Writing a story that will stand the test of time is often more important to authors than selling a million copies of a book.

The best-built monuments can endure. The toughest people can endure, as can worthwhile ideas and fascinating concepts. And, in literature, the words and stories of the greatest authors can also endure.

In this program, we are going to take a look at writing that has stood the test of time.

We'll read the heartbreaking words of a young girl from Holland, the timeless poetry of the world's greatest playwright, a classic coming-of-age story from the first true American author, and a unique blend of poetry and prose by a Latina writer from inner-city Chicago.

We will travel from Alaska to Amsterdam to Arkansas to Athens to Alabama. We will move from Cuba to California. We will jump forward to the future for a while, before heading back into our collective past. We will witness the Great Depression from several different points of view.

Anne Frank's diary remains one of the most important and heartbreaking accounts of the consequences of bigotry, oppression, and war.

In each place and time, we will encounter original and unforgettable characters.

We'll meet firemen who start fires instead of putting them out, an old fisherman who spends days alone on a boat trying to land a tremendous catch, and a crazed lunatic who thinks he hears the beating of a dead man's heart. We'll get to know a young woman who once decided to stop talking for a few years and who is now one of the most widely sought after speakers in the country.

We'll even meet a young man who makes the incredible journey from severe mental retardation to extraordinary genius and back again.

The differences between the authors of the books in this program, their respective backgrounds, and their literary styles and subjects are astounding.

Ernest Hemingway made a name for himself as a young man who revolutionized American literature, but he did not win a Nobel Prize for Literature until he published The Old Man and the Sea in 1952.

But what is even more astounding are the similarities in their work.

These similarities do not necessarily exist in the specific details of their writing, but in the themes and ideas that their works explore.

Maya Angelou and Sandra Cisneros both show readers what it was like to grow up poor in an America that viewed certain individuals as second-class citizens. Ray Bradbury and Anne Frank expose to readers the dangers of allowing oppressive governments and closed minds to run rampant.

John Steinbeck and Harper Lee write about the victimization of the innocent. And Ernest Hemingway and Jack London explore the brutal realities of the natural world.

Authors such as Daniel Keyes and Edgar Allan Poe challenge readers to exercise their imaginations and consider the improbable and the amazing, while William Shakespeare and Mark Twain deliver tales of humor that have rightly earned the title of classic.

Maya Angelou is a poet, a singer, a teacher, an actress, and the author of several autobiographies. Her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells the story of her life up to young adulthood.

Taken separately, these authors are masters of their craft. Their work is finely tuned and technically brilliant.

But taken together, they show readers that the only ideas and concepts that can truly stand the test of time are those which are common to people of all cultures and backgrounds.

Creating literature that will endure requires more than just an author with the ability to tell an interesting story. Literature that will endure does so because it manages to capture some of the crucial and fundamental truths of the human experience.

It endures because it never stops teaching us about ourselves.

In the twelve sections of this program, we will be privileged to delve into the work of several enduring authors and to learn more about ourselves in the process.

1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
   1. Expectations and Intelligence
   2. Fitting In
   3. Memories
   4. Alienation
   5. Messing With Nature
   6. "The Brain is Wider Than the Sky" by Emily Dickinson
2. Short Stories and Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe
   1. The Bells
   2. "Annabel Lee"
   3. The Tell-Tale Heart
   4. The Black Cat
   5. The Pit and the Pendulum
3. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
   1. The Annex Cast
   2. The Inner Landscape
   3. Peter
   4. Hope
   5. Sources of Strength
   6. "The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedman
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
   1. Displacement and Belonging
   2. Shame and Pride
   3. Security and Danger
   4. Seeking Independence
   5. Fate vs. Free Will
   6. "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley
5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
   1. Innocence and Experience
   2. Humanity Versus Nature
   3. Self-Reliance
   4. Dignity of the Struggle
   5. Destiny Fulfilled
   6. "To Build a Fire" by Jack London
6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
   1. Dystopia
   2. Censorship
   3. Fire
   4. The Power of Literature
   5. More Than One Way to Burn a Book
   6. "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold
7. White Fang by Jack London
   1. The Power of Instinct
   2. The Power of the Environment
   3. The Fighter
   4. The Power of Love
   5. The Story Behind the Story
8. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
   1. Act 1 - Setting the Scene
   2. Act 2 - Mystery and Magic
   3. Act 3 - Now That's Comedy
   4. Act 4 - Dreams
   5. Act 5 - The Power of the Play
   6. "Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made of" by T.W. Higginson
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   1. Empathy
   2. Examples to Follow
   3. Injustice for All
   4. Lessons Learned
   5. Lasting Impact
   6. A Letter from Ruby Bates
10. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
    1. Individualism and Community
    2. Growing Up
    3. Men and Women
    4. Circle of Fate
    5. Shame and Pride
    6. "Old Maids" by Sandra Cisneros
11. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
    1. Tom and Friends
    2. The World of St. Petersburg
    3. The Outsiders
    4. Poking Fun
    5. Taking Responsibility
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    1. The Stage Is Set
    2. The Bunk House
    3. The Fatta the Lan'
    4. No More Trouble
    5. Social Protest
    6. "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns