 | |
| Editor | William Bennett |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Mark Summers[1] |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Morality |
| Genre | Anthology |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | November 1993[2] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 831[3] |
| ISBN | 0-684-83577-0 |
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, which Bennett conceived as a modern-day version of the McGuffey's Readers.
The Book of Virtues was published in November 1993 by Simon & Schuster, receiving 40,000 copies in its first printing. Despite the publisher's initial lack of faith and advertising, concerns from industry skeptics, and mixed reviews for both its content and Bennett's own contributions, it became a New York Times Best Seller for more than 80 weeks (peaking at No. 1 in January 1994), and sold up to three million within six months in print. Various outlets noted the varied quality and dated nature of the selections, the preponderance of material culled from Western civilization, and the hypocrisy stemming from the compiler's mission; the level of diversity also faced occasional criticism.
Though Bennett intended Virtues as a one-off title, audience demand and feedback encouraged him to follow it up in 1995 with The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey and two spin-offs for younger readers. The following year, it was adapted as the PBS animated series Adventures from the Book of Virtues. The franchise spawned various merchandise by the start of the 2000s, continued in print until 2008, and inspired an array of conservative, liberal, and Christian-focused alternatives as well as a parody; a competitor's answer to the official spin-offs was also the focus of a 1995–1997 trademark-infringement lawsuit. A 30th-anniversary edition, which kept the virtue list intact and updated the contents, was published in 2022.
- ^ Abate 2010, p. 37.
- ^ "When Bad Taste Fouls the Airwaves". The Christian Science Monitor. October 21, 1993. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved August 17, 2024 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Brooks, David (January 27, 1994). "Bookshelf: But will the kids like it?". The Wall Street Journal. p. A12. Retrieved August 16, 2024 – via ProQuest.