For as long as I can remember, I have been a lover of books, from The Little Engine that Could to Tom Sawyer to The Philosophy of Freedom (skipping, for brevity, quite a few intermediary steps). I have found comfort, inspiration, solace, friendship, insight, and purpose from the books that have informed my life. Books are extraordinary cultural artifacts, for many reasons, but the reason I am thinking of right now is their quality of timelessness. This is obviously not true of ALL or even most books, and there is a certain subjectivity as to which book continues to speak to YOU, throughout time, unaffected by the years, decades, or even centuries that may separate its composition from your reading of it, but it is true of some, and that is, in itself, remarkable.

This quality of timelessness also shows itself in the simple fact that, if you’ve never read it, whatever book you pick up is NEW. Publishers, if they want to remain publishers, must continue to bring out new books. It only makes sense. But the “old” books live on, each in its own way.

Having published hundreds of titles over the past ninety or so years, we strive to find and become conscious of more or less forgotten gems that have slid into a certain obscurity. With improvements in the technology of printing, it’s possible for us to bring these books back into print with a modest investment, and make them available for those, we hope, who are meant to discover them. If they achieve a certain timelessness for someone, somewhere, the value in that is incalculable.

If you know of out-of-print gems from our “backlist” (books published in the past under the imprints of Anthroposophic Press or Lindisfarne Books), that you think we should consider reprinting, let us know!

—JSL