The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894) is the 1858 series of table-talk essays that established the conversational personal essay in American literature. The essays first ran in the opening numbers of the Atlantic Monthly, which Holmes had named, and present the talk of an imagined Boston boarding-house breakfast table where the Autocrat discourses on words, manners, science, faith, and the human comedy among a cast of fellow boarders. The prose is broken by some of Holmes’s best-known poems, including The Chambered Nautilus, with its call to build more stately mansions, and The Deacon’s Masterpiece. This edition presents the complete Autocrat text. The book made Holmes one of the most widely read American authors of his century. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.