The second edition differed from the first in many respects: new translations, a revised Syntopicon, and six volumes of twentieth-century authors that did not appear in the first edition, as well as fifteen authors added in the period from Homer to Freud.  More info.

Q.  Which authors are added to the 1990 edition?

A. 

• 20th Century Philosophy and Religion

  James. Pragmatism

  Bergson. An Introduction to Metaphysics

  Dewey. Experience and Education

  Whitehead. Science and the Modern World

  Russell. The Problems of Philosophy

  Heidegger. What is Metaphysics?

  Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations

  Barth. The Word of God and the Word of Man

   

• 20th Century Natural Science

  Poincare. Science and Hypothesis

  Planck. Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers

  Whitehead. An Introduction to Mathematics

  Einstein. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory

  Eddington. The Expanding Universe

  Bohr. Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections)

  Bohr. Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problemns in Atomic Physics

  Hardy. A Mathematician's Apology

  Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy

  Schrodinger. What is Life?

  Dobzhansky. Genetics and the Origin of Species

  Waddington. The Nature of Life

   

• 20th Century Social Science (I)

  Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class

  Tawney. The Acquisitive Society

  Keynes. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

   

• 20th Century Social Science (II)

  Frazer. The Golden Bough (selections)

  Weber. Essays in Sociology (selections)

  Huizinga. The Waning of the Middle Ages

  Levi-Strauss. Structural Anthropology (selections)

   

• 20th Century Imaginative Literature (I)

  James. The Beast in the Jungle

  Shaw. Saint Joan

  Conrad. Heart of Darkness

  Chekhov. Uncle Vanya

  Pirandello. Six Characters in Search of an Author

  Proust. Remembrance of Things Past. "Swann in Love"

  Cather. A Lost Lady

  Mann. Death in Venice

  Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

   

• 20th Century Imaginative Literature (II)

  Woolf. To the Lighthouse

  Kafka. Metamorphosis

  Lawrence. The Prussian Officer

  Eliot. The Waste Land

  O'Neill. Mourning Becomes Electra

  Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby

  Faulkner. A Rose for Emily

  Brecht. Mother Courage and Her Children

  Hemingway. The Short Happy Life of Macomber

  Orwell. Animal Farm

  Beckett. Waiting for Godot

   

Q.  >Are the older sets more durable (paper, binding)?

What year did the syntopicon change? (So far, I prefer the older

version with more detail).<

A.  There's no perceivable difference to the layman in the binding

of the older and newer set. The newer set has thinner paper,

which makes for somewhat slimmer volumes. But as far as

durability is concerned, for normal reading I don't think the

thinner paper is inferior in any way; if you're going to be

using the books to practice juggling, the slightly thicker paper

may last longer, but not much.

Q.  >Is there any intrinsic value to owning a first edition in great

shape?<

A.  If there is any, it most likely depends upon the individual

preferences. A couple of authors (Appolonius of Perga, Fielding,

Sterne) from the 1952 set were dropped from the 1990 edition.

But of course the 1990 edition added several authors.

Q.  >Any major problems with not having the updated syntopicon?<

A.  I recommend you buy the Syntopicon that goes with your set; in

other words, a 1952 Syntopicon should go with the 1952 edition,

and a 1990 Syntopicon should go with the 1990 edition. That

should be no problem at all if you're buying a complete set,

which includes the Syntopicon in the first place. As far as I

know, the essays and references in the new 1990 Syntopicon are

revised to reflect the new authors added to (and the old ones

dropped from) the 1990 GBWW; the 1990 Syntopicon also contains

works as recent as the late 1980s in its bibliography of

additional readings related to the Great Ideas.

Having a 1952 set and not having the updated 1990 Syntopicon is

not a big drawback at all, especially when you're just starting

out in reading the Great Books. The only kind of reason I could

imagine why it would be a major drawback is if you've already

read and studied all the books in the 1952 set with the help of

the Syntopicon, and you want to continue to use the Syntopicon

in your reading and study in the new works (mostly 20th century

works) that were added to the 1990 set. Otherwise, you can just

as well go to a library and consult a recent Syntopicon if you

are the addition of the 6 volumes containing 20th century

authors.  Posted by Zaheer Samee