ad for Antarctic-expedition members:[15]
Also featured are selections from the Bible,[5] Aesop's Fables,[5] African and Native American folklore,[16] and Grimms' Fairy Tales;[5] the works of Hilaire Belloc,[1] Willa Cather,[1] F. Scott Fitzgerald,[6] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,[5] Theodore Roosevelt,[17] Babe Ruth,[3] William Shakespeare,[5] and Oscar Wilde[5] (among many others) are represented as well. The original release contained biographies on Susan B. Anthony,[11] Rosa Parks,[18] and Harriet Tubman,[18] while the 30th anniversary edition from 2022 profiled Mother Teresa, Navy SEAL Michael P. Murphy, and honorees from the September 11 attacks of 2001.[19]
William Bennett had served as Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan and often made school trips during his tenure. According to Bennett, The Book of Virtues grew out of conversations with teachers, who expressed difficulty in communicating common moral principles to diverse student bodies; as such, he originally intended the collection to be used by teachers.[20] Bennett, who worked on the collection as a "labor of love", set out to write a McGuffey's Reader for the 1990s (as proposed to his publisher Simon & Schuster), and vowed to downplay any political undertones in it.[21] As he wrote in his introduction, "[it] does not discuss issues like nuclear war, abortion, creationism, or euthanasia. This may come as a disappointment to some."[16] While preparing Virtues, "I decided to take a close look at some of the books American children were reading at their homes and schools around the turn of the 20th century," he told Publishers Weekly in October 1995. "This is when the country had a clear view of the education of the young in this direction."[22] The anthology was part of a two-title, $187,000 contract with the publisher, along with The De-Valuing of America.[21]
Around 1988, Bennett began work on Virtues and De-Valuing after his tenure as Secretary wound down; it entered hiatus during his stint as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (a position nicknamed "Drug Czar"). When he was called to replace Lee Atwater as head of the Republican National Committee in 1990, he turned down the offer for the sake of paying back his book-contract money.[21] Soon afterward, Bennett went through his literature collection to select the stories, poems, and other accounts that would become part of Virtues. He enlisted the help of John Cribb, a friend of his and a former speech writer for the Education Department, to compile the work; Cribb "arranged to be paid in a percentage of royalties" for his involvement.[23] After struggling to find another publisher, Cribb and Bennett turned to Simon & Schuster to release the anthology,[20] but with only $5,000 in advance fees for that title this time around.[7]
The Book of Virtues was mentioned as early as a May 1993 Chicago Tribune story on Bennett,[24] and was published in November 1993 by Simon & Schuster;[2] a four-tape audiobook edition, released the following September, featured readings by the compiler and guest stars including Charlton Heston.[25] In early January 1994, Bennett appeared on C-SPAN's Booknotes to discuss the collection,[26] while California's Republican Senate candidate Michael Huffington promoted and praised it in one of his 1994 campaign television commercials.[27] Overseas, a Latin American Spanish version (El libro de las virtudes) was issued by Argentina's Javier Vergara in 1995,[28] as well as an Australian edition from Bookman Press.[8] A 30th anniversary edition, published in 2022, kept the virtue list intact;[14] removed several sections from the original;[19] and added new material comprising 33% of the updated text.[14]
Virtues debuted at #13 on The New York Times Best Seller List (Nonfiction) for December 26, 1993.[29] It secured the #1 spot during its fourth week (on January 16, 1994),[30] and remained on the chart for 86 consecutive weeks by August 1995.[31] When it reached #1, the second rank on the list belonged to Howard Stern's Private Parts,[30] a fact that did not go unnoticed by The Washington Post EJ Dionne, Jr.[32] Bennett's accomplishment, in Dionne, Jr.'s opinion, "suggests that beneath our fascination with the prurient, the tasteless and the outrageous lies a yearning for something better — especially for our kids."[32]
After an initial run of 40,000 copies[33] (amid low expectations on the publisher's part[33] and lack of advertising[20]), The Book of Virtues sold 94,719 during Christmas week in 1993.[34] Benefitting from word of mouth,[20] this figure rose to 1.9–3 million within six months in print,[35] [36] helping it become one of the bestselling titles of the 1990s.[33] The Los Angeles Times declared it "one of the most unlikely in years",[3] while the Washingtonian magazine (quoted in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel) observed its outreach's transcendence over political and religious lines, and its competition with Hollywood biographies, New Age guides, and financial books.[21]
In light of its success, Bennett told a benefit audience in May 1995, "Last month I outsold Howard Stern 8 to 1, and Roseanne 5 to 1. That tells me American people are interested in serious things." With earnings from the title estimated at $5 million,[37] he purchased a North Carolina residence he dubbed as "the beach house virtue built".[23] By his own estimates, he also stood to collect $50,000 in annual royalties. According to Rolling Stone, Bennett became a "one-man empire" with his Virtues series.[38]
Upon its original publication, response to the anthology was mixed. In January 1994, The Washington Post carried two separate reviews by Laura Sessions Stepp and EJ Dionne, Jr.[32] [39] While commending Bennett on leaving out the more serious issues stated in his introduction, Sessions Stepp was otherwise critical. "Several flaws," she said, "limit its appeal. One serious weakness is that despite its heft, The Book of Virtues is far too narrow, drawing almost exclusively from classical Western sources. This is a primer that reflects the philosophy of [students] in a Catholic boys' school." Thanks to the timeframe of its selections, she expressed concern over outdated gender stereotypes and the absence of more modern perspectives: "[A]lmost nothing original from the 20th century...without [which] the book seems to suggest that moral behavior is entirely a thing of the past."[39] Dionne, Jr. was more favorable: "[W]hile some will not agree with all of Bennett's selections, it's hard to quibble with the 10 virtues around which he organizes his book... [I]n preaching the virtues, he is speaking not just to 'the underclass,' but also to the middle class and to those whom Jesse Jackson refers to as 'the overclass.'"[32]
Among critics from other mainstream outlets, David Brooks of The Wall Street Journal remarked, "There is too much stuff here that would appeal to the sort of kid who would exist if kids were designed by adults — and not very fun adults either.... [However], children can have a great time reading these tales, so long as they don't discover that it's supposed to be good for them."[1] "[Though] well stocked with inspirational writings," said the NYT Book Review John Allen Paulos, "the organizational principle is [unfortunately] weak.... Providing only an introduction and a prefatory snippet for each virtue, Mr. Bennett, never shy about appearing to speak his mind, is surprisingly not much of a presence in his own book."[5] Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it a C- grade and declared it "a textbook of Trad Value Lit [with] pursed and hectoring subtext... [a] sobersided publication representative of a current strain of humorless conservatism in inspirational teaching."[40] Barbara Hall of The Baltimore Sun was more positive, saying, "[Within its pages,] there are so many terrific discoveries and re-discoveries here that it's difficult to pick favorites.... It is a formidable work by an editor who will be reckoned with now and for generations to come."[6]
Time magazine declared that Virtues "ought to be distributed, like an owner's manual, to new parents leaving the hospital."[41] Human Events called it "a culture capsule that if unearthed thousands of years from now could explain the values that have not only made America great, but shaped the lives of [various] people today and in centuries past.... [It] deserves a place on every bookshelf, coffee table or bedside table."[42] Digby Anderson wrote in the National Review, "Mr. Bennett has created a treasury no conservative parent would want to be without."[43]
In the academic press, W. Charles Breiner of the Journal of Education recommended the book, praising its compiler for his efforts to classify the passages, and its timeliness in the wake of America's then-ongoing social and moral crisis. "While giving priority to good deeds, good thoughts, and the good in humanity," said Breiner, "Bennett judiciously sprinkles poor judgment, bad character, and vices into the collection, creating readily identifiable contrasts to heighten and strengthen our role as 'moral agents.'"[9] Although otherwise favorable,[16] Nick Gillespie of Reason questioned the appropriateness of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "The Three Little Pigs" in their respective "Responsibility" and "Work" chapters, alongside the compiler's attempts to define a "common world of shared ideals" whose spirit predated modern media.[16] Writing on the 30th anniversary edition, the City Journal Robert Pondiscio felt that the collection aged well in terms of diversity, adding, "Perhaps Bennett and his wife and co-editor Elayne might yet be persuaded to add one more virtue in future editions: tolerance."[14]
A critical essay by The New Republic Martha C. Nussbaum stated, "This [collection], which announces from the start its determination to convey optimism and hope, wavers between a Readers Digest optimism about the moral life and a more strenuous hopefulness. Simple patriotism and crude flag-worship are certainly in evidence, but there are also signs of a more exacting ideal." Its focus on slavery and racial equality, Nussbaum noted, "undercuts many of the book's more complacent utterances."[18] Lee Siegel, in a December 1993 issue of The Nation, similarly singled out the segments dealing with African-American figures. He also wrote in his review that "Bennett...has confused right and wrong with right and left...[rendering ''Virtues''] as dumb as it is immoral." Writing for Commentary magazine, James Q. Wilson felt that two speeches included in the book, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "[are not stories but rather] arguments".[10] As Library Journal pointed out, the "lack of attention to women's and non-Western voices encourages the view that the experience of virtue belongs primarily to Western males."[44]
Wilson noted the absence of a chapter on justice, feeling accounts revolving around this field did not translate well to narrative form.[10] Likewise, Stepp said that fairness, "one of the two or three most important ingredients in a child's early moral development," was left off the virtue list. "The careful reader can pick out instances of fairness or justice (and injustice) in other selections, but it deserves a category of its own. Without it Bennett appears at best uninformed and at worst, heartless."[39]
Susan Moore in the IPA Review of Melbourne, Australia said, "Almost all the verse in The Book of Virtues is of greeting card calibre; and too many of the prose selections, penned by unknown authors, are similarly hackneyed. Bennett lacks the ear which helps talented editors to distinguish immediately between the moralistic and the compellingly moral.... Despite [a slate of] embarrassing weaknesses, however, Bennett's book is a helpful starting point for adults who share his awareness that 'children are essentially moral and spiritual beings' who deserve to experience a much richer literature than, of late, they have been given." Moore also criticized the "watered-down" and "disappointing" retellings of the older material at hand, as well as the "saccharine poems" being at odds with "powerful" selections.[8]
One of Bennett's critics, Jon Katz of Wired magazine, called him to task on making millions of dollars on the book and its follow-ups at the expense of poorer-income people in their target audience. "I don't think there is any evidence he has helped a single child in America," Katz told the Sun Sentinel in 1997. "He takes stories he didn't even write, he sanitizes them, and then he puts a moral spin on them."[33] Various outlets noted the irony and hypocrisy in Bennett's mission on at least three separate occasions: during 1995, when he accepted an offer to have his collection adapted into an animated series (despite criticizing certain aspects of the television medium at the time);[7] [45] in 1997, when he confessed to smoking before and after his duties as "Drug Czar";[33] and again in 2003, thanks to exposés surrounding his gambling addiction.[46]
Several also took note of the influence of the McGuffey line Bennett sought to emulate,[17] as well as the Victorian flair[36] [43] and the bowdlerization of some of the stories collected. Gillespie felt that the anthology exhibited a "gentler, kinder" side of Bennett when compared to his activity as "Drug Czar",[16] a view echoed by Dionne, Jr.[32] Its Christian undertones also received attention;[43] Siegel, in particular, highlighted the frequency of the word "God" throughout the text. Newsweek predicted that Virtues would help Bennett secure the Republican slot during the 1996 U.S. presidential race,[47] but the compiler dropped out by August 1994.[48]
Bennett initially ruled out a follow-up to The Book of Virtues, "but was swayed by readers who urged him to do so and even sent in their own nominations."[22] This led to preparations for print and multimedia successors as early as June through September 1994;[48] [49] [50] as he joked to the Newsweek team, "Maybe I'll call [the sequel] 'Son of the Book of Virtues'."[49] Modeled after its 1993 precursor,[31] [51] [52] the print installments—The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey,[53] and two spin-offs for young audiences, The Book of Virtues for Young People[53] and The Children's Book of Virtues[51] —came out in 1995. A January 1998 Washington Post article cited Bennett's resulting franchise as an example of "flooding the market", in which authors produce sequels within a short stretch of time to meet popular and merchandising demand.[54]
Subtitled A Companion to The Book of Virtues,[22] The Moral Compass consists of seven chapters, each pertaining to a different stage of life: "Home and Hearth", "Into the World", "Standing Fast", "Easing the Path", "Mothers and Fathers, Husbands and Wives", "Citizenship and Leadership", and "What We Live By".[31] Selections from Alexis de Tocqueville, Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain are featured in this volume, along with a return appearance by Wilde.[31] According to Publishers Weekly, the passages "come mostly from times when masculine virtue was considered the norm and men took center stage. Most are from European or Western culture, but a not inconsiderable number are drawn from African, Asian and Latin American traditions."[55] The chapter scheme was devised by Bob Asahina, Simon & Schuster's vice president and senior editor.[22] Supported by a first printing of 730,000 copies in October 1995,[22] Compass debuted in 15th place on the NYT Nonfiction list for November 5.[56]
The Book of Virtues for Young People is a "slightly simplified" version of the 1993 work aimed towards the titular demographic.[57] The Children's Book of Virtues (whose first printing comprised 500,000 copies)[22] contains more than 30 stories, plus illustrations by Michael Hague; Bennett conceived the spin-off to address concerns that the original was not as accessible to children.[51] In 1996, the 1993 Virtues collection became the basis for PBS' first primetime animated series, Adventures from the Book of Virtues.[45]
To counter some criticism over Bennett's story choices, HarperCollins published A Call to Character in November 1995 as "a liberal alternative" to Virtues. A collaboration between Parade columnist Colin Greer and educator Herbert Kohl, Call shares six of its virtues and several author choices with its forebear, and replaces the remaining four with nine new categories.[22] A year earlier, Pocket Books released Tony Hendra's paperback parody of Bennett, The Book of Bad Virtues: A Treasure of Immortality.[58]