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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15577-h.zip b/15577-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7e5d4d --- /dev/null +++ b/15577-h.zip diff --git a/15577-h/15577-h.htm b/15577-h/15577-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d70a12 --- /dev/null +++ b/15577-h/15577-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2587 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" /> +<meta content="pg2html (binary v0.18b)" name="generator" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + A History of the McGuffey Readers, + by Henry H. Vail. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1.5em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2.5em; } + .quote { margin-left: 6%; margin-right: 6%; text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + span.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 91%; right: 99%; font-size: 8pt; text-indent: 0; padding:0; color: #CCCCCC; } + .figure {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 1.2em; margin: auto; width: 70%; font-variant: small-caps;} + .figure img {border: none;} +/*]]>*/ + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's A History of the McGuffey Readers, by Henry H. Vail + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A History of the McGuffey Readers + +Author: Henry H. Vail + +Release Date: April 7, 2005 [EBook #15577] +[Last updated: December 7, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE MCGUFFEY READERS *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> +A HISTORY<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%;"> +OF THE +</span> +<br /> +McGUFFEY READERS. +</h1> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illustr-01.jpg"><img src="images/illustr-01.jpg" style="width:100%;" +alt="William H. McGuffey" /></a><br /> +William H. McGuffey +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> +A HISTORY<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%;"> +OF THE +</span> +<br /> +McGUFFEY READERS. +</h1> + +<h2> +<span style="font-size: 70%;"> +By +</span> +<br /> +HENRY H. VAIL. +</h2> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<h4> +WITH THREE PORTRAITS. +</h4> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<h4> +THE BOOKISH BOOKS—IV. +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%;"> +New Edition. +</span> +</h4> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 65%;"> +CLEVELAND <br /> +THE BURROWS BROTHERS CO. <br /> +1911 +</p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<hr /> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 65%;"> +Copyright, 1911, by Henry H. Vail. +</p> +<hr /> + + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p style="text-indent: 0; font-size: 90%;"> +[Transcriber's Note: At the top of each page in the original is a header +line briefly describing the content on each page. In this document, +these header lines have been removed from the text flow, but are visible +if the mouse is hovered over the page number markers on the right side +of the document.] +</p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +<span title="A History of the McGuffey Readers" class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[1]</span> +</p> + +<h2> + A History of the McGuffey Readers +</h2> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<h3> + THE BOOKS. +</h3> +<p> +Before me are four small books roughly bound in boards, the sides +covered with paper. On the reverse of the title pages, two bear a +copyright entry in the year 1836; the others were entered in 1837. They +are the earliest editions of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers that have been +found in a search lasting forty years. +</p> +<p> +They represent the first efforts in an educational and business +enterprise that has for three-quarters of a century called for the best +exertions of many skilled men, and in their several forms these books +have taken a conspicuous part in the education of millions of the +citizens of this country. +</p> +<p> +But what interest can the history of the McGuffey Eclectic Readers have +to those who did not use these books in their school career? Their story +differs from that of other readers since in successive forms, adjusted +more or less perfectly to the changing demands of the schools, they +attained a wider and more prolonged use than has been accorded to any +other series. +</p> +<p> +<span title="The Function of Readers" class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[2]</span> +</p> +<p> +By custom and under sanction of law certain studies are pursued in the +common schools of every state. Spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, +geography, history, grammar, civics and physiology are the subjects +usually taught. The school authorities select the textbooks which shall +be used in each subject. The readers are the only texts used in all +schools affording opportunity for distinct ethical teaching. The history +of our country should give ideas of patriotism; the civics should +contain the primary notions of government; the physiologies should +instruct the pupils in the laws of health; but the reader should cover +the whole field of morals and manners and in language that will impress +their teaching indelibly upon the mind of every pupil. While the chief +aim of the school readers must be to teach the child to apprehend +thought from the printed page and convey this thought to the attentive +listener with precision, these efforts should be exerted upon thoughts +that have permanent value. No other texts used in the school room bear +directly and positively upon the formation of character in the pupils. +The school readers are the proper and indispensable texts for teaching +true patriotism, integrity, honesty, industry, temperance, courage, +politeness, and all other moral and intellectual virtues. In these books +every lesson should have a distinct purpose in view, and the final aim +should be to establish in the pupils high moral principles which are at +the foundation of character. +</p> +<p> +<span title="Formers of Character" class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[3]</span> +</p> +<p> +The literature of the English language is rich in material suited to +this intent; no other language is better endowed. This material is fresh +to every pupil, no matter how familiar it may be to teacher or parent. +Although some of it has been in print for three centuries, it is true +and beautiful today. +</p> +<p> +President Eliot has said, "When we teach a child to read, our primary +aim is not to enable it to decipher a way-bill or a receipt, but to +kindle its imagination, enlarge its vision and open for it the avenues +of knowledge." Knowledge gives power, which may be exerted for good or +for evil. Character gives direction to power. Power is the engine which +may force the steamer through the water, character is the helm which +renders the power serviceable for good. +</p> +<p> +Readers which have been recognized as formers of good habits of action, +thought, and speech for three-quarters of a century, which have taught +a sound morality to millions of children without giving offense to the +most violent sectarian, which have opened the doors of pure literature +to all their users, are surely worthy of study as to their origin, their +successive changes, and their subsequent career. +</p> +<p> +The story of these readers is told in the specimens of the several +editions, in the long treasured and time-worn contracts, in the books of +accounts kept by the successive publishers, and in the traditions which +have been passed down from white haired men who gossiped of the early +days in the schoolbook +<span title="Different Editions" class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[4]</span> +business. Valuable information has also been furnished by +descendants of the McGuffey family, and by the educational institutions +with which each of the authors of the readers was connected. +</p> +<p> +For half a century the present writer has had personal knowledge of the +readers. At first, as a teacher, using them daily in the class room; but +soon, as an editor, directing the literary work of the publishers and +owners. It therefore falls to him to narrate a story "quorum pars minima +fui." +</p> +<p> +For more than seventy years the McGuffey Readers have held high rank as +text-books for use in the elementary schools, especially throughout the +West and South. But during this time these books have been revised five +times and adjusted to the changed conditions in the schools. In each one +of these revisions the marked characteristics of the original series +have been most scrupulously retained, and the continued success of the +series is doubtless owing to this fact. There has been a continuity of +spirit. +</p> +<p> +The First and Second Readers were first published in 1836. In 1837 the +Third and Fourth Readers were printed. For reasons elsewhere explained +these books were "improved and enlarged" in 1838. In 1841 a higher +reader was added to the series which was then named McGuffey's +Rhetorical Guide. In the years 1843 and 1844 the four books then +constituting the series were thoroughly remodeled and on the title pages +were placed the words "Newly Revised" and the Rhetorical Guide was +annexed as +<span title="Contents of the Books" class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[5]</span> +the Fifth Reader. Ten years later the entire series was made over and +issued in six books. These were then called the New Readers. From 1853 +until 1878 the books remained substantially unchanged; but in the latter +year they were renewed largely in substance and improved in form. These +readers as copyrighted in 1879 were extensively used for more than a +quarter of a century. Changing conditions in the school room called for +another revision in 1901. This latest form now in extensive use is +called The New McGuffey Readers. +</p> +<p> +Each of these revisions has constituted practically a new series +although the changes have never included the entire contents. In the +higher readers will be found today many selections which appeared in the +original books. The reason for retaining such selections is clear. No +one has been able to write in the English language selections that are +better for school use than some written by Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, +and other early writers. The literature of the English language has not +all been written in the present decade nor in the last century. +</p> +<p> +As at first published, the lower books of the McGuffey Readers had no +trace of the modern methods now used in teaching the mastery of +words—even the alphabet was not given in orderly form; but the +alphabetic method of teaching the art of reading was then the only one +used. The pupil at first spelled each word by naming the letters and +then pronounced each syllable and then the word. +</p> +<p> +<span title="First Editions" class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[6]</span> +</p> +<p> +The following stanza is copied from page 61 of the edition of 1844 to +illustrate the method of presenting words: +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> I like to see a lit-tle dog, </p> +<p class="i4"> And pat him on the head; </p> +<p class="i2"> So pret-ti-ly he wags his tail </p> +<p class="i4"> When-ev-er he is fed. </p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +The First Reader was mostly in words of one syllable. In this book we +find the story of the lame dog that, when cured, brought another lame +dog to be doctored: of the kind boy who freed his caged bird; of the +cruel boy who drowned the cat and pulled wings and legs from flies; of +Peter Pindar the story teller, and the "snow dog" of Mount St. Bernard; +of Mr. Post who adopted and reared Mary; of the boy who told a lie and +repented after he was found out; of the chimney sweep who was tempted to +steal a gold watch but put it back and was thereafter educated by its +owner; of the whisky boy; and of the mischievous boy who played ghost +and made another boy insane. Nearly every lesson has a moral clearly +stated in formal didactic words at its close. +</p> +<p> +In the Second Reader we find the story of the idle boy who talked with +the bees, dogs, and horses, and having found them all busy, reformed +himself; of the kind girl who shared her cake with a dog and an old man; +of the mischievous boys who tied the grass across the path and thus +upset not only the milk-maid but the messenger running for a doctor +<span title="First Editions" class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[7]</span> +to come to their father; of the wise lark who knew that the farmer's +grain would not be cut until he resolved to cut it himself; of the wild +and ravenous bear that treed a boy and hung suspended by his boot; and +of another bear that traveled as a passenger by night in a stage coach; +of the quarrelsome cocks, pictured in a clearly English farm yard, that +were both eaten up by the fox that had been brought in by the defeated +cock; of the honest boy and the thief who was judiciously kicked by the +horse that carried oranges in baskets; of George Washington and his +historic hatchet and the mutilated cherry-tree; and of the garden that +was planted with seeds in lines spelling Washington's name which removed +all doubt as to an intelligent Creator. There were also some lessons on +such animals as beavers, whales, peacocks and lions. +</p> +<p> +The Third Reader will be remembered first because of the picture, on the +cover, of Napoleon on his rearing charger. This book contained five +selections from the Bible; Croly's "Conflagration of the Ampitheatre at +Rome;" "How a Fly Walks on the Ceiling;" "The Child's Inquiry;" "How big +was Alexander, Pa;" Irving's "Description of Pompey's Pillar;" +Woodworth's "Old Oaken Bucket;" Miss Gould's "The Winter King;" and +Scott's "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps," commencing "'Is the route +practicable?' said Bonaparte. 'It is barely possible to pass,' replied +the engineer. 'Let us set forward, then,' said Napoleon." The rearing +steed facing a +<span title="Favorite Selections" class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[8]</span> +precipitous slope in the picture gave emphasis to the words. There were +also in this reader several pieces about Indians and bears, which +indicate that Dr. McGuffey never forgot the stories told at the fireside +by his father of his adventures as an Indian scout and hunter. +</p> +<p> +In the Fourth Reader there were seventeen selections from the Bible; +William Wirt's "Description of the Blind Preacher;" Phillip's "Character +of Napoleon Bonaparte;" Bacon's "Essay on Studies;" Nott's "Speech on +the Death of Alexander Hamilton;" Addison's "Westminster Abbey;" +Irving's "Alhambra;" Rogers's "Genevra;" Willis's "Parrhasius;" +Montgomery's "Make Way for Liberty;" two extracts from Milton and two +from Shakespeare, and no less than fourteen selections from the writings +of the men and women who lectured before the College of Teachers in +Cincinnati. The story of the widow of the Pine Cottage sharing her last +smoked herring with a strange traveler who revealed himself as her +long-lost son, returning rich from the Indies, was anonymous, but it +will be remembered by those who read it. +</p> +<p> +These selections were the most noteworthy ones in the first editions of +these readers. +</p> +<p> +The First and Second Readers of the McGuffey Series were substantially +made new at each revision. A comparison of the original Third Reader +with an edition copyrighted in 1847, shows that the latter book was +increased about one-third in size. +<span title="Favorite Selections" class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>[9]</span> +Of the sixty-six selections in the early edition only forty-seven were +retained, while thirty new ones were inserted. Among the latter were +"Harry and his Dog Frisk" that brought to him, punished by being sent to +bed, a Windsor pear; "Perseverance," a tale of kite-flying followed by +the poem, "Try, try again;" the "Little Philosopher," named Peter +Hurdle, who caught Mr. Lenox's runaway horse and on examination seemed +to lack nothing but an Eclectic spelling book, a reader and a +Testament—which were promised him; "The Colonists," in which men of +various callings offered their services, and while even the dancing +master was accepted as of some possible use, the gentleman was +scornfully rejected; "Things by Their Right Names," in which a battle +was described as wholesale murder; "Little Victories," in which Hugh's +mother consoled him for the loss of a leg by telling him of the lives of +men who became celebrated under even greater adversities; "The Wonderful +Instrument," which turned out to be the eye; "Metaphysics," a ludicrous +description of a colonial salt-box in affected terms of exactness +designed to ridicule some forms of reasoning. Those who used this +edition of the third reader will surely remember some of these +selections. +</p> +<p> +In the Fourth Reader printed in 1844 there were thirty new +selections—less than one-third of the book; but some of these were such +as will be remembered by those who read them in school. There was +"Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded," in which + +<span title="The Bible" class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>[10]</span> + +a barber of Bath had become so poor because he would not shave his +customers on Sunday, that he borrowed a half-penny to buy a candle +Saturday night to give light for a late customer, and was thus +discovered to be the long-lost William Reed of Taunton, heir to many +thousand pounds; "The Just Judge," who disguised himself as a miller +and, obtaining a place on the jury, received only five guineas as a +bribe when the others got ten, and who revealed himself as Lord Chief +Justice Hale and tried the case over in his miller's clothing; +Hawthorne's "The Town Pump;" Mrs. Southey's "April Day." +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p> "All day the low-hung clouds have dropped </p> +<p class="i2"> Their garnered fullness down. </p> +<p> All day a soft gray mist hath wrapped </p> +<p class="i2"> Hill, valley, grove and town." </p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +Bryant's "Death of the Flowers;" Campbell's "Lochiel's Warning;" and the +trial scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. All these became +favorite reading exercises in later years. +</p> +<p> +As late as 1840 the Bible was read daily in all the schools of the +West. Although sectarian or denominational teaching was not permitted, +religious instruction was desired by the great majority of school +patrons. +</p> +<p> +Even up to the opening of the Civil War, whatever the faith or the +practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the Bible story and +the Bible diction +<span title="Dr. Swing's Opinion" class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>[11]</span> +were familiar to all. The speeches of the popular orators of that day +were filled with distinct allusions to the Bible and these were quickly +and clearly apprehended by the people. It may be questioned whether +popular speeches of the present day would have equal force if based on +the assumption that everybody knows the Biblical stories. Indeed it is a +common remark made by professors of English in the higher institutions +of learning that pupils know little of the Bible as a distinctly +formative and conservative element in English literature. In the texts +authorized for the study of English classics, Biblical allusions are +very common. These have little meaning to pupils who have not read the +Bible, unless the passage is pointed out and hunted up. +</p> +<p> +From the pages of these readers the pupils learned to master the printed +word and obtain the thought of the authors. Without conscious effort +they received moral instruction and incentives toward right living. +Without intent they treasured in their memories such extracts from the +authors of the best English Literature as gave them a desire to read +more. +</p> +<p> +In one of his sermons Dr. David Swing of Chicago said: "Much as you may +have studied the languages or the sciences, that which most affected you +was the moral lessons in the series of McGuffey. And yet the reading +class was filed out only once a day to read for a few moments, and then +we were all sent to our seats to spend two hours in learning +<span title="Books as Teachers" class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[12]</span> +how to bound New Hampshire or Connecticut, or how long it would take a +greyhound to overtake a fox or a hare if the spring of each was so and +so, and the poor fugitive had such and such a start. That was perhaps +well, but we have forgotten how to bound Connecticut, and how to solve +the equation of the field and thicket; but up out of the far-off years +come all the blessed lessons in virtue and righteousness which those +reading books taught; and when we now remember, how even these moral +memories have faded I cannot but wish the teachers had made us bound the +States less, and solve fewer puzzles in 'position' and the 'cube root' +and made us commit to memory the whole series of the McGuffey Eclectic +Readers. The memory that comes from these far-away pages is full of the +best wisdom of time or the timeless land. In these books we were indeed +led by a schoolmaster, from beautiful maxims for children up to the +best thoughts of a long line of sages, and poets, and naturalists. There +we all first learned the awful weakness of the duel that took away a +Hamilton; there we saw the grandeur of the Blind Preacher of William +Wirt; there we saw the emptiness of the ambition of Alexander, and there +we heard even the infidel say, 'Socrates died like a philosopher, but +Jesus Christ like a God.'" +</p> +<p> +This public recognition of the influence of these readers upon the mind +and character of this great preacher is again noted in Rev. Joseph Fort +Newton's +<span title="How a Japanese Learned English" class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[13]</span> +biography of David Swing in which the books which influenced that +life are named as "The Bible, Calvin's Institutes, Fox's Book of Martyrs +and the McGuffey Readers;" and the author quotes David Swing as saying +that "The Institutes were rather large reading for a boy, but to the end +of his life he held that McGuffey's Sixth Reader was a great book. For +Swing, as for many a boy in the older West, its varied and wise +selections from the best English authors were the very gates of +literature ajar." +</p> +<p> +One of the most eminent political leaders of the present day attributes +his power in the use of English largely to the study of McGuffey's Sixth +Reader in the common schools of Ohio. +</p> +<p> +At a dinner lately given in New York to Marquis Ito of Japan, the +marquis responded to the toast of his health returning thanks in +English. He then continued his remarks in Japanese for some eight +minutes. At its close Mr. Tsudjuki, who was then the minister of +Education in Japan, traveling with Marquis Ito as his friend and +companion, and who had taken shorthand notes of the Japanese speech, +rose and translated the speech readily and fluently into good English. +One of the guests asked how he had learned to speak English so +correctly. He replied that he had done so in the public schools of Japan +and added, "I learned my English from McGuffey's Readers, with which you +are no doubt familiar." +</p> +<p> +It is not unusual to see in the literary columns of +<span title="The Authorship" class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[14]</span> +a daily newspaper inquiries as to where certain poems may be found of +which a single stanza is faintly recalled. Many of these prove to be +fragments of pieces that are found in the McGuffey Readers. Quite lately +Theodore Roosevelt made the public statement that he did not propose to +become a "Meddlesome Matty." This allusion was perfectly clear to the +millions of people who used the McGuffey Readers at any time after 1853. +</p> +<p> +When the Fourth Reader was issued in 1837 it contained a preface of +three closely printed pages setting forth and defending the plan of +McGuffey's books. In this he said: "In conclusion, the author begs leave +to state, that the whole series of Eclectic Readers is his own. In the +preparation of the rules, etc., for the present volume he has had the +assistance of a very distinguished Teacher, whose judgment and zeal in +promoting the cause of education have often been commended by the +American people. In the arrangement of the series generally, he is +indebted to many of his friends for valuable suggestions, and he takes +this opportunity of tendering them his thanks for the lively interest +they have manifested for the success of his undertaking." +</p> +<p> +The sole author of the four readers first issued as the Eclectic Readers +was William Holmes McGuffey. He was responsible for the marked qualities +in these books which met with such astonishing popular approval in all +these years. What these qualities are +<span title="The Rhetorical Guide" class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>[15]</span> +is well known to those who have used the books and the users are +numbered by millions. +</p> +<p> +The Rhetorical Guide was prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey, and his name +alone was on the early editions. In 1844 the book was revised by the +author and Dr. Pinneo, and was given the alternate title "or Fifth +Reader of the Eclectic Series." The work of revision occupied two years. +The title page carried the name of its author until, for reasons of his +own, he asked to have it removed. +</p> +<p> +As usual when revisions of schoolbooks are made, the older edition was +continued in publication so long as a distinct demand for it existed. +But the issuance of a revised edition always suggests the question of +change, which competing publishers promptly seek to bring about. The +publishers of the "Newly Revised McGuffey Readers," therefore, sought to +replace the older edition wherever it was in use and to displace +competing books wherever possible. The edition of 1843 acquired large +sales over a very wide territory in the central West and South. It is +the edition generally known by the grandfathers of the school boys of +the present day. +</p> +<p> +It may be interesting to name some of the selections in this Rhetorical +Guide issued in 1844 since in modified form the work has been the +highest reader of the series. +</p> +<p> +As a guide toward rhetorical reading the book contained a carefully +prepared collection of rules and directions with examples for practice +in Articulation. +<span title="Selections of Value" class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>[16]</span> +Inflection, Accent and Emphasis, Reading Verse, for the +Management of the Voice and Gesture. These pages were intended for drill +work, and in those days the teachers were not content with the dull +monotonous utterance of the words or with mere mastery of thought, to be +tested by multitudinous questioning. If the pupil obtained from the +printed page the very thought the author intended to convey, the pupil +was expected to read orally so as to express that thought to all +hearers. If the correct thought was thus heard, no questions were +needed. The test of reading orally is the communication of thought by +the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the +author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the +pupil may select. +</p> +<p> +The selections in the Rhetorical Guide were made, first of all, to teach +the art of reading. There was therefore great variety. Second, to +inculcate a love for literature. Therefore the selections were taken +from the great writers,—poets, orators, essayists, historians, and +preachers. The extracts are wonderfully complete in themselves,—one +does not need to read the whole of Byron's Don Juan to appreciate the +six stanzas that describe the thunder-storm on the Alps. Of the poetical +extracts all the users of this book will remember Southey's "Cataract of +Lodore" with its exacting drill on the ending,—"ing," Longfellow's +"Village Blacksmith" and the "Reaper and the Flowers;" Bryant's "Thanatopsis" +<span title="Noted Selections" class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[17]</span> +and "Song of the Stars;" Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore;" +Gray's "Elegy;" Mrs. Hemans's "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers;" Cowper's +"My Mother's Picture;" Jones's "What Constitutes a State;" Scott's +"Lochinvar;" Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris;" Drake's "American Flag;" and +Mrs. Thrale's "Three Warnings." As an introduction to the thought, +imagery and diction of Shakespeare, there were "Hamlet's Soliloquy," +"Speech of Henry Fifth to his Troops," "Othello's Apology," "The Fall of +Cardinal Wolsey" and his death, the "Quarrel of Brutus and Cassius" +(often committed to memory and spoken) and Antony's Oration over dead +Caesar. The extracts from orations were chosen largely for their +relation to great events in history. There were Patrick Henry's "Speech +before the Virginia Convention," Walpole's "Reproof of Mr. Pitt," and +Pitt's reply. Who cannot remember "The atrocious crime of being a young +man," and go on with the context? There were extracts from Hayne's +"Speech on South Carolina," and Webster's reply defending Massachusetts; +a part of Burke's long speech on the Trial of Warren Hastings prefaced +by Macaulay's description of the scene; Webster's "Speech on the Trial +of a Murderer," ending with "It must be confessed, it will be confessed; +there is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is +confession;" Webster's speech on the Importance of the Union with its +concluding sentiment, "Liberty and Union, now and forever; one and +inseparable." There was +<span title="Literary Selections" class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[18]</span> +also Fox's "Political Pause" with its wonderful requirements of +inflection to express irony; Sprague's "American Indians," "Not many +generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and +embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the +wild fox dug his hole unscared." Did you not commit it to memory and +speak it? Then there was Webster's Speech in which he supplied John +Adams from his own fervid imagination that favorite of all patriotic +boys, "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish; I give my hand and +my heart to this vote." At its close, "it is my living sentiment, and, +by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment; independence +now, and independence forever." +</p> +<p> +From the essayists there was Lamb's "Eulogy on Candle Light;" that +delightful "Eulogy on Debt" from an unknown author; Addison's "Allegory +on Discontent," and "Westminster Abbey;" and Jane Taylor's "Discontented +Pendulum." Only seven selections were taken from the Bible; but one of +these was Paul's Defense before Agrippa. There were, however, quite a +number of articles of strongly religious tendency, like Dr. Spring's +"Observance of the Sabbath." +</p> +<p> +The book contained two hundred and thirty-five selections and of this +number nearly one-half appeared in all subsequent revisions. +</p> +<p> +This Rhetorical Guide or Fifth Reader is the book that by its careful +selection of specimens of the best +<span title="McGuffey's Ancestry" class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[19]</span> +English literature in prose and verse contributed most to the training +of its readers toward the appreciation of true beauty in literature. It +contained many pieces of solid and continuous worth,—many that relate +closely to the great historical eras of the United States. +</p> +<p> +In the latest revision of the highest reader, made in 1879, one hundred +and thirty-eight selections composed the book. Of this number sixty-one +were in the original book as prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey. +</p> +<p> +It was an admirable collection of much material that is still prized and +which, when carefully read by pupils hungry for thoughtful language, +made a deep and lasting impression. In many cases the inmost thought of +the author may not have been at once fully apprehended by the young +readers; but with advancing years and wider experience in life the +stored words became instinct with thought and feeling. +</p> +<h3> +THE AUTHORS. +</h3> +<p> +Dr. William Holmes McGuffey was born September 28, 1800, on the southern +border of Washington county, Pa. The family descended from William and +Anna (McKittrick) McGuffey who came from Scotland, and landed at +Philadelphia. They made a home in the southern part of York county, at +<span title="The Indian Scouts" class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[20]</span> +which, during the Revolution, General Washington often stopped to +refresh himself. In 1789 this family removed to Washington county, Pa. +</p> +<p> +Alexander McGuffey, the father of Dr. McGuffey, was six years old when +the family came to America in August, 1774. In 1790, when he was +twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, Duncan McArthur, afterward a +governor of Ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to +act as scouts against the Indians in Ohio who were then threatening the +frontier settlements in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania. +These two young men were selected after tests by Samuel Brady to find +which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least +afraid of Indians. Alexander McGuffey served in the army three years, +venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the Indian country. +He took part in several fights with the Indians. When General St. Clair +in 1792 marched north from Cincinnati to meet the Indians, this body of +scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of Castalia, +Ohio. There they saw great numbers of Indians passing to meet General +St. Clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the Indian country +to inform the general. They traveled only at night and hid during the +day. One night they marched forty miles. They told General St. Clair +what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting Indians. +Three days later St. Clair was defeated. These scouts were then twelve +miles away +<span title="Indian Warfare" class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>[21]</span> +but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the "woods were +alive with Indians." The scouts turned eastward and in due time reached +Logstown, near Wheeling. +</p> +<p> +The next year McArthur, McGuffey and George Sutherland were again sent +out by General Wayne to spy the Indians. When only seven or eight miles +from Wheeling and west of the Ohio river, they came upon a trail which +led to a deer lick. Just at dusk McGuffey, who was leading the party, +saw in the path the gaily decorated head-dress of an Indian. It had been +placed there by the Indians who were in ambush close by and were ready +to shoot any white man who should stop to pick it up. McGuffey saw +through the stratagem instantly; without halting, he gave it a kick and +shouted "Indians!" Several Indians fired at once and one of the balls +smashed McGuffey's powder horn, and passed through his clothing, but did +not wound him. The three scouts retreated in safety, and the Indians did +not follow them. +</p> +<p> +The wars with the Indians in that region closed in 1794, and Alexander +McGuffey then married Anna Holmes, of Washington county, and became a +settler. His eldest son was William Holmes McGuffey. When this son was +but two years old the family moved to Trumbull county, Ohio. Here, in +the care of a pious mother and father, he spent the years of childhood +and of early manhood, performing the labors falling upon the eldest son +in a large family +<span title="A Frontier School" class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[22]</span> +of children dwelling in a log cabin on the frontier. From the heavy +forest, fields were cleared, fenced and cultivated, roads were made and +bridges were built, and in all these labors the sturdy son of the famous +Indian scout took part. +</p> +<p> +During the first eighteen years of W.H. McGuffey's life he had no +opportunities for education other than those afforded by the brief +winter schools supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the parents +in the neighborhood. +</p> +<p> +In 1802 Rev. Thos. Hughes, a Presbyterian clergyman, built at +Darlington, Pa., the "Old Stone Academy" for the education of young men, +having obtained the necessary funds by traveling on horseback throughout +Pennsylvania and eastward even to Newburyport, Mass. +</p> +<p> +This seminary of learning was conducted on lines of the utmost economy +to meet the needs of the boys living on the frontier. The tuition was +only three dollars a year and the charge for board was seventy-five +cents a week. The food was simple. For breakfast, bread, butter, and +coffee; for dinner, bread, meat, and sauce; for supper, bread and milk. +The only variation allowed in this bill of fare was the occasional +omission of sauce or coffee. +</p> +<p> +At the close of a summer day in 1818, Thomas Hughes was riding horseback +through Trumbull county. The dust on the highway deadened the sound of +his horse's feet. While passing a log cabin, half hidden from the road +by intervening trees and +<span title="The Old Stone Academy" class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[23]</span> +shrubs, he heard the plaintive voice of a woman who was in the garden, +out of sight. The clergyman stopped his horse and listened. He heard the +woman earnestly praying that some way might be opened for her children +to obtain such education as should fit them for the duties of life. +Riding on, the clergyman inquired at the next house regarding the +inmates of the log cabin. He was informed that a Mr. McGuffey lived +there. Turning back he sought the prayerful mother and learned from her +the circumstances of the family. The doors of the "Old Stone Academy" +were opened to William H. McGuffey and he there obtained his first start +in a preparation for college. But his labor could not be wholly spared +on the farm so lately won from the surrounding forest. He worked in the +fields in summer, continuing his studies and walked many miles once a +week to recite his lessons to a kindly clergyman. +</p> +<p> +W.H. McGuffey's father was too poor to aid his son in obtaining a +collegiate education, and the latter soon turned to teaching as a means +of obtaining money to support himself in college. When prepared for +college he went back to his native county and entered Washington +College. He was in his twenty-sixth year when he graduated with +distinguished honors from that institution. +</p> +<p> +It was at Washington College that W.H. McGuffey first met with a great +teacher and former of character,—Dr. Andrew Wylie, then the president. +It was considered by Dr. McGuffey one of the most +<span title="A College Professor" class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[24]</span> +fortunate events of his life that he came at that time under the +influence of Dr. Wylie's forceful mind and elevated character. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey was obliged to suspend his collegiate course for a year to +earn more money for his support. He taught a private school at Paris, +Ky., in 1823 and 1824. There he met Dr. Robert H. Bishop, the president +of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. Dr. Bishop was so impressed with +the character and mental power of the young teacher that on March 29, +1826, even before McGuffey received his bachelor's degree from +Washington College, he received his appointment as professor of Ancient +Languages at Miami University. +</p> +<p> +He graduated in 1826 and began his labor at Oxford, Ohio, at the opening +of the fall session. He at once took high rank in a faculty consisting +of strong men, and, young as he was, won the respect and homage of the +students. In 1832 he was transferred to the chair of Mental Philosophy. +To make this subject interesting and valuable to beginners requires, on +the part of the teacher, wide reading, clearness of thought, and +simplicity and directness of speech. These qualities Dr. McGuffey had. +He had become well read in philosophy, especially of the Scottish +school, Brown being his favorite author. But he had fully assimilated +the matter and had thought independently. He also had a fund of fresh +and suggestive illustrations coming within the daily experience of men, +which brought his lectures +<span title="Cincinnati College" class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[25]</span> +close to the minds of the students. Whatever positions of honor or of +trust his pupils held in their later careers, they never ceased to feel +the impulse which came from Dr. McGuffey as a teacher. +</p> +<p> +On March 29, 1829, he was licensed as a preacher in the Presbyterian +church, and from that date he became a frequent public speaker. He never +had charge of a parish as minister, but usually preached on Sunday in +the college chapel to the students and to such of the public as could +obtain space to sit or to stand. The preacher's unassuming manner, the +clearness of his thought, and the simplicity of his language produced +impressions that were enduring. He never wrote his sermons. He simply +thought them out rigorously, and his mind worked so logically and in +such definite lines that he could repeat on request a sermon, preached +years before, in a form recognized by his hearers as substantially the +same. +</p> +<p> +After ten years spent in teaching and preaching at Miami University, Dr. +McGuffey resigned, August 26, 1836, and accepted the presidency of +Cincinnati College. +</p> +<p> +This institution was chartered in the winter of 1818-1819 by the +legislature of Ohio, largely at the solicitation of Dr. Daniel Drake. It +was partially endowed by the gifts of the public-spirited citizens of +Cincinnati. But its collegiate functions had been allowed to drop, +although a school on the Lancastrian system was maintained. +</p> +<p> +<span title="Ohio University" class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name="page26"></a>[26]</span> +</p> +<p> +The election of Dr. McGuffey as president of this college was a result +of renewed activity on the part of the leading men in the city to found +a genuine college of high character in that city. They believed that if +well conducted such an institution would bring to its doors students +enough to support the college by their fees. +</p> +<p> +A medical department was organized in June, 1835, with eight competent +professors, a law department with three professors, and a faculty of +arts with seven teachers. In this faculty, William H. McGuffey was +president and professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, O.M. +Mitchell was professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, and Edward D. +Mansfield was professor of Constitutional Law and History. Dr. McGuffey +accepted the presidency with a full knowledge that the work was +experimental. A trial of three years demonstrated that a college could +not be sustained without an invested endowment. Cincinnati College "was +endowed with genius, and nothing else." +</p> +<p> +In 1839, Dr. McGuffey accepted the presidency of the Ohio University at +Athens, Ohio, which office he held for four years. During these years +his faculties were at their fullest development. He had become an +experienced, scholarly teacher and a popular speaker on religious and +educational subjects. The students at Athens held him in the highest +esteem, and the influence of his teaching became deeper +<span title="University of Virginia" class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>[27]</span> +as years rolled by and experience emphasized his lessons. +</p> +<p> +In 1839 he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws conferred upon +him by the Indiana University, of which his former teacher and friend, +Dr. Wylie, was then president. +</p> +<p> +The income of the Ohio University came chiefly from the rents of two +entire townships of land which had been given it for an endowment. This +land was lawfully revalued at the end of ten years. The revaluation was +contested in the courts by the tenants. The Supreme Court decided in +favor of the university; but the farmers induced the legislature in 1843 +to pass a law which fixed the income of the university from these lands +at a sum so low as to cause the doors of the institution to be closed +for five years. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey returned to Cincinnati and was for two years a professor in +Woodward College, now Woodward High School. +</p> +<p> +In 1845 he was appointed professor of Natural and Moral Philosophy in +the University of Virginia. This position he filled with credit to +himself and with great acceptance to the students in that institution +for more than a quarter of a century and until his death on May 4, 1873. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey's classes in the University of Virginia were well attended. +His lectures were delivered extempore, in language exactly expressing +his thoughts. His illustrations were most apt. He +<span title="Method of Teaching" class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[28]</span> +taught "with the simplicity of a child, with the precision of a +mathematician, and with the authority of truth." +</p> +<p> +A portion of the lecture hour was given to questioning the members of +the class. In this he used the Socratic method, leading the pupil by a +series of questions to the discovery of the incorrectness of his +reasoning or the falsity of his grounds. By this process the students +were led to question their own reasoning, to think clearly and to +express their thoughts accurately. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey once told a pupil that he had preached three thousand +sermons and had never written one. Until late in life he had never +written his lectures. Shortly before his death he began the preparation +of a book on Mental Philosophy. This was never completed. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey was twice married. By his first wife. Miss Harriet Spinning +of Dayton, he had several children. One daughter, Mary, married Dr. +William W. Stewart of Dayton; another, Henrietta, married Professor A. +D. Hepburn who was for a time president of Miami University. Professor +Hepburn's son, in turn inheriting his grandfather's faculty of teaching, +is a professor in the University of Indiana. +</p> +<p> +In 1837 Professor Calvin E. Stowe went to Europe to investigate the +organization and method of elementary schools. On his return he +published, in 1838, his report on the Prussian system. Subsequently +<span title="Interest in Public Schools" class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>[29]</span> +Dr. McGuffey labored in Ohio with Samuel Lewis and other +public-spirited men for the passage of the general school law under +which the common schools of Ohio were first organized. He carried to +Virginia the same zeal for the education of all the children of the +state to prepare them for the duties of life. One of his first acts on +assuming the duties of his professorship in the university was to make a +tour of the state advocating the introduction of a public school system +in Virginia. To this first appeal for common schools, open alike to rich +and poor, there was then but a feeble response; but, twenty-five years +later, Dr. McGuffey had the satisfaction of seeing the public schools +organized with one of his own friends and a former pupil at its +head,—Hon. W.H. Ruffner. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey was a man of medium stature and compact figure. His +forehead was broad and full; his eyes clear and expressive. His features +were of the strongly marked rugged Scotch type. He was a ready speaker, +a popular lecturer on educational topics, and an able preacher. He was +admirable in conversation. His observation of men was accurate, and his +study of character close. +</p> +<p> +After the Civil War and while the reconstruction was in progress it was +extremely difficult in the North to obtain a correct view of the +situation in the South. State governments had been established in which +"carpet-baggers" had more or less control. Nearly all the whites in the +South had taken part +<span title="Trip Through the South" class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>[30]</span> +in the war. They were largely disfranchised and their former servants +often became the legal rulers. The Klu Klux Klan had begun their +unlawful work, of which the papers gave contradictory reports. +</p> +<p> +As business men, the publishers of McGuffey's Readers desired to learn +the truth about the situation of the South and its probable future. They +asked Dr. McGuffey to take a trip through the Carolinas, Georgia, +Alabama, and Mississippi and make report to them at Cincinnati. This he +did, visiting all the larger towns where he was usually the honored +guest of some graduate of the university. He saw the legislatures in +session, met the governors, and studied the whole situation. He then +came to Cincinnati and told his story. He had made no notes, but he +never hesitated for a name. He repeated conversations with unquestioned +accuracy and described with humor the gross ignorance and brutality of +some of the southern legislators, the looting of the capitol at the end +of the session, the indirect robbery that was under way, the reversal of +all the conditions of life, and the growing unrest of the men who had +heretofore been the rulers. +</p> +<p> +It was such a picture as at that time no Northern paper would have dared +to print—it was the truth. For days he held his listeners captive with +the story—the writer never heard a more interesting one. +</p> +<p> +While Dr. McGuffey was still at Oxford, Ohio, he took part in the +formation of probably the first extended Teachers' Association formed in +the West. +<span title="College of Teachers" class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[31]</span> +There had been a previous association of Cincinnati teachers organized +for mutual aid and improvement. This was about to be given up; but at +their first anniversary on June 20, 1831, Mr. Albert Pickett, principal +of a private school in Cincinnati, proposed a plan for organizing in one +body the instructors in public and private schools and the friends of +education. Circulars were sent out and the first meeting of the College +of Teachers was held October 3, 1832. A great number of teachers from +many states of the West and South attended these meetings and took part +in the proceedings. Throughout its continuance Dr. McGuffey took an +active part in the work. In the years 1832-1836 fifty-seven addresses +were delivered to the College by thirty-nine speakers. Of this number +Dr. McGuffey prepared and delivered three. +</p> +<p> +The proceedings of the College of Teachers were published in annual +pamphlets which together formed two large octavo volumes. The topics +which were then under discussion are best shown by the titles of a few +of the addresses, with the name of the speaker and the year of delivery: +</p> +<p> +On Introducing the Bible into Schools, Rev. B.P. Aydelott, 1836; +Importance of making the business of Teaching a Profession, Lyman +Beecher, D.D., 1833; The Kind of Education Adapted to the West, +Professor Bradford, 1833; Qualifications of Teachers, Mr. Mann Butler, +1832; Physical Education, Dr. Daniel Drake, 1833; On Popular Education, +John P. +<span title="Topics Discussed" class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[32]</span> +Harrison, M.D., 1836; On the Study and Nature of Ancient Languages, A. +Kinmont, 1832; On Common Schools, Samuel Lewis, Esq., 1835; On the +Qualifications of Teachers, E.D. Mansfield, Esq., 1836; Reciprocal +Duties of Parents and Teachers, Rev. W.H. McGuffey, A.M., 1835; General +Duties of Teachers, Albert Pickett, 1835; Philosophy of the Human Mind, +Bishop Purcell, 1836; Utility of Cabinets of Natural Science, Joseph +Ray, 1836; Agriculture as a Branch of Education, Rev. E. Slack, 1836; +Education of Emigrants, Professor Calvin Stowe, 1835; Best Method of +Teaching Composition, D.L. Talbott, 1835; Manual Labor in the Schools, +Milo G. Williams. +</p> +<p> +Some of these topics are still engrossing the attention of teachers at +their annual meetings for the discussion of live educational questions. +</p> +<p> +While Dr. McGuffey was at Oxford, teaching mental philosophy to the +pupils in Miami University, he prepared the manuscript for the two lower +readers of the graded series which bore his name. To test his work while +in progress, he collected in his own house a number of small children +whom he taught to read by the use of his lessons. +</p> +<p> +It is evident that these readers were prepared at the solicitation of +the publishers and on such a general plan as to number and size as was +desired by the publishers. Dr. McGuffey was selected by them as the most +competent teacher known to them for the preparation of successful books. +He did not prepare the manuscripts and search for a publisher. +</p> +<p> +<span title="The Copyright Contract" class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name="page33"></a>[33]</span> +</p> +<p> +On April 28, 1836, he made a contract with Truman & Smith, publishers of +Cincinnati, for the preparation and publication of a graded series of +readers to consist of four books. The First and Second readers were then +in manuscript, the Third and Fourth readers were to be completed within +eighteen months. They were both issued in 1837. Dr. Benjamin Chidlaw, +then a student in college, aided the author by copying the indicated +selections and preparing them for the printer. He received for this work +five dollars and thought himself well paid. +</p> +<p> +These four books constituted the original series of the Eclectic Readers +by W.H. McGuffey which in all the subsequent revisions have borne his +name and retained the impress of his mind. +</p> +<p> +The First Reader made a thin 18mo book of seventy-two pages, having +green paper covered sides; the Second Reader contained one hundred and +sixty-four pages of the same size. The Third Reader had a larger page +and was printed as a duodecimo of one hundred and sixty-five pages. The +fourth Reader ranked in size with the Third and contained three hundred +and twenty-four printed pages. Each was printed from the type, which was +distributed when the required number for the edition came from the +press. +</p> +<p> +By the terms of the contract the publishers paid a royalty of ten per +cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one +thousand dollars, after which the Readers became the absolute +<span title="Later Contracts" class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name="page34"></a>[34]</span> +property of the publishers. It must be remembered that in those days +this sum of money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, +and it may be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers +commanded as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business. At any +rate the contract was mutually satisfactory and remained so to the end +of the author's life. Right here it seems proper to remark that although +the McGuffey readers became the property of the publishers when the +royalties reached one thousand dollars. Dr. McGuffey was employed by the +publishers in connection with important revisions so long as he lived +and the contracts specify a "satisfactory consideration" in each case. +</p> +<p> +When, after the Civil War, these readers attained a sale which became +very profitable to the firm then owning the copyrights, the partners, +without suggestion or solicitation, fixed upon an annuity which was paid +Dr. McGuffey each year so long as he lived. This was a voluntary +recognition of their esteem for the man and of the continued value of +his work. +</p> +<p> +Before Dr. McGuffey completed the manuscripts of the Third and Fourth +readers he left Oxford and went to Cincinnati. Here he found himself in +close touch with a community fully alive to the claims of education. +Cincinnati, in 1837, was the largest city in the West excepting New +Orleans and was the great educational center of the West. The early +settlers of Cincinnati were generally well educated +<span title="The Beecher Family" class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>[35]</span> +men and they had a keen sense of the value of learning. The public +schools of Cincinnati were then more highly developed than those of any +other city in the West. Woodward High School had been endowed and Dr. +Joseph Ray, the author of the well known arithmetics, was the professor +of mathematics there. The Cincinnati College was then bright with the +promise of future usefulness. Lane Seminary was founded and Dr. Lyman +Beecher was inducted professor of Theology on December 26, 1832, and +became the first president. He went to Cincinnati with his brilliant +family. His eldest daughter, Catherine, had already won a high +reputation as a teacher, acting as principal of the Hartford (Conn.) +Female Institute. His younger daughter, Harriet, married, in January, +1836, Calvin E. Stowe, then one of the professors in Lane Seminary. It +was while in Cincinnati that she gathered material and formed opinions +which she later embodied in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In 1834 Henry Ward +Beecher graduated at Amherst College. He and his brother, Charles, then +went to Cincinnati to study theology under their father. While pursuing +his studies Henry Ward Beecher devoted his surplus energies to editorial +work on the Cincinnati Daily Journal. These were some of the people of +Cincinnati interested in the problem of education who took part with Dr. +McGuffey in the discussions of the College of Teachers and labored +zealously for the promotion of education in every department. While +president of Lane Seminary. +<span title="Alexander H. McGuffey" class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>[36]</span> +Dr. Beecher was also the pastor of the Second Presbyterian +Church in Cincinnati where W.B. Smith was an attendant. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey left Cincinnati in 1839, and when the publisher, Mr. +Winthrop B. Smith, found it necessary to add to the four McGuffey's +Readers another more advanced book, he employed for its preparation, Mr. +Alexander H. McGuffey, a younger brother of Dr. McGuffey. Mr. Alexander +H. McGuffey had, in 1837, prepared for Messrs. Truman & Smith the +manuscript of McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, and although the nature +of this task was very different from the preparation of a reader for the +highest grades in the elementary schools, the result showed that the +publishers judged wisely in selecting a man competent to prepare a +selection from English literature. +</p> + +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illustr-02.jpg"><img src="images/illustr-02.jpg" style="width:100%;" +alt="Alexander H. McGuffey" /></a><br /> +Alexander H. McGuffey +</div> + +<p> +Mr. Alexander Hamilton McGuffey was born August 13, 1816, in Trumbull +County, Ohio. He was sixteen years younger than his brother, William, +and when only ten years of age was placed under charge of his brother at +Oxford, Ohio. There he studied Hebrew before he had any knowledge of the +grammar of his mother tongue. He was a brilliant student, and he +graduated from Miami University at the age of sixteen. Soon after +graduation he was appointed Professor of Belles Lettres at Woodward +College. In this field of labor his knowledge of English literature was +broadened and he acquired a love for the classic English writers that +<span title="The Rhetorical Guide" class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[37]</span> +lasted through life. But Mr. McGuffey determined to become a lawyer and, +while still teaching English literature in Woodward College, he read +law. He was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached his twenty-first +year, and became a noted and wise counsellor. His labor for his clients +was in keeping them out of the courts by clearly expressed contracts and +prudent action. He was seldom engaged in jury trials; but was expert in +cases involving contracts and wills. In such suits his knowledge of the +principles of law and his power of close reasoning were valuable. He was +often placed in positions of trust, and was for more than fifty years +the watchful guardian of the interests of the Cincinnati College. +</p> +<p> +He prepared the manuscript of the Rhetorical Guide after the close of +his labor as a teacher. The work probably occupied his leisure time in a +law office before he acquired remunerative practice in his profession. +</p> +<p> +The contract between Mr. A.H. McGuffey and W.B. Smith, dated September +30, 1841, provided for the preparation within eighteen months, of the +manuscript of a book to be called McGuffey's Rhetorical Reader, or by +any other appropriate name which Mr. Smith might select. It was to +contain not less than three hundred and twenty-four duodecimo pages nor +more than four hundred and eighty. Mr. Smith paid five hundred dollars +for it, in three notes payable in three, twelve, and eighteen months +after the +<span title="McGuffey's Sixth Reader" class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>[38]</span> +delivery of the manuscript. The book was issued in 1844 as McGuffey's +Rhetorical Guide. Its material, revised by its author, later became, in +modified form, the Fifth Reader in the five-book series, and again much +of the same material was used in the Sixth Reader published first in +1855. +</p> +<p> +Mr. A.H. McGuffey died at his home on Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, on June 3, +1896. He was twice married. His first wife, married in 1839, was Miss +Elizabeth M. Drake, daughter of the eminent Dr. Daniel Drake. After her +death he married Miss Caroline V. Rich of Boston. He had a large family. +A son, Charles D. McGuffey. Esq., lives at Chattanooga, Tenn. +</p> +<p> +Mr. A.H. McGuffey was a noteworthy figure in any assemblage of men. He +was tall, slender and erect. His manner was urbane and reserved. He +served on many charitable and educational boards and was attentive to +his trusts. He was an active member of the Episcopalian Church, being +many years a warden in his parish, and frequently a delegate to the +Diocesan Convention, where he was a recognized authority on +Ecclesiastical Law. +</p> +<p> +In a life of nearly eighty years in which he was active in many +educational and beneficent enterprises his early work in the preparation +of the Rhetorical Guide probably exercised the widest, the best, and the +most enduring influence. Many of the newspapers in all parts of the +country published notices of his death, recognizing in kindly terms the +service +<span title="Truman & Smith" class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>[39]</span> +that had been rendered the writers by the schoolbook of which he was the +author. +</p> +<h3> +THE PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS. +</h3> +<p> +Since the McGuffey Readers became at an early day the absolute property +of their publishers, they became responsible for all subsequent +revisions and corrections of the books. +</p> +<p> +The firm of Truman & Smith was organized about 1834 by William B. Truman +and Winthrop B. Smith. Both had had some experience in the business of +selling books. It is highly probable that this firm became for a short +time the Western agent for some schoolbooks made in the East. But Mr. +Smith soon perceived a distinct demand for a series adapted to the +Western market and supplied near at hand. He had the courage to follow +his convictions. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was born in Stamford, Conn., September 28, 1808, +the son of Anthony and Rebecca (Clarke) Smith. He was, in his youth, an +employee in a book-house in New Haven. At the age of eighteen he went to +Cincinnati, declaring that he would not return to his home until he was +independent. He labored there fourteen years before he returned, not +rich, but established in an independent career. He often declared that +until 1840, he was "insolvent, but no one knew it." +</p> +<p> +Before entering business, Mr. Smith received a sound common school +education. This, grounded on a nature well endowed with common sense, +great +<span title="Their First Publications" class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>[40]</span> +energy, and strong determination, qualified him for success in business. +He became a man of great originality, clear-headed and far-sighted. +Toward his employees he was just, but exacting. He was a good judge of +the character and qualities of other men, and was thus able to bring to +his aid competent assistants who were loyal and effective. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Smith married in Cincinnati on November 4th, 1834, Mary Sargent. He +died in Philadelphia, December 5th, 1885, in his 78th year. Of his +family, one son is a banker in Philadelphia. +</p> +<p> +The firm of Truman & Smith published several miscellaneous books, mostly +reprints of standard works likely to have a steady sale. Their first +venture in a copyrighted book was "The Child's Bible with Plates; by a +lady of Cincinnati," which was entered on June 2, 1834. On June 21st of +the same year the firm entered the titles of three books: "Mason's +Sacred Harp," a collection of church music by Lowell Mason of Boston, +and Timothy B. Mason of Cincinnati; "Introduction to Ray's Eclectic +Arithmetic," by Dr. Joseph Ray; and "English Grammar on the Productive +System," by Roswell C. Smith. Of these four books the arithmetic was +issued on July 4, 1834. It was the firm's first schoolbook. In revised +and enlarged form it later became the first book in the successful +series of "Ray's Arithmetics." +</p> + +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illustr-03.jpg"><img src="images/illustr-03.jpg" style="width:100%;" +alt="W. B. Smith" /></a><br /> +<img src="images/illustr-04.png" style="width:100%;" +alt="W. B. Smith" /><br /> +W. B. Smith +</div> + +<p> +But even in those early days, books would not sell themselves unless +their qualities were made known to the public. Agents had to be +employed—and at +<span title="The Dissolution" class="pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>[41]</span> +first Mr. Smith was his own best agent. There were expenses for travel +and for sample books, for advertising, as well as for printing and +binding. +</p> +<p> +The Truman and Smith team did not always pull together. Mr. Truman was +not versed in the schoolbook business. Mr. Smith was. +</p> +<p> +It is said that Mr. Smith went early one morning to their humble shop on +the second floor of No. 150 Main street, and made two piles of sample +books. In one he put all the miscellaneous publications of the firm, big +and little—the Child's Bible and Sacred Harp among them—and on top of +the pile placed all the cash the firm possessed; in the other, were half +a dozen small text books, including the four McGuffey Readers. When Mr. +Truman arrived, Mr. Smith expressed the desire to dissolve the +partnership, showed the two piles and offered Mr. Truman his choice. He +pounced on the cash and the larger pile and left the insignificant +schoolbooks for Mr. Smith, who thereupon became the sole owner of +McGuffey's Readers. +</p> +<p> +This separation of the partnership took place in 1841 and although there +is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought +about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the +incident as handed down by tradition. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have come +in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant. Sooner or +later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some +<span title="A Lesson in Copyright Law" class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>[42]</span> +elementary instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright +law through action taken in court. Messrs. Truman & Smith took a lesson +in 1838. +</p> +<p> +On October 1st of that year Benjamin F. Copeland and Samuel Worcester +brought suit in the court of the United States against Truman & Smith +and William H. McGuffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that +material had been copied from Worcester's Second, Third, and Fourth +Readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been +pirated. +</p> +<p> +A temporary injunction was issued December 25, 1838; but before that +date the McGuffey Readers had been carefully compared with the Worcester +Readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest +degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the Worcester Readers. +As these McGuffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to +set up new matter than to reset the old. On the title page of each book +appeared the words, "Revised and Improved Edition," and two pages in +explanation and defense were inserted. In these the publishers stated +that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in New England, felt themselves +aggrieved that the McGuffey books contained a portion of matter similar +to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted +legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression +of the McGuffey books and in the meantime had +<span title="Avoidance of Issue" class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>[43]</span> +provided supplies of the Worcester books to meet the demand of the West. +</p> +<p> +No objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds; +but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "The +public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." They stated that +to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for +cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and +substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would +add to the value of the Eclectic Readers. Throughout this preface, after +stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the +support of Western enterprise. +</p> +<p> +Although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences +between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison +of the early edition of the Second Reader with the "Revised and Improved +Edition" shows that Mr. Smith took out seventeen selections and inserted +in their places new matter. To an unprejudiced examiner it appears that +the new matter was better than the old. The old marked copy of +Worcester's Second Reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten +pieces that were used in both books. It thus appears that the publisher +took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them +unassailable under the copyright law. In three months between the +bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, +<span title="The Suit Settled" class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name="page44"></a>[44]</span> +Mr. Smith had made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction +practically void. +</p> +<p> +The court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to +examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been +inflicted on the owners of the Worcester Readers. But Mr. Smith was an +attendant in church and doubtless had heard Dr. Beecher read, "Agree +with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at +any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver +thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire +to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing." +</p> +<p> +When the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report +nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed +from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by +paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. There was no further contest +about the plan of the two books. +</p> +<p> +The Worcester Readers had a short and inconspicuous life. When this suit +was brought, their publishers were Richardson, Lord and Holbrook of +Boston. In 1836 Charles J. Hendee published them, and in 1854 they +appeared with the name of Jenks, Hickling & Swan of Boston. These +several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary Book Trust +sixty years ago. +</p> +<p> +Dr. McGuffey undoubtedly inserted these selections +<span title="Early Popular Schoolbooks" class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>[45]</span> +innocent of any wrong intent and supposed them to be in common use. +</p> +<p> +As early as 1848 the success of the Eclectic Readers was sufficient to +excite imitation and in the First Reader of that year Mr. Smith printed +four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by +"Newman's Southern Eclectic Readers." +</p> +<p> +In the first century after the settlement of this country the New +England Primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of +the McGuffey Readers. In that case, the settlers were widely removed +from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs. +The Primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of +the people. It served as a first book in reading and was followed by the +Bible. This Primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising +bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to +supply the local demand. The excessive cost of transportation was thus +avoided. +</p> +<p> +Somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and +long-continued demands for Webster's Spelling Book, which was +copyrighted. This book had the support of the authority of Webster's +Dictionary—an original American work; and it soon became a staple +article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store. +It supplanted the New England Primer and became the first book in the +hands of every pupil. Less marked in its religious instruction, the +speller spread through the +<span title="Changed Conditions" class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>[46]</span> +South and into regions where the people were not trained in the Puritan +doctrines. The wonderful sales of Webster's Spelling Book remained for +many years after the War; but have now dropped to insignificance. It is +not probable that other books will under present conditions repeat the +history of these books. There is now no wide region of fertile country +rapidly filling with settlers and separated from their former sources of +supply by great distance and by mountain ranges unprovided with passable +roads. Even the more newly settled regions of the country are reached by +railroads and the parts early settled are covered by a network of +railroads, of telegraph and telephone wires which bring the consumer and +the producer near together. +</p> +<p> +In the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has +taken the place of hand work. When W.B. Smith carried on his business in +the second story over a small shop on Main street, Cincinnati, nearly +every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. The +tools employed were of the simplest character. Now a book-factory is +filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many +cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. New +machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the +manufacture. Thus a very large investment of capital is now required to +set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and +with perfect finish in every part. Books +<span title="Stereotyped Editions" class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>[47]</span> +are seldom manufactured in places remote from the large cities and very +few of the publishers of schoolbooks make the books which they sell. +They contract for them with printers and binders. +</p> +<p> +The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the +actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers +were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the +publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to +present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in +substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates +have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression +and endure more wear. +</p> +<p> +In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of +advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000 +of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin +back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the +muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put +upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The +leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it +took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the +saying, "There is nothing like leather." +</p> +<p> +It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a +publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience +showed were needed; +<span title="Dr. Pinneo, Editor" class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>[48]</span> +but, about 1843, he employed Dr. Timothy Stone Pinneo to act under his +direction in literary matters. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Pinneo was the eldest son of the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, an early +graduate of Dartmouth College, who was for more than half a century +pastor of the First Congregational Church in Milford, Conn. Dr. Pinneo +was born at Milford in February, 1804. His mother was a woman of +culture, Mary, only daughter of the Rev. Timothy Stone of Lebanon, +Conn., a graduate of Yale College. Dr. Pinneo graduated at Yale in the +class of 1824. A severe illness in the winter after his graduation made +it necessary for him to spend his winters in the South until his health +was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine. +He taught for a time in the Charlotte Hall Institute, Maryland, and then +removed to Ohio. He acted one year as professor of Mathematics and +Natural Philosophy in Marietta College. He studied medicine in +Cincinnati and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio +Medical College in 1843. On June 1, 1848, he married Jeanette Linsley, +daughter of Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley, at one time president of Marietta +College. Dr. Pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in Cincinnati. In +1862 he went to Greenwich, Conn., where he was occupied in literary work +and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. In 1885, after his wife's +death, he removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he died August 2, 1893. Two +daughters and a son survived him. +<span title="Dr. Pinneo's Work" class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name="page49"></a>[49]</span> +Dr. Pinneo contributed materially to the revisions of McGuffey's Readers +made in 1843 and in 1853; but both these revisions passed through the +hands of Dr. McGuffey, then at the University of Virginia, and were +approved by him. It does not appear that Dr. Pinneo exercised any +personal authority over the readers. He was employed, for moderate +amounts, to prepare revisions which were satisfactory to both publisher +and author. In the revision of 1843, his work was confined to the Third +and Fourth readers. The First and Second readers were remade by Daniel +G. Mason, then a teacher in the schools of Cincinnati. In the revision +of 1853 the entire series passed through Dr. Pinneo's hands. He probably +corrected the proof sheets. Dr. Pinneo's latest work on the McGuffey +Readers was done in 1856. +</p> +<p> +After leaving Cincinnati, Dr. Pinneo prepared, and Mr. Smith published, +a series of grammars—the Analytical, issued in 1850, and the Primary, +in 1854. He was also the author of a High School Reader and of Hemans's +Young Ladies' Readers. These books had for some years a considerable +sale. +</p> +<p> +As early as 1853 Mr. Obed J. Wilson was in the office of Mr. Smith as an +employee. Mr. Wilson was born in Bingham, Maine, in 1826, and earned his +first money as an axman in the pine forests which were in that day near +his native town. He obtained, in the common schools, sufficient +education to become a teacher and he never ceased to +<span title="Obed J. Wilson" class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[50]</span> +be a student, thus acquiring a broad acquaintance with English +literature. He taught in the schools of Cincinnati when he first went +West. There his abilities soon attracted the attention of Mr. Smith, who +employed him. For some years he traveled as an agent, chiefly in Indiana +and Wisconsin, introducing the books of the Eclectic Series. He +gradually became Mr. Smith's trusted assistant, particularly in the +direction of the work of agents and in the selection of new books, and +their adaptation to the demands of the field. He married Miss Amanda +Landrum, who was also a skilled teacher in the Cincinnati schools. Mrs. +Wilson was responsible for a revision of the McGuffey First Reader made +in 1863. She also at that time corrected the plates of the higher +numbers of the series. For many years thereafter Mr. Wilson was the +chief authority for Mr. Smith and his successors in literary matters, +and few men excelled him in breadth of reading and in discriminating +taste. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Wilson lives in his home near Cincinnati which is filled with the +choice books which he has read and studied so faithfully, and he still +has the companionship of the wife who has been his constant helpmate for +more than half a century. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was the sole proprietor of the McGuffey Readers +and his other publications from 1841 until about 1852. He then admitted +as partners, Edward Sargent and Daniel Bartow Sargent, +<span title="Eastern Publishers" class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name="page51"></a>[51]</span> +his wife's brothers, and the firm name became W.B. Smith & Co. +</p> +<p> +While books could be manufactured in the West even in the early years +cheaper than they could be delivered in the West from the better +organized establishments in the older cities of the East, it was not +possible to deliver books in New York from Cincinnati so cheaply as the +books could be made in the East. The cost of transportation constituted +a very considerable element in the price of schoolbooks. Mr. Smith +therefore made an arrangement with Clark, Austin & Smith, of New York, +to become the Eastern publishers of the McGuffey Readers and other +books, and a duplicate set of plates was sent to New York. From these +plates, editions of the readers were manufactured, largely at Claremont, +N.H., bearing on the title page the imprint of Clark, Austin & Smith, +New York. +</p> +<p> +The Smith of this firm was Cornelius Smith, a brother of Winthrop B. +Smith. Cornelius Smith withdrew from this firm before 1861. In that year +the war broke out, and this New York firm, which as booksellers and +stationers had a large trade in the South, lost not only their custom in +that section, but were unable to collect large amounts due them for +goods. Clark, Austin, Maynard & Co. failed and Mr. W.B. Smith bought, in +1862, all their assets for the sum of $6,000, placed Mr. W.B. Thalheimer +in charge of the business and resumed control of the duplicate plates of +the McGuffey Readers. +</p> +<p> +<span title="New Firm Formed" class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>[52]</span> +</p> +<p> +From the location of Cincinnati on the Ohio river, then affording the +cheapest means of distributing goods to all parts of the South, Mr. +Smith had obtained, before 1860, a very considerable part of the +schoolbook trade in the Southern states of the Mississippi Valley. The +opening of the Civil War swept this trade away and left on the books of +the firm in Cincinnati many accounts not then collectible. The +continuance of the war and the constant fluctuations in the price of +materials, due to the use of paper money, joined to advancing age and +ill health, all combined to lead Mr. Smith to withdraw from business. +</p> +<p> +A new firm, Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, was organized April 20, 1863, with +Edward Sargent, Obed J. Wilson and Anthony H. Hinkle as general +partners, and with W.B. Smith and D.B. Sargent as special partners. +</p> +<p> +These active partners had long been in this business, Mr. Sargent as a +partner and bookkeeper, Mr. Wilson as literary editor of skill and +judgment and also a forceful manager of agents, Mr. Hinkle as a +thoroughly skilled binder and manufacturer. +</p> +<p> +Winthrop B. Smith and D.B. Sargent remained as special partners, +furnishing capital but taking no part in the direction of the business. +</p> +<p> +The Confederate States, at the opening of the War, had within their +limits no publisher of schoolbooks which had extensive sales. Nearly all +of the schoolbooks used in the South were printed in the +<span title="Southern Reprint" class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name="page53"></a>[53]</span> +North. But there were printing offices and binderies in the South. The +children continued to go to school, and the demand for schoolbooks soon +became urgent. To meet this demand, a few new schoolbooks were made and +copyrighted under the laws of the Confederacy; but others were reprints +of Northern books such as were in general use. The Methodist Book +Concern of Nashville, Tenn., reprinted the McGuffey Readers and supplied +the region south and west of Nashville until the Federal line swept past +that city. This action on the part of the Methodist Book Concern had the +effect of preserving the market for these readers, so that as soon as +any part of the South was strongly occupied by the Federal forces, +orders came to the Cincinnati publishers for fresh supplies of the +McGuffey Readers. This unexpected preservation of trade was of great +benefit to the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. +</p> +<p> +In 1866 the special interests were closed out, and Mr. Lewis Van Antwerp +was admitted as a partner. On April 20, 1868, the firm of Sargent, +Wilson & Hinkle was dissolved. Mr. Sargent retired and the new firm, +Wilson, Hinkle & Co., bought all the assets. At this date Mr. Robert +Quincy Beer became a partner. Mr. Beer had long been a trusted and +successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department. +Under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in +departments. One partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts +<span title="Wilson, Hinkle & Co." class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name="page54"></a>[54]</span> +and the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the +manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of +finding a market for the books. At the first organization of the firm of +Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Mr. Wilson was the literary manager as well as the +director of agency work. Mr. Hinkle was the manufacturer, having control +of the printing and binding, and Mr. Van Antwerp had charge of the +accounts. Mr. Beer was brought in to relieve Mr. Wilson in the direction +of agents. But Mr. Beer died suddenly, January 3, 1870, and the +surviving partners soon sought for another competent and experienced man +to take his place. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Caleb S. Bragg had for years acted as the agent for a list of books +selected by him from the publications of two or three publishers and was +a partner in the firm of Ingham & Bragg, booksellers of Cleveland, Ohio. +Mr. Bragg sold his interest in the business in Cleveland and became a +partner in Wilson, Hinkle & Co., on April 20, 1871; and at the same time +Henry H. Vail and Robert F. Leaman, who had for some years been +employees, were each given an interest in the profits although not +admitted as full partners until three years later. Mr. Hinkle's eldest +son, A. Howard Hinkle, was brought up in the business, and the contract +for 1874 provided that he should be admitted as a partner, with his +father's interest and in his place, when that contract expired in 1877. +The contract of 1874 was preparatory to the +<span title="Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co." class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[55]</span> +voluntary retirement of both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hinkle. Consequently, on +April 20, 1877, the firm of Wilson, Hinkle & Co. was dissolved and the +business was purchased by the new firm. Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., of +which Lewis Van Antwerp, Caleb S. Bragg, Henry H. Vail, Robert F. +Leaman, A. Howard Hinkle, and Harry T. Ambrose were the partners. This +firm continued unchanged until January 1, 1892, except for the untimely +death of Mr. Leaman on December 12, 1887, and the retirement of Mr. Van +Antwerp, January 2, 1890, just previous to the sale of the copyrights +and plates owned by the firm to the American Book Company. +</p> +<p> +This sale, completed May 15, 1890, did not then include the printing +office and bindery belonging to the firm. These were used by the firm of +Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. until January 1, 1892, in manufacturing books +ordered by the American Book Company. The American Book Company became, +on May 15, 1890, the owners, by purchase, of all the copyrights and +plates formerly owned by Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. The four active +partners in that firm, each of whom had then been in the schoolbook +business some twenty-five or thirty years, entered the employ of the +American Book Company. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hinkle remained in charge of +the Cincinnati business, Mr. Vail and Mr. Ambrose went to New York; the +former as editor in chief, the latter was at first treasurer, but later +became the president. +</p> +<p> +<span title="A Vigorous Firm" class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>[56]</span> +</p> +<p> +Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. issued many new and successful books and remade +many, including the McGuffey Readers and Speller, Ray's Arithmetics and +Harvey's Grammars. Most of these met with acceptance and this was so +full and universal throughout the central West as to give opportunity +to the competing agents of other houses to honor Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. +with such titles as "Octopus" and "Monopoly," names that were used +before "Trusts" were invented. They also called the firm in chosen +companies, "Van Anteup, Grabb & Co." These were mere playful or humorous +titles in recognition of the fact that this firm had, by its industry, +skill and energy, captured a larger share of the patronage of the people +than was agreeable to its competitors, and they, in +despair of success by fair means, resorted to the old-fashioned method +of calling their antagonist bad names. The best books, if pressed +vigorously and intelligently, were sure to win in the end, and the +people who used the books cared little what name appeared at the foot of +the title-page. +</p> +<p> +In all important book contests the firm that holds possession of the +field is much in the situation of the tallest man in a Kilkenny Fair. +His head sticks up above the crowd and therefore gets the most knocks. +</p> +<p> +The latest revision of the McGuffey Readers, five books, was prepared +and published by the American Book Company in 1901, under the same +general direction as the revision of 1878; but the actual work +<span title="Revisers and Editors" class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>[57]</span> +was done by Dr. James Baldwin who was the author of the Harper Readers +and of Baldwin's Readers. Even in this latest edition there are in the +higher books many selections that appeared in the earliest. Care was +taken to maintain the high moral tone that so clearly marked Dr. +McGuffey's work and to bring in from later literature some valuable new +material to displace that which had proved less interesting and less +instructive. These books acquired at once a large sale, and the sales of +the previous editions are still remunerative. +</p> +<p> +Of the men connected with these successive owners of these copyrights it +seems proper to name those who directed the revisions which took place. +It is evident that none were undertaken without long and anxious +discussions as to the need of revision and of its nature. In such +decisions all partners would take part; but finally the actual direction +must come into the hands of some one partner whose experience and +qualification best fitted him for literary work. +</p> +<p> +As has been seen, Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was for a few years, while the +business was still in its infancy, the sole owner and the manager of +every part of his business. Mr. Pinneo contributed aid from 1843 to +1856; but even before his work was finished Mr. O.J. Wilson's skill +became recognized and his mind was dominant in literary matters so long +as he remained a partner—until 1877. But in the meantime he had +carefully trained a successor in the editorial work, and from 1877 until +1907 the responsibility fell upon him. +</p> +<p> +<span title="New Competitors" class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name="page58"></a>[58]</span> +</p> +<p> +The story of the revisions of 1843 and 1853 has been told. The books +were apparently in satisfactory use in a large part of the West; but +about 1874 the firm thought it wise to exploit a new series. At its +request Mr. Thomas W. Harvey prepared a series consisting of five books. +This series was published in 1875; but the experience of a few years +with the Harvey Readers showed that the people still preferred the +McGuffey Readers and after long discussion and hesitation it was agreed +that these should again be revised. This determination was hastened by +the publication of the Appleton Readers in 1877, and by the incoming of +a number of skilled agents pushing these books in the field that had for +many years been held so strongly for the McGuffey Readers as to baffle +the best endeavors of two or three Eastern publishers who had tested the +market. +</p> +<p> +The Appleton Readers were prepared by Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, then +superintendent of the Cleveland schools; Mr. William T. Harris, then +superintendent of the St. Louis schools, and Professor Mark Bailey of +Yale College. They were largely aided in the lower readers by Mrs. +Rickoff. These books, with this array of scholarly and well-known +authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed +and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and +went into use in many places where the McGuffey Readers had served at +least two generations of pupils. The Harvey Readers stood no chance in +this competition. +</p> +<p> +<span title="The Revision of 1878" class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>[59]</span> +</p> +<p> +On April 9, 1878, the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. determined upon +making a new series of readers bearing the well-recognized title of +McGuffey's Eclectic Readers and distinguished as a "Revised Edition." +Some details of the plan as presented by the partner having literary +matters in charge were agreed to. The method of teaching in the first +reader was to be adjusted to a phonic-word method, and the gradation was +to be improved. The selections of the older books were to be retained +except where they could be improved. +</p> +<p> +In accordance with this resolution the editor invited four persons to +aid, during the summer, in this work. These were Thomas W. Harvey of +Painesville, Ohio; Robert W. Stevenson, of Columbus; Edwin C. Hewett, of +Bloomington, Ill.; and Miss Amanda Funnelle, of Terre Haute, Indiana. +Each was a teacher of wide experience. +</p> +<p> +To these assistants assembled in Cincinnati the plan of revision was +fully explained and the work was alloted. Miss Funnelle and Mr. +Stevenson took charge of the first three readers, Mr. Harvey and Dr. +Hewett of the three higher books. All were perfectly familiar with the +old books and in a few days substantial agreement was reached as to the +changes needed. By two months of constant and intelligent labor the +manuscripts assumed approximate form. The opening of the schools called +the assistants back to their homes and the editor of the firm shaped the +manuscripts for the text and procured +<span title="Preparations for a Fight" class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[60]</span> +the necessary illustrations. These were made, regardless of cost, by the +best artists and engravers to be found in the country. When the plates +were finished, the publishers printed several hundred copies of each of +the three smaller books and distributed them as proofs to selected +teachers in many states, asking them for criticisms and suggestions. The +answers made were of great value. The First Reader was entirely +re-written by the editor and the plates of other readers were made more +perfect. In this revision the three lower books were almost entirely +new. The Fourth was largely new matter, while in the Fifth and Sixth +such matter as could not be improved from the entire field of +literature, was retained. The Fifth and Sixth readers furnished brief +biographies of each author and contained notes explanatory of the text. +These were new features and they proved valuable at that date. +</p> +<p> +As soon as these books were completed, large editions were printed and +they were most vigorously exploited not only to take the place of the +older edition of McGuffey Readers, but to supplant the newly introduced +Appleton Readers. +</p> +<p> +This book-fight was a long and bitter one. Every device known to the +agency managers of the houses engaged was employed. Even exchanges of +books became common. It was war; and like every war was carried on for +victory and not for profit. It is perhaps fortunate that such contests +cannot in the nature of things last long. In the long run business +<span title="Success Attained" class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>[61]</span> +must show a profit or fail. Contrary to popular opinion, a book war is +not profitable in itself; but it is a form of competition that has +existed for fully a century. It presents no novelties even now. +</p> +<p> +The two chief combatants at length withdrew with one accord. Neither +firm could claim entire victory; but the McGuffey readers came through +with much the larger sales and these increased for years. By this +contest the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. won a reputation as +fighters that protected them in after years from ill-considered attacks +by its competitors. +</p> +<p> +The revised edition of the McGuffey Readers, having no author's name on +the title page, designed and compiled under the direction of the +publishers, but retaining the moral excellences and literary qualities +that had been affixed to the series from its origin, attained the +largest sales that have as yet been accorded by the public to a single +series of books. Of the Sixth Reader, which must have the least sale, +over a million copies have been distributed, as shown by the edition +number. Of the First Reader more than eight million copies have been +used. +</p> +<p> +At no time in the history of these readers have they been without +formidable competition. Pickett's Readers were published in Cincinnati +as early as 1832. Albert Pickett was at one time president of the +College of Teachers and his books were published by John W. Pickett, who +was probably his +<span title="Other Competitors" class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>[62]</span> +brother. Later some additional books were prepared by John W. Pickett, +M.D., LL.D., and published by U.P. James in 1841, and by J. Earnst in +1845. These readers were vigorously pushed into the market for several +years, but in the end were unsuccessful. +</p> +<p> +The Goodrich Readers published by Morton & Griswold in Louisville, Ky., +were perhaps the most constant competitors with the McGuffey Readers in +the early years throughout the states of the Mississippi Valley. These +were prepared by S.G. Goodrich, the author of the then popular "Peter +Parley Tales." The readers were originally published in Boston and +some copies bear the imprint of Otis, Broaders & Co. They were first +copyrighted in 1839 and were frequently revised. They finally became the +property of the Louisville publisher. Mr. Smith and Mr. Morton kept up a +most vigorous schoolbook war, especially in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky +in the years from 1845 to 1860. Cobb's Readers, copyrighted in 1845, +were published for some time in Cincinnati by B. Davenport. These were +once widely introduced but soon went out of use. +</p> +<p> +It was very much the custom in those early days, before the railroads +made transportation quick and cheap for Eastern publishers to furnish a +set of plates to some enterprising bookseller in the West or to print an +edition for him with his imprint. +</p> +<p> +Ebenezer Porter's Rhetorical Reader copyrighted in 1835 was sold largely +in the western market by William H. Moore, of Cincinnati, and in 1848 +the +<span title="Humorous Advertising" class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>[63]</span> +books bore his imprint. Thus there was ample competition for the market +even at this early date. The Pickett Readers, Cobb Readers, Goodrich +Readers, and even the excellent Rhetorical Reader of Ebenezer Porter +were all swept out of the schools by the superior qualities of the +McGuffey Readers and the persistent energies of their publishers. +</p> +<p> +In these books the publishers found space for a little advertising of +their wares. In Pickett's Readers there is printed conspicuously at the +top of a page a warm commendation of Pickett's Readers, written in 1835 +by William H. McGuffey, Professor at Miami University, in which he +"considers them superior to any other works I have seen." That was +before he made his own readers. Mr. Smith responded by publishing a +strong commendation of one of his books signed by Mr. Albert Pickett. +Life is seldom devoid of the lesser amenities. +</p> +<p> +The Willson Readers, published by the Harper Brothers, were vigorously +pushed into the schools of Ohio and Indiana about 1867. The first supply +was usually sold to the school authorities by agents who operated on the +commission plan. Thus the agents had an interest in the introduction +sales, but cared nothing about the continuance of sales in after years. +Booksellers, meanwhile, kept the McGuffey Readers in stock, and whenever +new readers were desired these were easily obtained. In a few years the +Willson Readers were out of the schools. Of course, there was no lack of +traveling agents and +<span title="Enduring Qualities" class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>[64]</span> +of circulars which freely criticised these Willson Readers, which were +constructed to teach not only reading but science. After a short time +the children wearied of reading about bugs and beetles they had never +seen and gladly welcomed the books that had a single aim. +</p> +<p> +In the eyes of a publisher a good schoolbook is one that can be readily +introduced and one that will stay when it is put in use. The officials +who adopt a schoolbook are not the users of the book. They are adults +long past the school age. Cases have been known when in important +adoptions the majority of the adopting board had not seen the inside of +a school room for twenty-five years. Of course such men are far behind +the schools. They are governed by their own past experience. When the +teachers are allowed to have a voice in the way of advice, the real +needs of the pupils obtain more consideration. But the final real judge +of the merits of a schoolbook is the boy or girl who uses it. If the +book is truly pedagogical, adjusted in every part to the average mental +development of the child, it becomes a valuable tool in the school room. +If on the other hand it is a mere collection of novelties such as catch +the eye of inexpert judges and impress merely the imagination, the books +may be introduced; but they won't stay. +</p> +<p> +The McGuffey Readers had staying qualities. Teachers often became so +familiar with their contents that they needed no book in their hands to +<span title="Child Nature" class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[65]</span> +correct the work, but to each child the contents of the book were +new and fresh. It is the fashion of the present day to exalt the new +at the expense of the old. But the child of today is very much such +as Socrates and Plato studied in Greece. The development of the human +mind may be more generally understood than it was then; but it may be +doubted whether the mass of teachers are today wiser in the results of +child-study than were the philosophers of ancient days. Child nature +remains the same. At a given stage in his upward progress, he is +interested in much the same things. He is led to think for himself +in much the same way, and the whole end and aim of education is +to lead toward self activity. The readers that deal simply with +facts—information readers—may lodge in the minds of children some +scraps of encyclopedic information which may in future life become +useful. But the readers that rouse the moral sentiments, that touch the +imagination, that elevate and establish character by selections chosen +from the wisest writers in English in all the centuries that have passed +since our language assumed a comparatively fixed literary form, have a +much more valuable function to perform. Character is more valuable than +knowledge and a taste for pure and ennobling literature is a safeguard +for the young that cannot be safely ignored. +</p> +<p> +The success of the McGuffey Readers was due primarily to their +adaptation to the general demand +<span title="Moral Teaching" class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[66]</span> +of the schools and secondarily to the energy and skill of their +publishers. +</p> +<p> +The books in their first form were strongly religious in their teaching +without being denominational. If a selection taught a moral lesson this +was stated in formal words at the close. The pill was not sugared. Thus +at the close of a lesson narrating the results of disobedience, the +three little girls assembled and "they were talking how happy it made +them to keep the Fifth Commandment." There was in the books much direct +teaching of moral principles, with "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." +In the later revisions this gradually disappeared. The moral teaching +was less direct but more effective. The pupil was left to make his own +deduction and the formal "haec fabula docet" was omitted. The author +and the publishers were fully justified in their firm belief that the +American people are a moral people and that they have a strong desire +that their children be taught to become brave, patriotic, honest, +self-reliant, temperate, and virtuous citizens. +</p> +<p> +In some of these books the retail price is printed. In 1844 the retail +price of the First Reader was twelve and a half cents. It contained 108 +pages. In the same year, the Second Reader of 216 pages was priced at 25 +cents. The Fourth Reader cost 75 cents, and contained 336 pages. +</p> +<p> +These prices were in a market when the day's wage of a laboring man was +only fifty cents. Relatively +<span title="Copyright Files" class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>[67]</span> +to the cost of other articles, schoolbooks were not nearly so +cheap as they are now. +</p> +<p> +When Truman & Smith began publishing, the copyright law required the +deposit of titles and copies of the several books in the office of +the Clerk of the District Court. At first such deposits were made in +Columbus, Ohio, but later in Cincinnati. When Congress organized the +Copyright Bureau in Washington, the several clerks were required to send +to the Library of Congress all the sample copies deposited; but these +had been carelessly kept and many were lost. A duplicate set was for +years required to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. +These were also passed into the custody of the Librarian of Congress; +but this collection had been carelessly preserved and the files of the +McGuffey Readers at Washington are now quite defective for the earliest +issues. The Library seems to have no copy of any number of the first +edition except possibly the Second and Fourth. The copy of the Second +was deposited December 12, 1836. The Fourth bears date of July, 1837. +All the other early copies found in that library are of later dates and +are "Revised and Improved." +</p> +<p> +It may be well to indicate in a general way the progress that has been +made in illustrating schoolbooks. The first editions of the McGuffey +Readers as issued in 1836 and 1837 did not contain a single original +engraving. All seem to have been copied from English books. The nice +little boys wear +<span title="Early Engravings" class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[68]</span> +round-about jackets with wide, white ruffled collars at the neck. The +proper little girls have scoop bonnets and conspicuous pantalets. Most +of the men wear knee breeches. The houses shown have the thatched roofs +of English cottages. In one picture a boy has a regular cricket bat. +Other schoolbooks of that date show similar appropriations of English +engravings; but even at that time there were a few wood engravers in +America. When the second general revision was made in 1843 some original +illustrations appeared and in the edition of 1853 notice was given on +the title page that the engravings were copyright property that must not +be used by others. +</p> +<p> +As pictures are closely studied by children, some of the users of these +early books may remember the cut showing vividly the dangers of "whale +catching." Two boats are thrown high in the air by one sweep of the +animal's tail and one seaman is shown head downward still in the boat. +Another represented Jonah being cast overboard from the ship toward the +whale below whose mouth is manifestly large enough to accommodate Jonah. +</p> +<p> +But the engravings in this edition of 1853 had no considerable artistic +quality and they were very coarsely engraved. In 1863 came the first +employment of a genuine artist in wood engraving. This was Mr. E.J. +Whitney who had made a reputation by work done for New York publishers. +His engravings were to take the place of some then in the books and +their sizes were precisely determined. The +<span title="New Processes" class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>[69]</span> +drawings were most carefully made by Mr. Herrick with pencil on the +whitened boxwood blocks, and sent to the publisher for examination. +These, when approved, were returned to the engraver who followed +precisely the lines of the drawing. When the engraving was finished, a +carefully rubbed proof on India paper was sent to the publisher. If this +was satisfactory, the block was delivered and from it an electrotype was +made for printing. The block itself was preserved as an original. Mr. +Whitney's work was thoroughly good. He was a wood engraver of the old +school. +</p> +<p> +When the revision of 1878 was decided on, the publishers of the +McGuffey Readers realized that much improvement must be made in the +illustrations. About this time the magazines were placing great stress +upon pictorial work and a new school of engravers came into existence. +The wood engravers had already departed from the painful reproduction of +each line of a pencil drawing and had become skilled in representing +tints of light and shade if placed on the whitened block with a brush. +This gave greater freedom of interpretation to the engraver. The next +step was to have the drawing made large and reproduced on the block by +photography. By this method most of the engravings were made for the +edition of 1878. Care was taken to employ artists of reputation and the +engravings were usually signed by the artist and by the engraver. +</p> +<p> +Before the last edition came out in 1901, photo-engraving +<span title="Later Inventions" class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>[70]</span> +had nearly supplanted wood engraving. By this process the +artist's drawing with the brush is reproduced in fine tints which, when +well engraved and carefully printed, produce effective results. Pen and +ink drawings are also reproduced in exact facsimile. By this process the +hand work of the engraver is nearly eliminated. The blocks are sometimes +retouched to produce effects not attained by the process work. The skill +of the artist in making the drawing thus becomes all important. +</p> +<p> +The introduction of color work in the schoolbooks intended for young +children resulted from the invention of the three-color plates. From +nature, or from a colored painting, three photographs are taken—one +excluding all but the yellow rays of light, one for the red rays, and +one for the blue. From these photographs three tint blocks are made +which to the eye in many cases look exactly alike. From one of these +an impression is made with yellow ink, exactly over this the red plate +prints with red ink and this is followed by an impression from the blue +plate. If the effects of the color screens of the camera are exactly +reproduced by the printer's inks and with exactly the right amount of +ink, the result is wonderfully satisfactory. +</p> +<p> +What are the qualities in these McGuffey Eclectic Readers that won for +them through three-quarters of a century such wide and constant use? +</p> +<p> +The best answer to this question may be drawn from the many newspaper +articles which appeared in +<span title="Character Building" class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[71]</span> +Western and Southern papers after the death of one of the authors. There +is general recognition on the part of the writers of these articles that +while the books served well their purpose of teaching the art of +reading, their greatest value consisted in the choice of masterpieces in +literature which by their contents taught morality, and patriotism and +by their beauty served as a gateway to pure literature. One editor, who +used these books in his school career, said, "Thousands of men and women +owe their wholesome views of life, as well as whatever success they may +have attained to the wholesome maxims and precepts found on every page +of these valuable books. The seed they scattered has yielded a +million-fold. All honor to the name and memory of this excellent and +useful man." +</p> +<p> +One of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he +might write their songs. Among a people devoid of books the folk-songs +are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child. They influence his +whole life. The modern schoolbooks—particularly the readers—furnish +the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in every +community. The McGuffey Readers, from their own peculiar inherent +qualities, retained their hold upon the schools until in some states +laws were passed which in their operation caused schoolbooks to be +regarded as commodities estimated almost solely upon the cost of paper, +printing and binding. The value of these material things can easily be +ascertained +<span title="What Constitutes Real Value" class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[72]</span> +and compared; but unless the print carries the lessons that help +to form a life the paper is wasted and the pupil's most valuable time is +misspent. The teaching power of a schoolbook cannot be weighed in the +grocer's scales nor measured with a pint cup. In the field open to free +and constant competition, the books best suited to the wants of each +community will in the end succeed. It was under such conditions that the +McGuffey Readers won and held their place in the schools. +</p> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A History of the McGuffey Readers, by Henry H. 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Vail + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A History of the McGuffey Readers + +Author: Henry H. Vail + +Release Date: April 7, 2005 [EBook #15577] +[Last updated: December 7, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE MCGUFFEY READERS *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +A HISTORY OF THE McGUFFEY READERS. + + + +[Illustration: WILLIAM H. McGUFFEY] + + + + + + +A HISTORY + +OF THE + +McGUFFEY READERS + +By + +HENRY H. VAIL. + + +WITH THREE PORTRAITS. + + +THE BOOKISH BOOKS--IV. + +New Edition. + + + CLEVELAND + THE BURROWS BROTHERS CO. + 1911 + + + + +Copyright, 1911, by Henry H. Vail. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: At the top of each page in the original is a header +line briefly describing the content on each page. In this document, +these header lines have been placed inside square brackets and move to +the start of the paragraph which begins the content so described.] + + + + +A History of the McGuffey Readers + +THE BOOKS. + + +Before me are four small books roughly bound in boards, the sides +covered with paper. On the reverse of the title pages, two bear a +copyright entry in the year 1836; the others were entered in 1837. They +are the earliest editions of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers that have been +found in a search lasting forty years. + +They represent the first efforts in an educational and business +enterprise that has for three-quarters of a century called for the best +exertions of many skilled men, and in their several forms these books +have taken a conspicuous part in the education of millions of the +citizens of this country. + +But what interest can the history of the McGuffey Eclectic Readers have +to those who did not use these books in their school career? Their story +differs from that of other readers since in successive forms, adjusted +more or less perfectly to the changing demands of the schools, they +attained a wider and more prolonged use than has been accorded to any +other series. + +[The Function of Readers] + +By custom and under sanction of law certain studies are pursued in the +common schools of every state. Spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, +geography, history, grammar, civics and physiology are the subjects +usually taught. The school authorities select the textbooks which shall +be used in each subject. The readers are the only texts used in all +schools affording opportunity for distinct ethical teaching. The history +of our country should give ideas of patriotism; the civics should +contain the primary notions of government; the physiologies should +instruct the pupils in the laws of health; but the reader should cover +the whole field of morals and manners and in language that will impress +their teaching indelibly upon the mind of every pupil. While the chief +aim of the school readers must be to teach the child to apprehend +thought from the printed page and convey this thought to the attentive +listener with precision, these efforts should be exerted upon thoughts +that have permanent value. No other texts used in the school room bear +directly and positively upon the formation of character in the pupils. +The school readers are the proper and indispensable texts for teaching +true patriotism, integrity, honesty, industry, temperance, courage, +politeness, and all other moral and intellectual virtues. In these books +every lesson should have a distinct purpose in view, and the final aim +should be to establish in the pupils high moral principles which are at +the foundation of character. + +[Formers of Character] + +The literature of the English language is rich in material suited to +this intent; no other language is better endowed. This material is fresh +to every pupil, no matter how familiar it may be to teacher or parent. +Although some of it has been in print for three centuries, it is true +and beautiful today. + +President Eliot has said, "When we teach a child to read, our primary +aim is not to enable it to decipher a way-bill or a receipt, but to +kindle its imagination, enlarge its vision and open for it the avenues +of knowledge." Knowledge gives power, which may be exerted for good or +for evil. Character gives direction to power. Power is the engine which +may force the steamer through the water, character is the helm which +renders the power serviceable for good. + +Readers which have been recognized as formers of good habits of action, +thought, and speech for three-quarters of a century, which have taught +a sound morality to millions of children without giving offense to the +most violent sectarian, which have opened the doors of pure literature +to all their users, are surely worthy of study as to their origin, their +successive changes, and their subsequent career. + +The story of these readers is told in the specimens of the several +editions, in the long treasured and time-worn contracts, in the books of +accounts kept by the successive publishers, and in the traditions which +have been passed down from white haired men who gossiped of the early +days in the schoolbook business. Valuable information has also been +furnished by descendants of the McGuffey family, and by the educational +institutions with which each of the authors of the readers was +connected. + +[Different Editions] + +For half a century the present writer has had personal knowledge of the +readers. At first, as a teacher, using them daily in the class room; but +soon, as an editor, directing the literary work of the publishers and +owners. It therefore falls to him to narrate a story "quorum pars minima +fui." + +For more than seventy years the McGuffey Readers have held high rank as +text-books for use in the elementary schools, especially throughout the +West and South. But during this time these books have been revised five +times and adjusted to the changed conditions in the schools. In each one +of these revisions the marked characteristics of the original series +have been most scrupulously retained, and the continued success of the +series is doubtless owing to this fact. There has been a continuity of +spirit. + +[Contents of the Books] + +The First and Second Readers were first published in 1836. In 1837 the +Third and Fourth Readers were printed. For reasons elsewhere explained +these books were "improved and enlarged" in 1838. In 1841 a higher +reader was added to the series which was then named McGuffey's +Rhetorical Guide. In the years 1843 and 1844 the four books then +constituting the series were thoroughly remodeled and on the title pages +were placed the words "Newly Revised" and the Rhetorical Guide was +annexed as the Fifth Reader. Ten years later the entire series was made +over and issued in six books. These were then called the New Readers. +From 1853 until 1878 the books remained substantially unchanged; but in +the latter year they were renewed largely in substance and improved in +form. These readers as copyrighted in 1879 were extensively used for +more than a quarter of a century. Changing conditions in the school room +called for another revision in 1901. This latest form now in extensive +use is called The New McGuffey Readers. + +Each of these revisions has constituted practically a new series +although the changes have never included the entire contents. In the +higher readers will be found today many selections which appeared in the +original books. The reason for retaining such selections is clear. No +one has been able to write in the English language selections that are +better for school use than some written by Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, +and other early writers. The literature of the English language has not +all been written in the present decade nor in the last century. + +As at first published, the lower books of the McGuffey Readers had no +trace of the modern methods now used in teaching the mastery of +words--even the alphabet was not given in orderly form; but the +alphabetic method of teaching the art of reading was then the only one +used. The pupil at first spelled each word by naming the letters and +then pronounced each syllable and then the word. + +[First Editions] + +The following stanza is copied from page 61 of the edition of 1844 to +illustrate the method of presenting words: + + I like to see a lit-tle dog, + And pat him on the head; + So pret-ti-ly he wags his tail + When-ev-er he is fed. + + +The First Reader was mostly in words of one syllable. In this book we +find the story of the lame dog that, when cured, brought another lame +dog to be doctored: of the kind boy who freed his caged bird; of the +cruel boy who drowned the cat and pulled wings and legs from flies; of +Peter Pindar the story teller, and the "snow dog" of Mount St. Bernard; +of Mr. Post who adopted and reared Mary; of the boy who told a lie and +repented after he was found out; of the chimney sweep who was tempted to +steal a gold watch but put it back and was thereafter educated by its +owner; of the whisky boy; and of the mischievous boy who played ghost +and made another boy insane. Nearly every lesson has a moral clearly +stated in formal didactic words at its close. + +In the Second Reader we find the story of the idle boy who talked with +the bees, dogs, and horses, and having found them all busy, reformed +himself; of the kind girl who shared her cake with a dog and an old man; +of the mischievous boys who tied the grass across the path and thus +upset not only the milk-maid but the messenger running for a doctor +to come to their father; of the wise lark who knew that the farmer's +grain would not be cut until he resolved to cut it himself; of the wild +and ravenous bear that treed a boy and hung suspended by his boot; and +of another bear that traveled as a passenger by night in a stage coach; +of the quarrelsome cocks, pictured in a clearly English farm yard, that +were both eaten up by the fox that had been brought in by the defeated +cock; of the honest boy and the thief who was judiciously kicked by the +horse that carried oranges in baskets; of George Washington and his +historic hatchet and the mutilated cherry-tree; and of the garden that +was planted with seeds in lines spelling Washington's name which removed +all doubt as to an intelligent Creator. There were also some lessons on +such animals as beavers, whales, peacocks and lions. + +[Favorite Selections] + +The Third Reader will be remembered first because of the picture, on +the cover, of Napoleon on his rearing charger. This book contained five +selections from the Bible; Croly's "Conflagration of the Ampitheatre +at Rome;" "How a Fly Walks on the Ceiling;" "The Child's Inquiry;" +"How big was Alexander, Pa;" Irving's "Description of Pompey's Pillar;" +Woodworth's "Old Oaken Bucket;" Miss Gould's "The Winter King;" and +Scott's "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps," commencing "'Is the route +practicable?' said Bonaparte. 'It is barely possible to pass,' replied +the engineer. 'Let us set forward, then,' said Napoleon." The rearing +steed facing a precipitous slope in the picture gave emphasis to the +words. There were also in this reader several pieces about Indians and +bears, which indicate that Dr. McGuffey never forgot the stories told +at the fireside by his father of his adventures as an Indian scout and +hunter. + +In the Fourth Reader there were seventeen selections from the Bible; +William Wirt's "Description of the Blind Preacher;" Phillip's "Character +of Napoleon Bonaparte;" Bacon's "Essay on Studies;" Nott's "Speech on +the Death of Alexander Hamilton;" Addison's "Westminster Abbey;" +Irving's "Alhambra;" Rogers's "Genevra;" Willis's "Parrhasius;" +Montgomery's "Make Way for Liberty;" two extracts from Milton and two +from Shakespeare, and no less than fourteen selections from the writings +of the men and women who lectured before the College of Teachers in +Cincinnati. The story of the widow of the Pine Cottage sharing her last +smoked herring with a strange traveler who revealed himself as her +long-lost son, returning rich from the Indies, was anonymous, but it +will be remembered by those who read it. + +These selections were the most noteworthy ones in the first editions of +these readers. + +The First and Second Readers of the McGuffey Series were substantially +made new at each revision. A comparison of the original Third Reader +with an edition copyrighted in 1847, shows that the latter book was +increased about one-third in size. Of the sixty-six selections in the +early edition only forty-seven were retained, while thirty new ones were +inserted. Among the latter were "Harry and his Dog Frisk" that brought +to him, punished by being sent to bed, a Windsor pear; "Perseverance," a +tale of kite-flying followed by the poem, "Try, try again;" the "Little +Philosopher," named Peter Hurdle, who caught Mr. Lenox's runaway horse +and on examination seemed to lack nothing but an Eclectic spelling book, +a reader and a Testament--which were promised him; "The Colonists," in +which men of various callings offered their services, and while even the +dancing master was accepted as of some possible use, the gentleman was +scornfully rejected; "Things by Their Right Names," in which a battle +was described as wholesale murder; "Little Victories," in which Hugh's +mother consoled him for the loss of a leg by telling him of the lives of +men who became celebrated under even greater adversities; "The Wonderful +Instrument," which turned out to be the eye; "Metaphysics," a ludicrous +description of a colonial salt-box in affected terms of exactness +designed to ridicule some forms of reasoning. Those who used this +edition of the third reader will surely remember some of these +selections. + +[The Bible] + +In the Fourth Reader printed in 1844 there were thirty new +selections--less than one-third of the book; but some of these were +such as will be remembered by those who read them in school. There was +"Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded," in which a barber of Bath had become +so poor because he would not shave his customers on Sunday, that he +borrowed a half-penny to buy a candle Saturday night to give light for +a late customer, and was thus discovered to be the long-lost William +Reed of Taunton, heir to many thousand pounds; "The Just Judge," who +disguised himself as a miller and, obtaining a place on the jury, +received only five guineas as a bribe when the others got ten, and who +revealed himself as Lord Chief Justice Hale and tried the case over in +his miller's clothing; Hawthorne's "The Town Pump;" Mrs. Southey's +"April Day." + + "All day the low-hung clouds have dropped + Their garnered fullness down. + All day a soft gray mist hath wrapped + Hill, valley, grove and town." + + +Bryant's "Death of the Flowers;" Campbell's "Lochiel's Warning;" and the +trial scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. All these became +favorite reading exercises in later years. + +As late as 1840 the Bible was read daily in all the schools of the +West. Although sectarian or denominational teaching was not permitted, +religious instruction was desired by the great majority of school +patrons. + +Even up to the opening of the Civil War, whatever the faith or the +practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the Bible story and +the Bible diction were familiar to all. The speeches of the popular +orators of that day were filled with distinct allusions to the Bible +and these were quickly and clearly apprehended by the people. It may be +questioned whether popular speeches of the present day would have equal +force if based on the assumption that everybody knows the Biblical +stories. Indeed it is a common remark made by professors of English in +the higher institutions of learning that pupils know little of the +Bible as a distinctly formative and conservative element in English +literature. In the texts authorized for the study of English classics, +Biblical allusions are very common. These have little meaning to pupils +who have not read the Bible, unless the passage is pointed out and +hunted up. + +[Dr. Swing's Opinion] + +From the pages of these readers the pupils learned to master the printed +word and obtain the thought of the authors. Without conscious effort +they received moral instruction and incentives toward right living. +Without intent they treasured in their memories such extracts from the +authors of the best English Literature as gave them a desire to read +more. + +[Books as Teachers] + +In one of his sermons Dr. David Swing of Chicago said: "Much as you may +have studied the languages or the sciences, that which most affected you +was the moral lessons in the series of McGuffey. And yet the reading +class was filed out only once a day to read for a few moments, and +then we were all sent to our seats to spend two hours in learning +how to bound New Hampshire or Connecticut, or how long it would take a +greyhound to overtake a fox or a hare if the spring of each was so and +so, and the poor fugitive had such and such a start. That was perhaps +well, but we have forgotten how to bound Connecticut, and how to solve +the equation of the field and thicket; but up out of the far-off years +come all the blessed lessons in virtue and righteousness which those +reading books taught; and when we now remember, how even these moral +memories have faded I cannot but wish the teachers had made us bound the +States less, and solve fewer puzzles in 'position' and the 'cube root' +and made us commit to memory the whole series of the McGuffey Eclectic +Readers. The memory that comes from these far-away pages is full of the +best wisdom of time or the timeless land. In these books we were indeed +led by a schoolmaster, from beautiful maxims for children up to the +best thoughts of a long line of sages, and poets, and naturalists. There +we all first learned the awful weakness of the duel that took away a +Hamilton; there we saw the grandeur of the Blind Preacher of William +Wirt; there we saw the emptiness of the ambition of Alexander, and there +we heard even the infidel say, 'Socrates died like a philosopher, but +Jesus Christ like a God.'" + +This public recognition of the influence of these readers upon the mind +and character of this great preacher is again noted in Rev. Joseph Fort +Newton's biography of David Swing in which the books which influenced +that life are named as "The Bible, Calvin's Institutes, Fox's Book of +Martyrs and the McGuffey Readers;" and the author quotes David Swing as +saying that "The Institutes were rather large reading for a boy, but to +the end of his life he held that McGuffey's Sixth Reader was a great +book. For Swing, as for many a boy in the older West, its varied and +wise selections from the best English authors were the very gates of +literature ajar." + +One of the most eminent political leaders of the present day attributes +his power in the use of English largely to the study of McGuffey's Sixth +Reader in the common schools of Ohio. + +[How a Japanese Learned English] + +At a dinner lately given in New York to Marquis Ito of Japan, the +marquis responded to the toast of his health returning thanks in +English. He then continued his remarks in Japanese for some eight +minutes. At its close Mr. Tsudjuki, who was then the minister of +Education in Japan, traveling with Marquis Ito as his friend and +companion, and who had taken shorthand notes of the Japanese speech, +rose and translated the speech readily and fluently into good English. +One of the guests asked how he had learned to speak English so +correctly. He replied that he had done so in the public schools of Japan +and added, "I learned my English from McGuffey's Readers, with which you +are no doubt familiar." + +[The Authorship] + +It is not unusual to see in the literary columns of a daily newspaper +inquiries as to where certain poems may be found of which a single +stanza is faintly recalled. Many of these prove to be fragments of +pieces that are found in the McGuffey Readers. Quite lately Theodore +Roosevelt made the public statement that he did not propose to become a +"Meddlesome Matty." This allusion was perfectly clear to the millions of +people who used the McGuffey Readers at any time after 1853. + +When the Fourth Reader was issued in 1837 it contained a preface of +three closely printed pages setting forth and defending the plan of +McGuffey's books. In this he said: "In conclusion, the author begs leave +to state, that the whole series of Eclectic Readers is his own. In the +preparation of the rules, etc., for the present volume he has had the +assistance of a very distinguished Teacher, whose judgment and zeal in +promoting the cause of education have often been commended by the +American people. In the arrangement of the series generally, he is +indebted to many of his friends for valuable suggestions, and he takes +this opportunity of tendering them his thanks for the lively interest +they have manifested for the success of his undertaking." + +The sole author of the four readers first issued as the Eclectic Readers +was William Holmes McGuffey. He was responsible for the marked qualities +in these books which met with such astonishing popular approval in all +these years. What these qualities are is well known to those who have +used the books and the users are numbered by millions. + +[The Rhetorical Guide] + +The Rhetorical Guide was prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey, and his name +alone was on the early editions. In 1844 the book was revised by the +author and Dr. Pinneo, and was given the alternate title "or Fifth +Reader of the Eclectic Series." The work of revision occupied two years. +The title page carried the name of its author until, for reasons of his +own, he asked to have it removed. + +As usual when revisions of schoolbooks are made, the older edition was +continued in publication so long as a distinct demand for it existed. +But the issuance of a revised edition always suggests the question of +change, which competing publishers promptly seek to bring about. The +publishers of the "Newly Revised McGuffey Readers," therefore, sought +to replace the older edition wherever it was in use and to displace +competing books wherever possible. The edition of 1843 acquired large +sales over a very wide territory in the central West and South. It is +the edition generally known by the grandfathers of the school boys of +the present day. + +It may be interesting to name some of the selections in this Rhetorical +Guide issued in 1844 since in modified form the work has been the +highest reader of the series. + +[Selections of Value] + +As a guide toward rhetorical reading the book contained a carefully +prepared collection of rules and directions with examples for practice +in Articulation. Inflection, Accent and Emphasis, Reading Verse, for the +Management of the Voice and Gesture. These pages were intended for drill +work, and in those days the teachers were not content with the dull +monotonous utterance of the words or with mere mastery of thought, to +be tested by multitudinous questioning. If the pupil obtained from the +printed page the very thought the author intended to convey, the pupil +was expected to read orally so as to express that thought to all +hearers. If the correct thought was thus heard, no questions were +needed. The test of reading orally is the communication of thought by +the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the +author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the +pupil may select. + +[Noted Selections] + +The selections in the Rhetorical Guide were made, first of all, to teach +the art of reading. There was therefore great variety. Second, to +inculcate a love for literature. Therefore the selections were taken +from the great writers,--poets, orators, essayists, historians, and +preachers. The extracts are wonderfully complete in themselves,--one +does not need to read the whole of Byron's Don Juan to appreciate the +six stanzas that describe the thunder-storm on the Alps. Of the poetical +extracts all the users of this book will remember Southey's "Cataract +of Lodore" with its exacting drill on the ending,--"ing," Longfellow's +"Village Blacksmith" and the "Reaper and the Flowers;" Bryant's +"Thanatopsis" and "Song of the Stars;" Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John +Moore;" Gray's "Elegy;" Mrs. Hemans's "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers;" +Cowper's "My Mother's Picture;" Jones's "What Constitutes a State;" +Scott's "Lochinvar;" Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris;" Drake's "American +Flag;" and Mrs. Thrale's "Three Warnings." As an introduction to the +thought, imagery and diction of Shakespeare, there were "Hamlet's +Soliloquy," "Speech of Henry Fifth to his Troops," "Othello's Apology," +"The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey" and his death, the "Quarrel of Brutus and +Cassius" (often committed to memory and spoken) and Antony's Oration +over dead Caesar. The extracts from orations were chosen largely for +their relation to great events in history. There were Patrick Henry's +"Speech before the Virginia Convention," Walpole's "Reproof of Mr. +Pitt," and Pitt's reply. Who cannot remember "The atrocious crime of +being a young man," and go on with the context? There were extracts +from Hayne's "Speech on South Carolina," and Webster's reply defending +Massachusetts; a part of Burke's long speech on the Trial of Warren +Hastings prefaced by Macaulay's description of the scene; Webster's +"Speech on the Trial of a Murderer," ending with "It must be confessed, +it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide, +and suicide is confession;" Webster's speech on the Importance of the +Union with its concluding sentiment, "Liberty and Union, now and +forever; one and inseparable." There was also Fox's "Political Pause" +with its wonderful requirements of inflection to express irony; +Sprague's "American Indians," "Not many generations ago, where you now +sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, +the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole +unscared." Did you not commit it to memory and speak it? Then there was +Webster's Speech in which he supplied John Adams from his own fervid +imagination that favorite of all patriotic boys, "Sink or swim, live +or die, survive or perish; I give my hand and my heart to this vote." +At its close, "it is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, +it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now, and independence +forever." + +[Literary Selections] + +From the essayists there was Lamb's "Eulogy on Candle Light;" that +delightful "Eulogy on Debt" from an unknown author; Addison's "Allegory +on Discontent," and "Westminster Abbey;" and Jane Taylor's "Discontented +Pendulum." Only seven selections were taken from the Bible; but one of +these was Paul's Defense before Agrippa. There were, however, quite a +number of articles of strongly religious tendency, like Dr. Spring's +"Observance of the Sabbath." + +The book contained two hundred and thirty-five selections and of this +number nearly one-half appeared in all subsequent revisions. + +This Rhetorical Guide or Fifth Reader is the book that by its careful +selection of specimens of the best English literature in prose and verse +contributed most to the training of its readers toward the appreciation +of true beauty in literature. It contained many pieces of solid and +continuous worth,--many that relate closely to the great historical eras +of the United States. + +[McGuffey's Ancestry] + +In the latest revision of the highest reader, made in 1879, one hundred +and thirty-eight selections composed the book. Of this number sixty-one +were in the original book as prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey. + +It was an admirable collection of much material that is still prized and +which, when carefully read by pupils hungry for thoughtful language, +made a deep and lasting impression. In many cases the inmost thought of +the author may not have been at once fully apprehended by the young +readers; but with advancing years and wider experience in life the +stored words became instinct with thought and feeling. + + +THE AUTHORS. + +Dr. William Holmes McGuffey was born September 28, 1800, on the southern +border of Washington county, Pa. The family descended from William +and Anna (McKittrick) McGuffey who came from Scotland, and landed at +Philadelphia. They made a home in the southern part of York county, +at which, during the Revolution, General Washington often stopped to +refresh himself. In 1789 this family removed to Washington county, Pa. + +[The Indian Scouts] + +Alexander McGuffey, the father of Dr. McGuffey, was six years old when +the family came to America in August, 1774. In 1790, when he was +twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, Duncan McArthur, afterward a +governor of Ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to +act as scouts against the Indians in Ohio who were then threatening the +frontier settlements in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania. +These two young men were selected after tests by Samuel Brady to find +which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least +afraid of Indians. Alexander McGuffey served in the army three years, +venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the Indian country. +He took part in several fights with the Indians. When General St. Clair +in 1792 marched north from Cincinnati to meet the Indians, this body of +scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of Castalia, +Ohio. There they saw great numbers of Indians passing to meet General +St. Clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the Indian country +to inform the general. They traveled only at night and hid during the +day. One night they marched forty miles. They told General St. Clair +what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting Indians. +Three days later St. Clair was defeated. These scouts were then twelve +miles away but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the +"woods were alive with Indians." The scouts turned eastward and in due +time reached Logstown, near Wheeling. + +[Indian Warfare] + +The next year McArthur, McGuffey and George Sutherland were again sent +out by General Wayne to spy the Indians. When only seven or eight miles +from Wheeling and west of the Ohio river, they came upon a trail which +led to a deer lick. Just at dusk McGuffey, who was leading the party, +saw in the path the gaily decorated head-dress of an Indian. It had been +placed there by the Indians who were in ambush close by and were ready +to shoot any white man who should stop to pick it up. McGuffey saw +through the stratagem instantly; without halting, he gave it a kick and +shouted "Indians!" Several Indians fired at once and one of the balls +smashed McGuffey's powder horn, and passed through his clothing, but did +not wound him. The three scouts retreated in safety, and the Indians did +not follow them. + +The wars with the Indians in that region closed in 1794, and Alexander +McGuffey then married Anna Holmes, of Washington county, and became a +settler. His eldest son was William Holmes McGuffey. When this son was +but two years old the family moved to Trumbull county, Ohio. Here, in +the care of a pious mother and father, he spent the years of childhood +and of early manhood, performing the labors falling upon the eldest son +in a large family of children dwelling in a log cabin on the frontier. +From the heavy forest, fields were cleared, fenced and cultivated, roads +were made and bridges were built, and in all these labors the sturdy son +of the famous Indian scout took part. + +[A Frontier School] + +During the first eighteen years of W.H. McGuffey's life he had no +opportunities for education other than those afforded by the brief +winter schools supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the parents +in the neighborhood. + +In 1802 Rev. Thos. Hughes, a Presbyterian clergyman, built at +Darlington, Pa., the "Old Stone Academy" for the education of young men, +having obtained the necessary funds by traveling on horseback throughout +Pennsylvania and eastward even to Newburyport, Mass. + +This seminary of learning was conducted on lines of the utmost economy +to meet the needs of the boys living on the frontier. The tuition was +only three dollars a year and the charge for board was seventy-five +cents a week. The food was simple. For breakfast, bread, butter, and +coffee; for dinner, bread, meat, and sauce; for supper, bread and milk. +The only variation allowed in this bill of fare was the occasional +omission of sauce or coffee. + +[The Old Stone Academy] + +At the close of a summer day in 1818, Thomas Hughes was riding horseback +through Trumbull county. The dust on the highway deadened the sound of +his horse's feet. While passing a log cabin, half hidden from the road +by intervening trees and shrubs, he heard the plaintive voice of a woman +who was in the garden, out of sight. The clergyman stopped his horse and +listened. He heard the woman earnestly praying that some way might be +opened for her children to obtain such education as should fit them for +the duties of life. Riding on, the clergyman inquired at the next house +regarding the inmates of the log cabin. He was informed that a Mr. +McGuffey lived there. Turning back he sought the prayerful mother and +learned from her the circumstances of the family. The doors of the "Old +Stone Academy" were opened to William H. McGuffey and he there obtained +his first start in a preparation for college. But his labor could not be +wholly spared on the farm so lately won from the surrounding forest. He +worked in the fields in summer, continuing his studies and walked many +miles once a week to recite his lessons to a kindly clergyman. + +W.H. McGuffey's father was too poor to aid his son in obtaining a +collegiate education, and the latter soon turned to teaching as a means +of obtaining money to support himself in college. When prepared for +college he went back to his native county and entered Washington +College. He was in his twenty-sixth year when he graduated with +distinguished honors from that institution. + +It was at Washington College that W.H. McGuffey first met with a great +teacher and former of character,--Dr. Andrew Wylie, then the president. +It was considered by Dr. McGuffey one of the most fortunate events of +his life that he came at that time under the influence of Dr. Wylie's +forceful mind and elevated character. + +[A College Professor] + +Dr. McGuffey was obliged to suspend his collegiate course for a year to +earn more money for his support. He taught a private school at Paris, +Ky., in 1823 and 1824. There he met Dr. Robert H. Bishop, the president +of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. Dr. Bishop was so impressed with +the character and mental power of the young teacher that on March 29, +1826, even before McGuffey received his bachelor's degree from +Washington College, he received his appointment as professor of Ancient +Languages at Miami University. + +He graduated in 1826 and began his labor at Oxford, Ohio, at the opening +of the fall session. He at once took high rank in a faculty consisting +of strong men, and, young as he was, won the respect and homage of the +students. In 1832 he was transferred to the chair of Mental Philosophy. +To make this subject interesting and valuable to beginners requires, on +the part of the teacher, wide reading, clearness of thought, and +simplicity and directness of speech. These qualities Dr. McGuffey had. +He had become well read in philosophy, especially of the Scottish +school, Brown being his favorite author. But he had fully assimilated +the matter and had thought independently. He also had a fund of fresh +and suggestive illustrations coming within the daily experience of men, +which brought his lectures close to the minds of the students. Whatever +positions of honor or of trust his pupils held in their later careers, +they never ceased to feel the impulse which came from Dr. McGuffey as a +teacher. + +On March 29, 1829, he was licensed as a preacher in the Presbyterian +church, and from that date he became a frequent public speaker. He never +had charge of a parish as minister, but usually preached on Sunday in +the college chapel to the students and to such of the public as could +obtain space to sit or to stand. The preacher's unassuming manner, the +clearness of his thought, and the simplicity of his language produced +impressions that were enduring. He never wrote his sermons. He simply +thought them out rigorously, and his mind worked so logically and in +such definite lines that he could repeat on request a sermon, preached +years before, in a form recognized by his hearers as substantially the +same. + +[Cincinnati College] + +After ten years spent in teaching and preaching at Miami University, Dr. +McGuffey resigned, August 26, 1836, and accepted the presidency of +Cincinnati College. + +This institution was chartered in the winter of 1818-1819 by the +legislature of Ohio, largely at the solicitation of Dr. Daniel Drake. It +was partially endowed by the gifts of the public-spirited citizens of +Cincinnati. But its collegiate functions had been allowed to drop, +although a school on the Lancastrian system was maintained. + +The election of Dr. McGuffey as president of this college was a result +of renewed activity on the part of the leading men in the city to found +a genuine college of high character in that city. They believed that if +well conducted such an institution would bring to its doors students +enough to support the college by their fees. + +A medical department was organized in June, 1835, with eight competent +professors, a law department with three professors, and a faculty of +arts with seven teachers. In this faculty, William H. McGuffey was +president and professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, O.M. +Mitchell was professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, and Edward D. +Mansfield was professor of Constitutional Law and History. Dr. McGuffey +accepted the presidency with a full knowledge that the work was +experimental. A trial of three years demonstrated that a college could +not be sustained without an invested endowment. Cincinnati College "was +endowed with genius, and nothing else." + +[Ohio University] + +In 1839, Dr. McGuffey accepted the presidency of the Ohio University at +Athens, Ohio, which office he held for four years. During these years +his faculties were at their fullest development. He had become an +experienced, scholarly teacher and a popular speaker on religious and +educational subjects. The students at Athens held him in the highest +esteem, and the influence of his teaching became deeper as years rolled +by and experience emphasized his lessons. + +In 1839 he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws conferred upon +him by the Indiana University, of which his former teacher and friend, +Dr. Wylie, was then president. + +The income of the Ohio University came chiefly from the rents of two +entire townships of land which had been given it for an endowment. This +land was lawfully revalued at the end of ten years. The revaluation was +contested in the courts by the tenants. The Supreme Court decided in +favor of the university; but the farmers induced the legislature in 1843 +to pass a law which fixed the income of the university from these lands +at a sum so low as to cause the doors of the institution to be closed +for five years. + +Dr. McGuffey returned to Cincinnati and was for two years a professor in +Woodward College, now Woodward High School. + +[University of Virginia] + +In 1845 he was appointed professor of Natural and Moral Philosophy in +the University of Virginia. This position he filled with credit to +himself and with great acceptance to the students in that institution +for more than a quarter of a century and until his death on May 4, 1873. + +Dr. McGuffey's classes in the University of Virginia were well attended. +His lectures were delivered extempore, in language exactly expressing +his thoughts. His illustrations were most apt. He taught "with the +simplicity of a child, with the precision of a mathematician, and with +the authority of truth." + +[Method of Teaching] + +A portion of the lecture hour was given to questioning the members of +the class. In this he used the Socratic method, leading the pupil by a +series of questions to the discovery of the incorrectness of his +reasoning or the falsity of his grounds. By this process the students +were led to question their own reasoning, to think clearly and to +express their thoughts accurately. + +Dr. McGuffey once told a pupil that he had preached three thousand +sermons and had never written one. Until late in life he had never +written his lectures. Shortly before his death he began the preparation +of a book on Mental Philosophy. This was never completed. + +Dr. McGuffey was twice married. By his first wife. Miss Harriet Spinning +of Dayton, he had several children. One daughter, Mary, married Dr. +William W. Stewart of Dayton; another, Henrietta, married Professor A. +D. Hepburn who was for a time president of Miami University. Professor +Hepburn's son, in turn inheriting his grandfather's faculty of teaching, +is a professor in the University of Indiana. + +[Interest in Public Schools] + +In 1837 Professor Calvin E. Stowe went to Europe to investigate the +organization and method of elementary schools. On his return he +published, in 1838, his report on the Prussian system. Subsequently Dr. +McGuffey labored in Ohio with Samuel Lewis and other public-spirited men +for the passage of the general school law under which the common schools +of Ohio were first organized. He carried to Virginia the same zeal for +the education of all the children of the state to prepare them for the +duties of life. One of his first acts on assuming the duties of his +professorship in the university was to make a tour of the state +advocating the introduction of a public school system in Virginia. +To this first appeal for common schools, open alike to rich and poor, +there was then but a feeble response; but, twenty-five years later, Dr. +McGuffey had the satisfaction of seeing the public schools organized +with one of his own friends and a former pupil at its head,--Hon. W.H. +Ruffner. + +Dr. McGuffey was a man of medium stature and compact figure. His +forehead was broad and full; his eyes clear and expressive. His features +were of the strongly marked rugged Scotch type. He was a ready speaker, +a popular lecturer on educational topics, and an able preacher. He was +admirable in conversation. His observation of men was accurate, and his +study of character close. + +[Trip Through the South] + +After the Civil War and while the reconstruction was in progress it +was extremely difficult in the North to obtain a correct view of the +situation in the South. State governments had been established in which +"carpet-baggers" had more or less control. Nearly all the whites in the +South had taken part in the war. They were largely disfranchised and +their former servants often became the legal rulers. The Klu Klux Klan +had begun their unlawful work, of which the papers gave contradictory +reports. + +As business men, the publishers of McGuffey's Readers desired to learn +the truth about the situation of the South and its probable future. +They asked Dr. McGuffey to take a trip through the Carolinas, Georgia, +Alabama, and Mississippi and make report to them at Cincinnati. This he +did, visiting all the larger towns where he was usually the honored +guest of some graduate of the university. He saw the legislatures in +session, met the governors, and studied the whole situation. He then +came to Cincinnati and told his story. He had made no notes, but he +never hesitated for a name. He repeated conversations with unquestioned +accuracy and described with humor the gross ignorance and brutality of +some of the southern legislators, the looting of the capitol at the end +of the session, the indirect robbery that was under way, the reversal of +all the conditions of life, and the growing unrest of the men who had +heretofore been the rulers. + +It was such a picture as at that time no Northern paper would have dared +to print--it was the truth. For days he held his listeners captive with +the story--the writer never heard a more interesting one. + +[College of Teachers] + +While Dr. McGuffey was still at Oxford, Ohio, he took part in the +formation of probably the first extended Teachers' Association formed in +the West. There had been a previous association of Cincinnati teachers +organized for mutual aid and improvement. This was about to be given +up; but at their first anniversary on June 20, 1831, Mr. Albert Pickett, +principal of a private school in Cincinnati, proposed a plan for +organizing in one body the instructors in public and private schools and +the friends of education. Circulars were sent out and the first meeting +of the College of Teachers was held October 3, 1832. A great number of +teachers from many states of the West and South attended these meetings +and took part in the proceedings. Throughout its continuance Dr. +McGuffey took an active part in the work. In the years 1832-1836 +fifty-seven addresses were delivered to the College by thirty-nine +speakers. Of this number Dr. McGuffey prepared and delivered three. + +[Topics Discussed] + +The proceedings of the College of Teachers were published in annual +pamphlets which together formed two large octavo volumes. The topics +which were then under discussion are best shown by the titles of a few +of the addresses, with the name of the speaker and the year of delivery: + +On Introducing the Bible into Schools, Rev. B.P. Aydelott, 1836; +Importance of making the business of Teaching a Profession, Lyman +Beecher, D.D., 1833; The Kind of Education Adapted to the West, +Professor Bradford, 1833; Qualifications of Teachers, Mr. Mann Butler, +1832; Physical Education, Dr. Daniel Drake, 1833; On Popular Education, +John P. Harrison, M.D., 1836; On the Study and Nature of Ancient +Languages, A. Kinmont, 1832; On Common Schools, Samuel Lewis, Esq., +1835; On the Qualifications of Teachers, E.D. Mansfield, Esq., 1836; +Reciprocal Duties of Parents and Teachers, Rev. W.H. McGuffey, A.M., +1835; General Duties of Teachers, Albert Pickett, 1835; Philosophy of +the Human Mind, Bishop Purcell, 1836; Utility of Cabinets of Natural +Science, Joseph Ray, 1836; Agriculture as a Branch of Education, Rev. E. +Slack, 1836; Education of Emigrants, Professor Calvin Stowe, 1835; Best +Method of Teaching Composition, D.L. Talbott, 1835; Manual Labor in the +Schools, Milo G. Williams. + +Some of these topics are still engrossing the attention of teachers at +their annual meetings for the discussion of live educational questions. + +While Dr. McGuffey was at Oxford, teaching mental philosophy to the +pupils in Miami University, he prepared the manuscript for the two lower +readers of the graded series which bore his name. To test his work while +in progress, he collected in his own house a number of small children +whom he taught to read by the use of his lessons. + +It is evident that these readers were prepared at the solicitation of +the publishers and on such a general plan as to number and size as was +desired by the publishers. Dr. McGuffey was selected by them as the most +competent teacher known to them for the preparation of successful books. +He did not prepare the manuscripts and search for a publisher. + +[The Copyright Contract] + +On April 28, 1836, he made a contract with Truman & Smith, publishers of +Cincinnati, for the preparation and publication of a graded series of +readers to consist of four books. The First and Second readers were then +in manuscript, the Third and Fourth readers were to be completed within +eighteen months. They were both issued in 1837. Dr. Benjamin Chidlaw, +then a student in college, aided the author by copying the indicated +selections and preparing them for the printer. He received for this work +five dollars and thought himself well paid. + +These four books constituted the original series of the Eclectic Readers +by W.H. McGuffey which in all the subsequent revisions have borne his +name and retained the impress of his mind. + +The First Reader made a thin 18mo book of seventy-two pages, having +green paper covered sides; the Second Reader contained one hundred and +sixty-four pages of the same size. The Third Reader had a larger page +and was printed as a duodecimo of one hundred and sixty-five pages. The +fourth Reader ranked in size with the Third and contained three hundred +and twenty-four printed pages. Each was printed from the type, which was +distributed when the required number for the edition came from the +press. + +By the terms of the contract the publishers paid a royalty of ten per +cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one +thousand dollars, after which the Readers became the absolute property +of the publishers. It must be remembered that in those days this sum of +money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, and it may +be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers commanded +as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business. At any rate +the contract was mutually satisfactory and remained so to the end of +the author's life. Right here it seems proper to remark that although +the McGuffey readers became the property of the publishers when the +royalties reached one thousand dollars. Dr. McGuffey was employed by the +publishers in connection with important revisions so long as he lived +and the contracts specify a "satisfactory consideration" in each case. + +[Later Contracts] + +When, after the Civil War, these readers attained a sale which became +very profitable to the firm then owning the copyrights, the partners, +without suggestion or solicitation, fixed upon an annuity which was paid +Dr. McGuffey each year so long as he lived. This was a voluntary +recognition of their esteem for the man and of the continued value of +his work. + +[The Beecher Family] + +Before Dr. McGuffey completed the manuscripts of the Third and Fourth +readers he left Oxford and went to Cincinnati. Here he found himself in +close touch with a community fully alive to the claims of education. +Cincinnati, in 1837, was the largest city in the West excepting New +Orleans and was the great educational center of the West. The early +settlers of Cincinnati were generally well educated men and they had a +keen sense of the value of learning. The public schools of Cincinnati +were then more highly developed than those of any other city in the +West. Woodward High School had been endowed and Dr. Joseph Ray, the +author of the well known arithmetics, was the professor of mathematics +there. The Cincinnati College was then bright with the promise of future +usefulness. Lane Seminary was founded and Dr. Lyman Beecher was inducted +professor of Theology on December 26, 1832, and became the first +president. He went to Cincinnati with his brilliant family. His eldest +daughter, Catherine, had already won a high reputation as a teacher, +acting as principal of the Hartford (Conn.) Female Institute. His +younger daughter, Harriet, married, in January, 1836, Calvin E. Stowe, +then one of the professors in Lane Seminary. It was while in Cincinnati +that she gathered material and formed opinions which she later embodied +in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In 1834 Henry Ward Beecher graduated at Amherst +College. He and his brother, Charles, then went to Cincinnati to study +theology under their father. While pursuing his studies Henry Ward +Beecher devoted his surplus energies to editorial work on the Cincinnati +Daily Journal. These were some of the people of Cincinnati interested in +the problem of education who took part with Dr. McGuffey in the +discussions of the College of Teachers and labored zealously for the +promotion of education in every department. While president of Lane +Seminary. Dr. Beecher was also the pastor of the Second Presbyterian +Church in Cincinnati where W.B. Smith was an attendant. + +[Alexander H. McGuffey] + +Dr. McGuffey left Cincinnati in 1839, and when the publisher, Mr. +Winthrop B. Smith, found it necessary to add to the four McGuffey's +Readers another more advanced book, he employed for its preparation, Mr. +Alexander H. McGuffey, a younger brother of Dr. McGuffey. Mr. Alexander +H. McGuffey had, in 1837, prepared for Messrs. Truman & Smith the +manuscript of McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, and although the nature +of this task was very different from the preparation of a reader for the +highest grades in the elementary schools, the result showed that the +publishers judged wisely in selecting a man competent to prepare a +selection from English literature. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER H. McGUFFEY] + +Mr. Alexander Hamilton McGuffey was born August 13, 1816, in Trumbull +County, Ohio. He was sixteen years younger than his brother, William, +and when only ten years of age was placed under charge of his brother +at Oxford, Ohio. There he studied Hebrew before he had any knowledge +of the grammar of his mother tongue. He was a brilliant student, and +he graduated from Miami University at the age of sixteen. Soon after +graduation he was appointed Professor of Belles Lettres at Woodward +College. In this field of labor his knowledge of English literature was +broadened and he acquired a love for the classic English writers that +lasted through life. But Mr. McGuffey determined to become a lawyer and, +while still teaching English literature in Woodward College, he read +law. He was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached his twenty-first +year, and became a noted and wise counsellor. His labor for his clients +was in keeping them out of the courts by clearly expressed contracts and +prudent action. He was seldom engaged in jury trials; but was expert in +cases involving contracts and wills. In such suits his knowledge of the +principles of law and his power of close reasoning were valuable. He was +often placed in positions of trust, and was for more than fifty years +the watchful guardian of the interests of the Cincinnati College. + +[The Rhetorical Guide] + +He prepared the manuscript of the Rhetorical Guide after the close of +his labor as a teacher. The work probably occupied his leisure time in a +law office before he acquired remunerative practice in his profession. + +[McGuffey's Sixth Reader] + +The contract between Mr. A.H. McGuffey and W.B. Smith, dated September +30, 1841, provided for the preparation within eighteen months, of the +manuscript of a book to be called McGuffey's Rhetorical Reader, or by +any other appropriate name which Mr. Smith might select. It was to +contain not less than three hundred and twenty-four duodecimo pages nor +more than four hundred and eighty. Mr. Smith paid five hundred dollars +for it, in three notes payable in three, twelve, and eighteen months +after the delivery of the manuscript. The book was issued in 1844 as +McGuffey's Rhetorical Guide. Its material, revised by its author, later +became, in modified form, the Fifth Reader in the five-book series, and +again much of the same material was used in the Sixth Reader published +first in 1855. + +Mr. A.H. McGuffey died at his home on Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, on June 3, +1896. He was twice married. His first wife, married in 1839, was Miss +Elizabeth M. Drake, daughter of the eminent Dr. Daniel Drake. After her +death he married Miss Caroline V. Rich of Boston. He had a large family. +A son, Charles D. McGuffey. Esq., lives at Chattanooga, Tenn. + +Mr. A.H. McGuffey was a noteworthy figure in any assemblage of men. He +was tall, slender and erect. His manner was urbane and reserved. He +served on many charitable and educational boards and was attentive to +his trusts. He was an active member of the Episcopalian Church, being +many years a warden in his parish, and frequently a delegate to the +Diocesan Convention, where he was a recognized authority on +Ecclesiastical Law. + +In a life of nearly eighty years in which he was active in many +educational and beneficent enterprises his early work in the preparation +of the Rhetorical Guide probably exercised the widest, the best, and +the most enduring influence. Many of the newspapers in all parts of the +country published notices of his death, recognizing in kindly terms the +service that had been rendered the writers by the schoolbook of which he +was the author. + + +THE PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS. + +Since the McGuffey Readers became at an early day the absolute property +of their publishers, they became responsible for all subsequent +revisions and corrections of the books. + +[Truman & Smith] + +The firm of Truman & Smith was organized about 1834 by William B. Truman +and Winthrop B. Smith. Both had had some experience in the business of +selling books. It is highly probable that this firm became for a short +time the Western agent for some schoolbooks made in the East. But Mr. +Smith soon perceived a distinct demand for a series adapted to the +Western market and supplied near at hand. He had the courage to follow +his convictions. + +Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was born in Stamford, Conn., September 28, 1808, +the son of Anthony and Rebecca (Clarke) Smith. He was, in his youth, an +employee in a book-house in New Haven. At the age of eighteen he went to +Cincinnati, declaring that he would not return to his home until he was +independent. He labored there fourteen years before he returned, not +rich, but established in an independent career. He often declared that +until 1840, he was "insolvent, but no one knew it." + +Before entering business, Mr. Smith received a sound common school +education. This, grounded on a nature well endowed with common sense, +great energy, and strong determination, qualified him for success in +business. He became a man of great originality, clear-headed and +far-sighted. Toward his employees he was just, but exacting. He was a +good judge of the character and qualities of other men, and was thus +able to bring to his aid competent assistants who were loyal and +effective. + +Mr. Smith married in Cincinnati on November 4th, 1834, Mary Sargent. He +died in Philadelphia, December 5th, 1885, in his 78th year. Of his +family, one son is a banker in Philadelphia. + +[Their First Publications] + +The firm of Truman & Smith published several miscellaneous books, mostly +reprints of standard works likely to have a steady sale. Their first +venture in a copyrighted book was "The Child's Bible with Plates; by a +lady of Cincinnati," which was entered on June 2, 1834. On June 21st of +the same year the firm entered the titles of three books: "Mason's +Sacred Harp," a collection of church music by Lowell Mason of Boston, +and Timothy B. Mason of Cincinnati; "Introduction to Ray's Eclectic +Arithmetic," by Dr. Joseph Ray; and "English Grammar on the Productive +System," by Roswell C. Smith. Of these four books the arithmetic was +issued on July 4, 1834. It was the firm's first schoolbook. In revised +and enlarged form it later became the first book in the successful +series of "Ray's Arithmetics." + +But even in those early days, books would not sell themselves unless +their qualities were made known to the public. Agents had to be +employed--and at first Mr. Smith was his own best agent. There were +expenses for travel and for sample books, for advertising, as well as +for printing and binding. + +[Illustration: W.B. Smith] + +The Truman and Smith team did not always pull together. Mr. Truman was +not versed in the schoolbook business. Mr. Smith was. + +[The Dissolution] + +It is said that Mr. Smith went early one morning to their humble shop on +the second floor of No. 150 Main street, and made two piles of sample +books. In one he put all the miscellaneous publications of the firm, big +and little--the Child's Bible and Sacred Harp among them--and on top of +the pile placed all the cash the firm possessed; in the other, were half +a dozen small text books, including the four McGuffey Readers. When +Mr. Truman arrived, Mr. Smith expressed the desire to dissolve the +partnership, showed the two piles and offered Mr. Truman his choice. +He pounced on the cash and the larger pile and left the insignificant +schoolbooks for Mr. Smith, who thereupon became the sole owner of +McGuffey's Readers. + +This separation of the partnership took place in 1841 and although there +is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought +about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the +incident as handed down by tradition. + +[A Lesson in Copyright Law] + +Mr. Truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have +come in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant. +Sooner or later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some elementary +instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright law through +action taken in court. Messrs. Truman & Smith took a lesson in 1838. + +On October 1st of that year Benjamin F. Copeland and Samuel Worcester +brought suit in the court of the United States against Truman & Smith +and William H. McGuffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that +material had been copied from Worcester's Second, Third, and Fourth +Readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been +pirated. + +A temporary injunction was issued December 25, 1838; but before that +date the McGuffey Readers had been carefully compared with the Worcester +Readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest +degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the Worcester Readers. +As these McGuffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to +set up new matter than to reset the old. On the title page of each book +appeared the words, "Revised and Improved Edition," and two pages in +explanation and defense were inserted. In these the publishers stated +that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in New England, felt themselves +aggrieved that the McGuffey books contained a portion of matter similar +to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted +legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression +of the McGuffey books and in the meantime had provided supplies of the +Worcester books to meet the demand of the West. + +[Avoidance of Issue] + +No objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds; +but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "The +public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." They stated that +to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for +cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and +substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would +add to the value of the Eclectic Readers. Throughout this preface, after +stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the +support of Western enterprise. + +Although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences +between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison +of the early edition of the Second Reader with the "Revised and Improved +Edition" shows that Mr. Smith took out seventeen selections and inserted +in their places new matter. To an unprejudiced examiner it appears +that the new matter was better than the old. The old marked copy of +Worcester's Second Reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten +pieces that were used in both books. It thus appears that the publisher +took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them +unassailable under the copyright law. In three months between the +bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, Mr. Smith had +made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction practically +void. + +[The Suit Settled] + +The court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to +examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been +inflicted on the owners of the Worcester Readers. But Mr. Smith was an +attendant in church and doubtless had heard Dr. Beecher read, "Agree +with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at +any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver +thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire +to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing." + +When the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report +nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed +from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by +paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. There was no further contest +about the plan of the two books. + +The Worcester Readers had a short and inconspicuous life. When this suit +was brought, their publishers were Richardson, Lord and Holbrook of +Boston. In 1836 Charles J. Hendee published them, and in 1854 they +appeared with the name of Jenks, Hickling & Swan of Boston. These +several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary Book Trust +sixty years ago. + +Dr. McGuffey undoubtedly inserted these selections innocent of any wrong +intent and supposed them to be in common use. + +[Early Popular Schoolbooks] + +As early as 1848 the success of the Eclectic Readers was sufficient to +excite imitation and in the First Reader of that year Mr. Smith printed +four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by +"Newman's Southern Eclectic Readers." + +In the first century after the settlement of this country the New +England Primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of +the McGuffey Readers. In that case, the settlers were widely removed +from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs. +The Primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of +the people. It served as a first book in reading and was followed by the +Bible. This Primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising +bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to +supply the local demand. The excessive cost of transportation was thus +avoided. + +[Changed Conditions] + +Somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and +long-continued demands for Webster's Spelling Book, which was +copyrighted. This book had the support of the authority of Webster's +Dictionary--an original American work; and it soon became a staple +article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store. +It supplanted the New England Primer and became the first book in the +hands of every pupil. Less marked in its religious instruction, the +speller spread through the South and into regions where the people were +not trained in the Puritan doctrines. The wonderful sales of Webster's +Spelling Book remained for many years after the War; but have now +dropped to insignificance. It is not probable that other books will +under present conditions repeat the history of these books. There is +now no wide region of fertile country rapidly filling with settlers and +separated from their former sources of supply by great distance and by +mountain ranges unprovided with passable roads. Even the more newly +settled regions of the country are reached by railroads and the parts +early settled are covered by a network of railroads, of telegraph and +telephone wires which bring the consumer and the producer near together. + +In the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has +taken the place of hand work. When W.B. Smith carried on his business in +the second story over a small shop on Main street, Cincinnati, nearly +every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. The +tools employed were of the simplest character. Now a book-factory is +filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many +cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. New +machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the +manufacture. Thus a very large investment of capital is now required to +set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and +with perfect finish in every part. Books are seldom manufactured in +places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of +schoolbooks make the books which they sell. They contract for them with +printers and binders. + +[Stereotyped Editions] + +The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the +actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers +were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the +publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to +present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in +substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates +have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression +and endure more wear. + +In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of +advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000 +of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin +back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the +muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put +upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The +leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it +took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the +saying, "There is nothing like leather." + +[Dr. Pinneo, Editor] + +It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a +publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience +showed were needed; but, about 1843, he employed Dr. Timothy Stone +Pinneo to act under his direction in literary matters. + +[Dr. Pinneo's Work] + +Dr. Pinneo was the eldest son of the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, an early +graduate of Dartmouth College, who was for more than half a century +pastor of the First Congregational Church in Milford, Conn. Dr. Pinneo +was born at Milford in February, 1804. His mother was a woman of +culture, Mary, only daughter of the Rev. Timothy Stone of Lebanon, +Conn., a graduate of Yale College. Dr. Pinneo graduated at Yale in the +class of 1824. A severe illness in the winter after his graduation made +it necessary for him to spend his winters in the South until his health +was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine. +He taught for a time in the Charlotte Hall Institute, Maryland, and +then removed to Ohio. He acted one year as professor of Mathematics +and Natural Philosophy in Marietta College. He studied medicine in +Cincinnati and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio +Medical College in 1843. On June 1, 1848, he married Jeanette Linsley, +daughter of Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley, at one time president of Marietta +College. Dr. Pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in Cincinnati. In +1862 he went to Greenwich, Conn., where he was occupied in literary work +and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. In 1885, after his wife's +death, he removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he died August 2, 1893. Two +daughters and a son survived him. Dr. Pinneo contributed materially to +the revisions of McGuffey's Readers made in 1843 and in 1853; but both +these revisions passed through the hands of Dr. McGuffey, then at the +University of Virginia, and were approved by him. It does not appear +that Dr. Pinneo exercised any personal authority over the readers. He +was employed, for moderate amounts, to prepare revisions which were +satisfactory to both publisher and author. In the revision of 1843, his +work was confined to the Third and Fourth readers. The First and Second +readers were remade by Daniel G. Mason, then a teacher in the schools of +Cincinnati. In the revision of 1853 the entire series passed through Dr. +Pinneo's hands. He probably corrected the proof sheets. Dr. Pinneo's +latest work on the McGuffey Readers was done in 1856. + +After leaving Cincinnati, Dr. Pinneo prepared, and Mr. Smith published, +a series of grammars--the Analytical, issued in 1850, and the Primary, +in 1854. He was also the author of a High School Reader and of Hemans's +Young Ladies' Readers. These books had for some years a considerable +sale. + +[Obed J. Wilson] + +As early as 1853 Mr. Obed J. Wilson was in the office of Mr. Smith as +an employee. Mr. Wilson was born in Bingham, Maine, in 1826, and earned +his first money as an axman in the pine forests which were in that day +near his native town. He obtained, in the common schools, sufficient +education to become a teacher and he never ceased to be a student, thus +acquiring a broad acquaintance with English literature. He taught in the +schools of Cincinnati when he first went West. There his abilities soon +attracted the attention of Mr. Smith, who employed him. For some years +he traveled as an agent, chiefly in Indiana and Wisconsin, introducing +the books of the Eclectic Series. He gradually became Mr. Smith's +trusted assistant, particularly in the direction of the work of agents +and in the selection of new books, and their adaptation to the demands +of the field. He married Miss Amanda Landrum, who was also a skilled +teacher in the Cincinnati schools. Mrs. Wilson was responsible for a +revision of the McGuffey First Reader made in 1863. She also at that +time corrected the plates of the higher numbers of the series. For many +years thereafter Mr. Wilson was the chief authority for Mr. Smith and +his successors in literary matters, and few men excelled him in breadth +of reading and in discriminating taste. + +Mr. Wilson lives in his home near Cincinnati which is filled with the +choice books which he has read and studied so faithfully, and he still +has the companionship of the wife who has been his constant helpmate for +more than half a century. + +Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was the sole proprietor of the McGuffey Readers +and his other publications from 1841 until about 1852. He then admitted +as partners, Edward Sargent and Daniel Bartow Sargent, his wife's +brothers, and the firm name became W.B. Smith & Co. + +[Eastern Publishers] + +While books could be manufactured in the West even in the early years +cheaper than they could be delivered in the West from the better +organized establishments in the older cities of the East, it was not +possible to deliver books in New York from Cincinnati so cheaply as the +books could be made in the East. The cost of transportation constituted +a very considerable element in the price of schoolbooks. Mr. Smith +therefore made an arrangement with Clark, Austin & Smith, of New York, +to become the Eastern publishers of the McGuffey Readers and other +books, and a duplicate set of plates was sent to New York. From these +plates, editions of the readers were manufactured, largely at Claremont, +N.H., bearing on the title page the imprint of Clark, Austin & Smith, +New York. + +The Smith of this firm was Cornelius Smith, a brother of Winthrop B. +Smith. Cornelius Smith withdrew from this firm before 1861. In that year +the war broke out, and this New York firm, which as booksellers and +stationers had a large trade in the South, lost not only their custom in +that section, but were unable to collect large amounts due them for +goods. Clark, Austin, Maynard & Co. failed and Mr. W.B. Smith bought, in +1862, all their assets for the sum of $6,000, placed Mr. W.B. Thalheimer +in charge of the business and resumed control of the duplicate plates of +the McGuffey Readers. + +From the location of Cincinnati on the Ohio river, then affording +the cheapest means of distributing goods to all parts of the South, +Mr. Smith had obtained, before 1860, a very considerable part of the +schoolbook trade in the Southern states of the Mississippi Valley. +The opening of the Civil War swept this trade away and left on the +books of the firm in Cincinnati many accounts not then collectible. +The continuance of the war and the constant fluctuations in the price of +materials, due to the use of paper money, joined to advancing age and +ill health, all combined to lead Mr. Smith to withdraw from business. + +[New Firm Formed] + +A new firm, Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, was organized April 20, 1863, +with Edward Sargent, Obed J. Wilson and Anthony H. Hinkle as general +partners, and with W.B. Smith and D.B. Sargent as special partners. + +These active partners had long been in this business, Mr. Sargent as +a partner and bookkeeper, Mr. Wilson as literary editor of skill and +judgment and also a forceful manager of agents, Mr. Hinkle as a +thoroughly skilled binder and manufacturer. + +Winthrop B. Smith and D.B. Sargent remained as special partners, +furnishing capital but taking no part in the direction of the business. + +[Southern Reprint] + +The Confederate States, at the opening of the War, had within their +limits no publisher of schoolbooks which had extensive sales. Nearly all +of the schoolbooks used in the South were printed in the North. But +there were printing offices and binderies in the South. The children +continued to go to school, and the demand for schoolbooks soon became +urgent. To meet this demand, a few new schoolbooks were made and +copyrighted under the laws of the Confederacy; but others were reprints +of Northern books such as were in general use. The Methodist Book +Concern of Nashville, Tenn., reprinted the McGuffey Readers and supplied +the region south and west of Nashville until the Federal line swept past +that city. This action on the part of the Methodist Book Concern had the +effect of preserving the market for these readers, so that as soon as +any part of the South was strongly occupied by the Federal forces, +orders came to the Cincinnati publishers for fresh supplies of the +McGuffey Readers. This unexpected preservation of trade was of great +benefit to the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. + +[Wilson, Hinkle & Co.] + +In 1866 the special interests were closed out, and Mr. Lewis Van Antwerp +was admitted as a partner. On April 20, 1868, the firm of Sargent, +Wilson & Hinkle was dissolved. Mr. Sargent retired and the new firm, +Wilson, Hinkle & Co., bought all the assets. At this date Mr. Robert +Quincy Beer became a partner. Mr. Beer had long been a trusted and +successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department. +Under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in +departments. One partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts and +the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the +manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of +finding a market for the books. At the first organization of the firm of +Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Mr. Wilson was the literary manager as well as the +director of agency work. Mr. Hinkle was the manufacturer, having control +of the printing and binding, and Mr. Van Antwerp had charge of the +accounts. Mr. Beer was brought in to relieve Mr. Wilson in the direction +of agents. But Mr. Beer died suddenly, January 3, 1870, and the +surviving partners soon sought for another competent and experienced man +to take his place. + +[Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co.] + +Mr. Caleb S. Bragg had for years acted as the agent for a list of books +selected by him from the publications of two or three publishers and was +a partner in the firm of Ingham & Bragg, booksellers of Cleveland, Ohio. +Mr. Bragg sold his interest in the business in Cleveland and became a +partner in Wilson, Hinkle & Co., on April 20, 1871; and at the same +time Henry H. Vail and Robert F. Leaman, who had for some years been +employees, were each given an interest in the profits although not +admitted as full partners until three years later. Mr. Hinkle's eldest +son, A. Howard Hinkle, was brought up in the business, and the contract +for 1874 provided that he should be admitted as a partner, with his +father's interest and in his place, when that contract expired in 1877. +The contract of 1874 was preparatory to the voluntary retirement of both +Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hinkle. Consequently, on April 20, 1877, the firm of +Wilson, Hinkle & Co. was dissolved and the business was purchased by the +new firm. Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., of which Lewis Van Antwerp, Caleb S. +Bragg, Henry H. Vail, Robert F. Leaman, A. Howard Hinkle, and Harry T. +Ambrose were the partners. This firm continued unchanged until January +1, 1892, except for the untimely death of Mr. Leaman on December 12, +1887, and the retirement of Mr. Van Antwerp, January 2, 1890, just +previous to the sale of the copyrights and plates owned by the firm to +the American Book Company. + +This sale, completed May 15, 1890, did not then include the printing +office and bindery belonging to the firm. These were used by the firm of +Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. until January 1, 1892, in manufacturing books +ordered by the American Book Company. The American Book Company became, +on May 15, 1890, the owners, by purchase, of all the copyrights and +plates formerly owned by Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. The four active +partners in that firm, each of whom had then been in the schoolbook +business some twenty-five or thirty years, entered the employ of the +American Book Company. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hinkle remained in charge of +the Cincinnati business, Mr. Vail and Mr. Ambrose went to New York; the +former as editor in chief, the latter was at first treasurer, but later +became the president. + +[A Vigorous Firm] + +Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. issued many new and successful books and remade +many, including the McGuffey Readers and Speller, Ray's Arithmetics and +Harvey's Grammars. Most of these met with acceptance and this was so +full and universal throughout the central West as to give opportunity to +the competing agents of other houses to honor Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. +with such titles as "Octopus" and "Monopoly," names that were used +before "Trusts" were invented. They also called the firm in chosen +companies, "Van Anteup, Grabb & Co." These were mere playful or humorous +titles in recognition of the fact that this firm had, by its industry, +skill and energy, captured a larger share of the patronage of the people +than was agreeable to its competitors, and they, in despair of success +by fair means, resorted to the old-fashioned method of calling their +antagonist bad names. The best books, if pressed vigorously and +intelligently, were sure to win in the end, and the people who used the +books cared little what name appeared at the foot of the title-page. + +In all important book contests the firm that holds possession of the +field is much in the situation of the tallest man in a Kilkenny Fair. +His head sticks up above the crowd and therefore gets the most knocks. + +[Revisers and Editors] + +The latest revision of the McGuffey Readers, five books, was prepared +and published by the American Book Company in 1901, under the same +general direction as the revision of 1878; but the actual work was done +by Dr. James Baldwin who was the author of the Harper Readers and of +Baldwin's Readers. Even in this latest edition there are in the higher +books many selections that appeared in the earliest. Care was taken to +maintain the high moral tone that so clearly marked Dr. McGuffey's work +and to bring in from later literature some valuable new material to +displace that which had proved less interesting and less instructive. +These books acquired at once a large sale, and the sales of the previous +editions are still remunerative. + +Of the men connected with these successive owners of these copyrights it +seems proper to name those who directed the revisions which took place. +It is evident that none were undertaken without long and anxious +discussions as to the need of revision and of its nature. In such +decisions all partners would take part; but finally the actual direction +must come into the hands of some one partner whose experience and +qualification best fitted him for literary work. + +As has been seen, Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was for a few years, while the +business was still in its infancy, the sole owner and the manager of +every part of his business. Mr. Pinneo contributed aid from 1843 to +1856; but even before his work was finished Mr. O.J. Wilson's skill +became recognized and his mind was dominant in literary matters so long +as he remained a partner--until 1877. But in the meantime he had +carefully trained a successor in the editorial work, and from 1877 until +1907 the responsibility fell upon him. + +[New Competitors] + +The story of the revisions of 1843 and 1853 has been told. The books +were apparently in satisfactory use in a large part of the West; but +about 1874 the firm thought it wise to exploit a new series. At its +request Mr. Thomas W. Harvey prepared a series consisting of five books. +This series was published in 1875; but the experience of a few years +with the Harvey Readers showed that the people still preferred the +McGuffey Readers and after long discussion and hesitation it was agreed +that these should again be revised. This determination was hastened by +the publication of the Appleton Readers in 1877, and by the incoming of +a number of skilled agents pushing these books in the field that had for +many years been held so strongly for the McGuffey Readers as to baffle +the best endeavors of two or three Eastern publishers who had tested the +market. + +The Appleton Readers were prepared by Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, then +superintendent of the Cleveland schools; Mr. William T. Harris, then +superintendent of the St. Louis schools, and Professor Mark Bailey of +Yale College. They were largely aided in the lower readers by Mrs. +Rickoff. These books, with this array of scholarly and well-known +authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed +and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and +went into use in many places where the McGuffey Readers had served at +least two generations of pupils. The Harvey Readers stood no chance in +this competition. + +[The Revision of 1878] + +On April 9, 1878, the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. determined upon +making a new series of readers bearing the well-recognized title of +McGuffey's Eclectic Readers and distinguished as a "Revised Edition." +Some details of the plan as presented by the partner having literary +matters in charge were agreed to. The method of teaching in the first +reader was to be adjusted to a phonic-word method, and the gradation was +to be improved. The selections of the older books were to be retained +except where they could be improved. + +In accordance with this resolution the editor invited four persons to +aid, during the summer, in this work. These were Thomas W. Harvey of +Painesville, Ohio; Robert W. Stevenson, of Columbus; Edwin C. Hewett, of +Bloomington, Ill.; and Miss Amanda Funnelle, of Terre Haute, Indiana. +Each was a teacher of wide experience. + +To these assistants assembled in Cincinnati the plan of revision +was fully explained and the work was alloted. Miss Funnelle and Mr. +Stevenson took charge of the first three readers, Mr. Harvey and Dr. +Hewett of the three higher books. All were perfectly familiar with the +old books and in a few days substantial agreement was reached as to the +changes needed. By two months of constant and intelligent labor the +manuscripts assumed approximate form. The opening of the schools called +the assistants back to their homes and the editor of the firm shaped the +manuscripts for the text and procured the necessary illustrations. These +were made, regardless of cost, by the best artists and engravers to be +found in the country. When the plates were finished, the publishers +printed several hundred copies of each of the three smaller books and +distributed them as proofs to selected teachers in many states, asking +them for criticisms and suggestions. The answers made were of great +value. The First Reader was entirely re-written by the editor and the +plates of other readers were made more perfect. In this revision the +three lower books were almost entirely new. The Fourth was largely +new matter, while in the Fifth and Sixth such matter as could not be +improved from the entire field of literature, was retained. The Fifth +and Sixth readers furnished brief biographies of each author and +contained notes explanatory of the text. These were new features and +they proved valuable at that date. + +[Preparations for a Fight] + +As soon as these books were completed, large editions were printed and +they were most vigorously exploited not only to take the place of the +older edition of McGuffey Readers, but to supplant the newly introduced +Appleton Readers. + +This book-fight was a long and bitter one. Every device known to the +agency managers of the houses engaged was employed. Even exchanges of +books became common. It was war; and like every war was carried on for +victory and not for profit. It is perhaps fortunate that such contests +cannot in the nature of things last long. In the long run business +must show a profit or fail. Contrary to popular opinion, a book war is +not profitable in itself; but it is a form of competition that has +existed for fully a century. It presents no novelties even now. + +[Success Attained] + +The two chief combatants at length withdrew with one accord. Neither +firm could claim entire victory; but the McGuffey readers came through +with much the larger sales and these increased for years. By this +contest the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. won a reputation as +fighters that protected them in after years from ill-considered attacks +by its competitors. + +The revised edition of the McGuffey Readers, having no author's name on +the title page, designed and compiled under the direction of the +publishers, but retaining the moral excellences and literary qualities +that had been affixed to the series from its origin, attained the +largest sales that have as yet been accorded by the public to a single +series of books. Of the Sixth Reader, which must have the least sale, +over a million copies have been distributed, as shown by the edition +number. Of the First Reader more than eight million copies have been +used. + +[Other Competitors] + +At no time in the history of these readers have they been without +formidable competition. Pickett's Readers were published in Cincinnati +as early as 1832. Albert Pickett was at one time president of the +College of Teachers and his books were published by John W. Pickett, who +was probably his brother. Later some additional books were prepared by +John W. Pickett, M.D., LL.D., and published by U.P. James in 1841, and +by J. Earnst in 1845. These readers were vigorously pushed into the +market for several years, but in the end were unsuccessful. + +The Goodrich Readers published by Morton & Griswold in Louisville, Ky., +were perhaps the most constant competitors with the McGuffey Readers in +the early years throughout the states of the Mississippi Valley. These +were prepared by S.G. Goodrich, the author of the then popular "Peter +Parley Tales." The readers were originally published in Boston and +some copies bear the imprint of Otis, Broaders & Co. They were first +copyrighted in 1839 and were frequently revised. They finally became the +property of the Louisville publisher. Mr. Smith and Mr. Morton kept up a +most vigorous schoolbook war, especially in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky +in the years from 1845 to 1860. Cobb's Readers, copyrighted in 1845, +were published for some time in Cincinnati by B. Davenport. These were +once widely introduced but soon went out of use. + +It was very much the custom in those early days, before the railroads +made transportation quick and cheap for Eastern publishers to furnish a +set of plates to some enterprising bookseller in the West or to print an +edition for him with his imprint. + +Ebenezer Porter's Rhetorical Reader copyrighted in 1835 was sold largely +in the western market by William H. Moore, of Cincinnati, and in 1848 +the books bore his imprint. Thus there was ample competition for the +market even at this early date. The Pickett Readers, Cobb Readers, +Goodrich Readers, and even the excellent Rhetorical Reader of Ebenezer +Porter were all swept out of the schools by the superior qualities of +the McGuffey Readers and the persistent energies of their publishers. + +[Humorous Advertising] + +In these books the publishers found space for a little advertising of +their wares. In Pickett's Readers there is printed conspicuously at the +top of a page a warm commendation of Pickett's Readers, written in 1835 +by William H. McGuffey, Professor at Miami University, in which he +"considers them superior to any other works I have seen." That was +before he made his own readers. Mr. Smith responded by publishing a +strong commendation of one of his books signed by Mr. Albert Pickett. +Life is seldom devoid of the lesser amenities. + +The Willson Readers, published by the Harper Brothers, were vigorously +pushed into the schools of Ohio and Indiana about 1867. The first supply +was usually sold to the school authorities by agents who operated on the +commission plan. Thus the agents had an interest in the introduction +sales, but cared nothing about the continuance of sales in after years. +Booksellers, meanwhile, kept the McGuffey Readers in stock, and whenever +new readers were desired these were easily obtained. In a few years the +Willson Readers were out of the schools. Of course, there was no lack of +traveling agents and of circulars which freely criticised these Willson +Readers, which were constructed to teach not only reading but science. +After a short time the children wearied of reading about bugs and +beetles they had never seen and gladly welcomed the books that had a +single aim. + +[Enduring Qualities] + +In the eyes of a publisher a good schoolbook is one that can be readily +introduced and one that will stay when it is put in use. The officials +who adopt a schoolbook are not the users of the book. They are adults +long past the school age. Cases have been known when in important +adoptions the majority of the adopting board had not seen the inside of +a school room for twenty-five years. Of course such men are far behind +the schools. They are governed by their own past experience. When the +teachers are allowed to have a voice in the way of advice, the real +needs of the pupils obtain more consideration. But the final real judge +of the merits of a schoolbook is the boy or girl who uses it. If the +book is truly pedagogical, adjusted in every part to the average mental +development of the child, it becomes a valuable tool in the school room. +If on the other hand it is a mere collection of novelties such as catch +the eye of inexpert judges and impress merely the imagination, the books +may be introduced; but they won't stay. + +[Child Nature] + +The McGuffey Readers had staying qualities. Teachers often became so +familiar with their contents that they needed no book in their hands +to correct the work, but to each child the contents of the book were +new and fresh. It is the fashion of the present day to exalt the new +at the expense of the old. But the child of today is very much such +as Socrates and Plato studied in Greece. The development of the human +mind may be more generally understood than it was then; but it may be +doubted whether the mass of teachers are today wiser in the results of +child-study than were the philosophers of ancient days. Child nature +remains the same. At a given stage in his upward progress, he is +interested in much the same things. He is led to think for himself +in much the same way, and the whole end and aim of education is +to lead toward self activity. The readers that deal simply with +facts--information readers--may lodge in the minds of children some +scraps of encyclopedic information which may in future life become +useful. But the readers that rouse the moral sentiments, that touch the +imagination, that elevate and establish character by selections chosen +from the wisest writers in English in all the centuries that have passed +since our language assumed a comparatively fixed literary form, have a +much more valuable function to perform. Character is more valuable than +knowledge and a taste for pure and ennobling literature is a safeguard +for the young that cannot be safely ignored. + +The success of the McGuffey Readers was due primarily to their +adaptation to the general demand of the schools and secondarily to the +energy and skill of their publishers. + +[Moral Teaching] + +The books in their first form were strongly religious in their teaching +without being denominational. If a selection taught a moral lesson this +was stated in formal words at the close. The pill was not sugared. Thus +at the close of a lesson narrating the results of disobedience, the +three little girls assembled and "they were talking how happy it made +them to keep the Fifth Commandment." There was in the books much direct +teaching of moral principles, with "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." +In the later revisions this gradually disappeared. The moral teaching +was less direct but more effective. The pupil was left to make his own +deduction and the formal "haec fabula docet" was omitted. The author +and the publishers were fully justified in their firm belief that the +American people are a moral people and that they have a strong desire +that their children be taught to become brave, patriotic, honest, +self-reliant, temperate, and virtuous citizens. + +In some of these books the retail price is printed. In 1844 the retail +price of the First Reader was twelve and a half cents. It contained 108 +pages. In the same year, the Second Reader of 216 pages was priced at 25 +cents. The Fourth Reader cost 75 cents, and contained 336 pages. + +These prices were in a market when the day's wage of a laboring man was +only fifty cents. Relatively to the cost of other articles, schoolbooks +were not nearly so cheap as they are now. + +[Copyright Files] + +When Truman & Smith began publishing, the copyright law required the +deposit of titles and copies of the several books in the office of +the Clerk of the District Court. At first such deposits were made in +Columbus, Ohio, but later in Cincinnati. When Congress organized the +Copyright Bureau in Washington, the several clerks were required to send +to the Library of Congress all the sample copies deposited; but these +had been carelessly kept and many were lost. A duplicate set was for +years required to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. +These were also passed into the custody of the Librarian of Congress; +but this collection had been carelessly preserved and the files of the +McGuffey Readers at Washington are now quite defective for the earliest +issues. The Library seems to have no copy of any number of the first +edition except possibly the Second and Fourth. The copy of the Second +was deposited December 12, 1836. The Fourth bears date of July, 1837. +All the other early copies found in that library are of later dates and +are "Revised and Improved." + +[Early Engravings] + +It may be well to indicate in a general way the progress that has been +made in illustrating schoolbooks. The first editions of the McGuffey +Readers as issued in 1836 and 1837 did not contain a single original +engraving. All seem to have been copied from English books. The nice +little boys wear round-about jackets with wide, white ruffled collars +at the neck. The proper little girls have scoop bonnets and conspicuous +pantalets. Most of the men wear knee breeches. The houses shown have the +thatched roofs of English cottages. In one picture a boy has a regular +cricket bat. Other schoolbooks of that date show similar appropriations +of English engravings; but even at that time there were a few wood +engravers in America. When the second general revision was made in 1843 +some original illustrations appeared and in the edition of 1853 notice +was given on the title page that the engravings were copyright property +that must not be used by others. + +As pictures are closely studied by children, some of the users of these +early books may remember the cut showing vividly the dangers of "whale +catching." Two boats are thrown high in the air by one sweep of the +animal's tail and one seaman is shown head downward still in the boat. +Another represented Jonah being cast overboard from the ship toward the +whale below whose mouth is manifestly large enough to accommodate Jonah. + +But the engravings in this edition of 1853 had no considerable artistic +quality and they were very coarsely engraved. In 1863 came the first +employment of a genuine artist in wood engraving. This was Mr. E.J. +Whitney who had made a reputation by work done for New York publishers. +His engravings were to take the place of some then in the books and +their sizes were precisely determined. The drawings were most carefully +made by Mr. Herrick with pencil on the whitened boxwood blocks, and sent +to the publisher for examination. These, when approved, were returned to +the engraver who followed precisely the lines of the drawing. When the +engraving was finished, a carefully rubbed proof on India paper was sent +to the publisher. If this was satisfactory, the block was delivered +and from it an electrotype was made for printing. The block itself was +preserved as an original. Mr. Whitney's work was thoroughly good. He +was a wood engraver of the old school. + +[New Processes] + +When the revision of 1878 was decided on, the publishers of the +McGuffey Readers realized that much improvement must be made in the +illustrations. About this time the magazines were placing great stress +upon pictorial work and a new school of engravers came into existence. +The wood engravers had already departed from the painful reproduction of +each line of a pencil drawing and had become skilled in representing +tints of light and shade if placed on the whitened block with a brush. +This gave greater freedom of interpretation to the engraver. The next +step was to have the drawing made large and reproduced on the block by +photography. By this method most of the engravings were made for the +edition of 1878. Care was taken to employ artists of reputation and the +engravings were usually signed by the artist and by the engraver. + +Before the last edition came out in 1901, photo-engraving had nearly +supplanted wood engraving. By this process the artist's drawing with +the brush is reproduced in fine tints which, when well engraved and +carefully printed, produce effective results. Pen and ink drawings are +also reproduced in exact facsimile. By this process the hand work of +the engraver is nearly eliminated. The blocks are sometimes retouched +to produce effects not attained by the process work. The skill of the +artist in making the drawing thus becomes all important. + +[Later Inventions] + +The introduction of color work in the schoolbooks intended for young +children resulted from the invention of the three-color plates. From +nature, or from a colored painting, three photographs are taken--one +excluding all but the yellow rays of light, one for the red rays, and +one for the blue. From these photographs three tint blocks are made +which to the eye in many cases look exactly alike. From one of these +an impression is made with yellow ink, exactly over this the red plate +prints with red ink and this is followed by an impression from the blue +plate. If the effects of the color screens of the camera are exactly +reproduced by the printer's inks and with exactly the right amount of +ink, the result is wonderfully satisfactory. + +What are the qualities in these McGuffey Eclectic Readers that won for +them through three-quarters of a century such wide and constant use? + +[Character Building] + +The best answer to this question may be drawn from the many newspaper +articles which appeared in Western and Southern papers after the death +of one of the authors. There is general recognition on the part of the +writers of these articles that while the books served well their purpose +of teaching the art of reading, their greatest value consisted in the +choice of masterpieces in literature which by their contents taught +morality, and patriotism and by their beauty served as a gateway to pure +literature. One editor, who used these books in his school career, said, +"Thousands of men and women owe their wholesome views of life, as well +as whatever success they may have attained to the wholesome maxims and +precepts found on every page of these valuable books. The seed they +scattered has yielded a million-fold. All honor to the name and memory +of this excellent and useful man." + +[What Constitutes Real Value] + +One of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he +might write their songs. Among a people devoid of books the folk-songs +are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child. They influence his +whole life. The modern schoolbooks--particularly the readers--furnish +the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in every +community. The McGuffey Readers, from their own peculiar inherent +qualities, retained their hold upon the schools until in some states +laws were passed which in their operation caused schoolbooks to be +regarded as commodities estimated almost solely upon the cost of paper, +printing and binding. The value of these material things can easily be +ascertained and compared; but unless the print carries the lessons that +help to form a life the paper is wasted and the pupil's most valuable +time is misspent. The teaching power of a schoolbook cannot be weighed +in the grocer's scales nor measured with a pint cup. In the field open +to free and constant competition, the books best suited to the wants of +each community will in the end succeed. It was under such conditions +that the McGuffey Readers won and held their place in the schools. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A History of the McGuffey Readers, by Henry H. 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