collection of famous speeches?

[sarahli]

Do you know of any titles that have a collection of historical speeches, with some background on the speaker/speech, and is visually pleasing as well.

Thanks :D

[Karen in CO]

I liked this one. It has speeches grouped by type and from all over Western traditions. There is an introduction to each speech that puts it in context. My library had it, but it is something I would like to own too. Be warned, it is huge.

[runninmommy]

The World's Great Speeches by Lewis Copeland, Lawrence W. Lamm and stephen J. McKenna

292 speeches from Pericles to Nelson Mandela

No pictures but tons of speeches with a lot of great information

[In The Great White North]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

Not a book, but this site has many, even audio recordings of some

When I googled Gettysburg Address, I found lots of pages of it, including a recording of Johnny Cash giving it.

Some of the recordings are by the original orator

[MaryM]

Seconding the suggestion for "World's Greatest Speeches"!

Mary

[Lori D.]

Watchwords of Liberty by Robert Lawson is a wonderful out-of-print book for elementary ages. Famous 1 line quotes from throughout US history, giving a bit of background on who said it and why. Famous quotes such as:

- "Give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry
- "I have not yet begun to fight!" -- John Paul Jones
- "Sighted sub — sank same." -- Donald Francis Mason

We loved doing 1-2 of these quotes a week the year we studied US history. See it at: http://www.amazon.com/Watchwords-Liberty-Pageant-American-Quotations/dp/B0007E05CC

Enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Kareni]

Lend Me Your Ears by Safire

I liked this one. It has speeches grouped by type and from all over Western traditions. There is an introduction to each speech that puts it in context. My library had it, but it is something I would like to own too. Be warned, it is huge.

This is the book that is used by the Hewitt Lightning Literature program for Speech. See Lightning Literature and Composition: Speech (http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bsingle.asp?i=3258) for more information and a sample lesson. I see it has more than a 1000 pages; Karen in CO is correct in calling it huge!

Regards,
Kareni

[Lori D.]

Hello friends,
I don't know either i am going to ask this question on a right forum or not. But i want to ask about the Author of this famous quotation "Beauty of Eyes is a joy for ever" ?

The closest I can come is that your phrase is either one of these two quotations (or perhaps a mix of the two):


1. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
The Phrase Finder website -- http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/19200.html -- has this to say about the author/origin of this quotation:

"From John Keats' epic poem, Endymion, 1818:
'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.' "



2. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
The Phrase Finder website -- http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/59100.html -- has this to say about the author/origin of this quotation:

"This saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek. It didn't appear in its current form in print until the 19th century, but in the meantime there were various written forms that expressed much the same thought. In 1588, the English dramatist John Lyly, in his Euphues and his England, wrote: '...as neere is Fancie to Beautie, as the pricke to the Rose, as the stalke to the rynde, as the earth to the roote.'

Shakespeare expressed a similar sentiment in Love's Labours Lost, 1588:
'Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues'

Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741, wrote: 'Beauty, like supreme dominion / Is but supported by opinion'

David Hume's Essays, Moral and Political, 1742, include: 'Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.'

The person who is widely credited with coining the saying in its current form is Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (née Hamilton), who wrote many books, often under the pseudonym of 'The Duchess'. In Molly Bawn, 1878, there's the line 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder', which is the earliest citation of it that I can find in print."

[pqr]

Lend Me Your Ears is perhaps the best single volume out there. It has failings, only two speeches by Churchill, missing McMillan's "Winds of Change" speech, nothing by Adams, no farewell speech by Reagan etc, but still the best I have found. Use this as a supplemantal, not as a single source.

[sarahli]

Phew, I wanted to check this thread earlier, but toddler dumped milk on the laptop and it died. Thankfully it "resurrected" this morning!
I'll check out those two books. I have to admit I'm partial to "lend me your ears" simply because of the title- I memorized that speech in school!