Philopsychy Press Self-Publishing Aids

Some Self-Published Classics

The following list of self-published books whose reputation merits calling them "classics" was compiled from information found in the reference works by Henderson (pp.3-26) and Mathieu (p.284). This impressive list should ease the minds of those who are concerned that self-publishing their book will automatically consign it to the domain of the unknown. The list is presented here in alphabetical order by author's surname.

• John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations (1855).
• William Blake, Songs of Innocence (1789), and most of his other books.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (1914, self-published from 1931) and numerous other books (via his "Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc." imprint).
• Lord Byron, Fugitive Pieces (1806) and Poems on Various Occasions (1812).
• Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia.
• Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1892).
• Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health (1875).
• Carla Emery, The Old Fashioned Recipe Book.
• Edward Fitzgerald, tr. of Omar Khayyam's The Rubaiyat (1859).
• Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879).
• Zane Grey, Betty Zane (1904).
• Archibald Clavering Gunter, Mr. Barnes of New York (1887), and 38 other novels (via his "Home Publishing Company" imprint).
• William Hope Harvey, Coins Financial School (1894).
• Washington Irving, History of New York (1809).
• James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).
• D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928).
• William Morris, The Story of Glittering Plain (1891, via his "Kelmscott Press" imprint).
• Anais Nin, Winter of Artifice (1939, self-published from 1941) and several other books.
• Thomas Paine, The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772) and Common Sense (1776).
• Edgar Allen Poe, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
• Ezra Pound, A Lume Spento (1907).
• Henry M. Robert, Robert's Rules of Order (1876).
• Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Torrent and The Night Before (1896).
• Carl Sandburg, Reckless Ecstasy (1904).
• Percy Bysshe Shelly, The Necessity of Atheism (1811).*
• Upton Sinclair, Springtime and Harvest (1901), The Jungle (1906), and several other books.
• William Strunk, Elements of Style (1918).
• Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1885).
• Kate Douglas Wiggin, The Story of Patsy (1882) and Bird's Christmas Carol (1887).
• Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855).
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens (1919) and numerous other books (via her and her husband's "Hogarth Press" imprint).

*Henderson (p.10) notes: "Shelly was expelled from Oxford for his self-publishing efforts."

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This page last updated on 20 February 1996

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