Building a Survivalist’s Bookshelf: Lessons from Farnham’s Freehold

By Cade Shadowlight

 

What books belong on a survivalist’s bookshelf? This question struck me after reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold, a gripping science fiction novel about a family surviving a nuclear war. Published in 1964, the story features Hugh Farnham, a prepared patriarch who builds and stocks a bomb shelter, including a carefully curated library to preserve knowledge and sanity in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

Heinlein’s novel, set against the backdrop of the Cold War, includes books from that era and earlier. The list reflects a blend of practical guides, entertainment, general knowledge, and works shaped by the geopolitical tensions of the time. As I compile my own modern prepper’s library, I found it fascinating to explore Hugh’s choices and consider what a contemporary survivalist might include.

 

Hugh’s library balances utility and morale. Practical titles cover homesteading, medicine, and engineering, while others, like Hoyle’s Book of Games, offer diversion. General knowledge is preserved through a dictionary and The Encyclopedia Britannica, which Hugh calls “the most compact assemblage of knowledge on the market.” Cold War influences are evident in selections like Che Guevara’s War of the Guerrillas and Russian-English dictionaries. He also prioritizes classics, such as Homer and Shakespeare, to safeguard cultural heritage. Notably, Hugh later regrets omitting Mark Twain’s works.

 

Here’s the complete list from Farnham’s shelter: 

• The Encyclopedia Britannica
• Che Guevara’s War of the Guerrillas
• Yank Levy’s Guerrilla Warfare
• Mao Tse-tung’s On Guerrilla Warfare
• Tom Wintringham’s New Ways of War
• The Boy Scout Handbook
• Eshbach’s Mechanical Engineering
• The Radio Repairman’s Guide
• Outdoor Life’s Hunting and Fishing
• Edible Fungi and How to Know Them
• Home Life in Colonial Days
• Your Log Cabin
• Chimneys and Fireplaces
• The Hobo’s Cookbook
• Medicine Without a Doctor
• Five Acres and Independence
• Russian Self-Taught
• Several English-Russian, Russian-English dictionaries
• The Complete Herbalist
• Several U.S. Navy survival manuals
• The Air Force’s Survival Techniques
• The Practical Carpenter
• The Oxford Book of English Verse
• A Treasury of American Poetry
• Hoyle’s Book of Games
• Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy
• Richard Francis Burton’s A Thousand Nights and a Night
• Homer’s The Odyssey
• Kipling’s Collected Verse
• Kipling’s Just So Stories
• A one-volume edition of Shakespeare
• The Bible
• The Book of Common Prayer
• Mathematical Recreations and Essays
• Thus Spake Zarathustra
• T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
• Robert Frost’s Verse
• Men Against the Sea (about the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty)

I’m working on a modern survivalist’s library tailored to today’s challenges, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. What books would you include in a contemporary prepper’s collection? What is your basis for deciding? Share your recommendations in the comments below!

 

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