William George Jordan is one of my favorite authors and one that I’ve done considerable research on. All of his books are on my must read list (I think everyone should read at least one). You can read about him in my post entitled William George Jordan – Author Extraordinaire as well as by looking at my other posts on the author and his books:
Personal Improvement
- Mental Training by Analysis, Law and Analogy, 1893? – A syllabus of twelve practical lectures on the training of the mind. I believe this was his first published work but I’ve not been able to locate a copy of it. You can see the ad for it above. See additional writings on Education in Education section below.
- The Kingship of Self-Control, 1898 — HTML, PDF
Contemporary reviews: The Auburn Seminary Review, The Book Buyer, The Church Standard, The Churchman, St. Andrews Cross - The Majesty of Calmness, 1900 — Audio, HTML, PDF
Contemporary reviews: The American Monthly Review of Reviews, Book News, The Bookseller, The Churchman, The Publishers Weekly, St. Andrews Cross, - Great Truths, 1903 – Note, The Power of Truth was published in England under the name Great Truths.
- Self Control Its Kingship and Majesty, 1905 — This is The Kingship of Self-Control and The Majesty of Calmness published as a single book.
Contemporary reviews: The Canadian Bookseller, Improvement Era, The Pacific, - The Power of Purpose, 1910— The books consists of 7 of the 17 chapters in The Crown of Individuality.
- Little Problems of Married Life, 1910 – HTML, PDF
Reviews: The Living Age, Good Housekeeping, Record of Christian Work, The American Stationer, The Craftsman. - The Wood-Carver, 1915 – I found one reference to this work in a synopsis on WGJ in the 1919 edition of Encyclopedia Americana but haven’t found any other references.
- The Vision of High Ideals, 1926 — This book consists of three chapters from Jordan’s earlier book The Trusteeship of Life.
- The Power of Peace, 1971 – This is a reprint of the Majesty of Calmness with an additional chapter promoting the editor’s success program.
Political
- What Every American Should Know, A Voters Handbook of the Presidential Campaign …, 1916
- What Every American Should Know About the League of Nations, 1919 – PDF (note this is a scanned version of the only copy I could find after 18 months of looking)
Education (see “Education” in Articles by William George Jordan)
- Mental Training; A Remedy for “Education”, 1907
Other
- Feodor Vladimir Larrovitch: An Appreciation of His Life and Works, 1918 – The following text is from a NY Times article dated July 4, 1944 entitled Literary Hoaxes. “In 1918 William George Jordan and Richardson Wright published through the Author’s Club a skit on the passion for Russian Literature. They celebrated the imaginary ‘Feodor Vladimir Larrovitch; an Appreciation of His Life and Works.’ It included essays, a bibliography and ‘the picture of A Pressed Flower from the grave of Larrovitch at Yalta, which is preserved and framed on the walls of the Authors’ Club.’”
- One Hundred Years of Fire Insurance, 1919 — co-authored with Henry R. Gall
- At the Historic Center of the United States—The New Independence Building, 1925 – co-authored with William C. Sproul, former governor of Pennsylvanian (1919—1923), and Howell Lewis Shay, a well known architect from Philadelphia.
Thank you so so so much for compiling this list and making it available to the public- what an undertaking!
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome. It was my pleasure. As you can tell Jordan has become somewhat of a passion for me. He was such an interested man and one who expressed his thoughts with such clarity that I feel everyone should read at least one of his books.
ReplyDeleteI´m a mexican teacher of English for adults and i´ve encouraged my students to become a better language learners by doing extra activities ousite classroom, now we´re reading the Power of Truth during 30 minutes in every class as I´m teaching two groups of bishops and priests. When I found this book i knew it was the perfect one to share with my students to get two goals at the same time by joining the learning process with the pleasure of reading and excellent material which has made my students get engaged with it...your are very generous with the information you are sharing and you can be sure your are doing a kind contribution to society, my students will be very happy to know they can download more books from the same great author... thank you very much, God bless you!
ReplyDeleteClaudia, thanks for sharing your story and for your kind words. It is wonderful to know that this great material is being used. Jordan's remarks are timeless and I believe were inspired. Your bishops and priests might also enjoy "Little Problems of Married Life." Most of the counsel offered is as applicable today as the day it was written. I'm sure they could use it when they minister to their parishioners. Interestingly enough Jordan wrote this over 10 years before he married.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making this available to us . The man was so far ahead of his time as to be a genius. I enjoyed the majesty of calmness audiobook from Librivox and recomend the reading to you.
ReplyDeleteI've added a link to the audio version of the Majesty of Calmness from Librivox to the post. Thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteMy sincere thanks for the pdf files. I have been looking For these books for a while now.....
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome Gunnar. Let me know if you find any transcription errors.
ReplyDeleteRod, thanks so much for your work on compiling material from William George Jordan. I have just discovered his writing in the past week and been fascinated. I believe his body of writing is a hidden gem that unfortunately has gone unnoticed by many. I've collected PDFs of his major books and am in the process of having them transcribed to straight text. I'd love to see more people read and enjoy his work. Your multiple resources are extremely helpful!
ReplyDeleteAaron
Aaron, you are very welcome. You might want to use the HTML links get the text.
ReplyDeleteDear Rod Mann,
ReplyDeleteI also have to express my deepest gratitude for your compassion and public sharing of William George Jordan's books.
In a period of now nearly five years time, I've been searching for the best books out there on self-improvement, living up to one's potential, finding purpose and so on...
What always amazes me is that WGG combined so many insights, advice and universal truths - which match up with real life experience - into his short books with so much poetry and precision...and this over a century ago.
So THANK YOU SO MUCH for your service.
PS: I've discovered that part of my life purpose is to write articles/books/poems? in a similiar way about topics I deeply care about. It really pulls me, flows through me and energizes me with life force, joy and deep fulfillment. The greatest feeling there is :)
Take care, I wish you much health, love and happiness.
Andreas, 22, from Germany
Andreas, You are most welcome. Am I so glad you like them. I agree with your thoughts on Mr. Jordan completely. He is an amazing writer. By the way, my mother was born and raised in Frankfurt A.M. I have spent a lot of time there visiting my grandparents and aunt. It is almost home to me.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing these wonderful books. I stumble upon WGJ's book on the article by theartofmanliness website. Very good read. A must read for men everywhere.
ReplyDeleteDear Rod Mann,
ReplyDeleteafter I stumbled across an excerpt of "The Kingship of Self-Control" I told myself I had to research the author. I let it slip and found myself last week thinking about it again after months had passed.
Now, after reading parts of the work by WIlliam George Jordan, I have nothing to express than my sincerest gratitude for your service in proving these books for the public.
Best wishes from Germany
L.A
Thanks L.A. Jordan also published many articles on education and some on politics. You may find these interesting as well. Simply click on category "William George Jordan" on the panel on the right to see a list of all my posts that reference WGJ. By the way I love Germany. My mother was born and raised in Frankfurt and I have spent a lot of time with my grandparents and aunt there. My "Opa" was a dentist in Praunheim.
ReplyDeleteRod, thanks for the great site. Do you allow use of the text in your HTML versions for republishing? I noticed some are marked with a copyright based on your edits and some are not. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteCall me at 801-318-7141. All should have a copyright on them.
DeleteDear Ron Mann, You might wish, also, to include the following: Prophetic Ideas, & Ideals: a series of Short Studies, in the Prophetic Literature, of the Hebrew People, Fleming H. Revell, Chicago, 1902, https://archive.org/download/propheticideasid00jord/propheticideasid00jord.pdf. Regards, L.
ReplyDeleteThere was a second William George Jordan who was a contemporary to the WGJ I this post refers to. The 2nd WJG was a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Literature at a Canadian university. He published a number of books. I believe this in one of them. When I first began researching WJG this was quite confusing to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks much for your research and writing about WGJ. My great great grand father received a copy of Great Truths as a gift while in England in 1905. I've treasured the book for years and I am delighted to learn all that you have found about the author.
ReplyDelete-Ryan
ryanwhite99@gmail.com
I came across a copy of The Wood-Carver. I can send a pdf if you give me your contact information. There is zero information about this book except for your post.
ReplyDelete