The "Great Books of the Western World" is a hardcover 60-volume collection (originally 54 volumes) of the books on the Great Books list (517 individual works). A prominent feature of the collection is a two-volume Syntopicon (meaning "a collection of topics") that includes essays written by Mortimer Adler on 102 "great ideas." Following each essay is an extensive outline of the idea with page references to relevant passages throughout the collection. The collection was available from Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., which owns the copyright.