Why Friendship Matters

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Some friendships need celebrating, some are hard to navigate, and some need a bit of tender love and care. Delve into this anthology for a tour of all aspects of friendship by your favourite classic authors.

Why Friendship Matters is an inspiring collection that spans three centuries of writing and includes many favourite authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jane Austen. Readers will also discover lesser-known delights such as American writer Audre Lorde on her high school friendships and playwright Alice E. Ives writing about friendship between women. Contributors from across the globe celebrate and investigate all aspects of friendship; the strength of its bonds, how it can hurt and how it runs deep.

This edition is edited and introduced by Michèle Mendelssohn.

Michèle Mendelssohn is a literary critic and cultural historian. A Professor at Oxford University, she has written and co-edited books on authors such as Henry James and Oscar Wilde and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and a range of academic journals. She has appeared on international radio and television and given talks and lectures around the UK.

Selected writings from: Michel de Montaigne, Oscar Wilde, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Ralph Walso Emerson, Jane Austen, Anne Isabella Thackeray, Alice E. Ives, Audre Lorde, Harriet Jacobs, James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Francis Bacon