Project Gutenberg's A History of the McGuffey Readers, by Henry H. Vail

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Title: A History of the McGuffey Readers

Author: Henry H. Vail

Release Date: April 7, 2005 [EBook #15577]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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 schoo