, 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 par