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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

To relate, by way of leading up to this little book, all the previous
achievements of its author would--without disrespect to the greater or
the less--have somewhat the appearance of putting a very big cart in
front of a pony. But no idea could be more mistaken than that which
induces people to believe a small book the easiest to write. Easy
reading is hard writing; and a thoroughly good small book stands for so
much more than the mere process of putting it on paper, that its value
is not at all to be judged by its bulk. The offhand word of a man full
of knowledge is worth a great deal more than the carefully prepared
utterance of a person who having spoken once has nothing more to say. In
our introduction to this work, therefore, we propose to reverse the
common process of tracing the author's development upwards, and instead,
after stating the mere events of Mr. Fiske's life, to begin with "The
War of Independence" and to follow his work backwards, attempting very
briefly to show how each undertaking was built naturally upon something
before it, and that the original basis of the structure was uncommonly
broad and strong.

John Fiske was born in Hartford, Conn., 30th March, 1842, and spent
most of his life, before entering Harvard as a sophomore in 1860, with
his grandmother's family in Middletown, Conn. Two years after taking his
degree at Harvard, in 1863, he was graduated from the Harvard Law
School, but he cared so much more for writing than for the law that his
attempt to practice it in Boston was soon abandoned. In 1861 he made his
first important contribution to a magazine, and ever since has done much
work of the same sort. He has served Harvard College, as University
lecturer on philosophy, 1869-71, in 1870 as instructor in history, and
from 1872 to 1879 as assistant librarian. Since resigning from that
office he has been for two terms of six years each a member of the board
of overseers. In 1881 he began lecturing annually at Washington
University, St. Louis, on American history, and in 1884 was made a
professor of the institution. Since 1871 he has devoted much time to
lecturing at large. He has been heard in most of the principal cities of
America, and abroad, in London and Edinburgh. All this time his home has
been in Cambridge, Mass.

So much for the simple outward circumstances of Mr. Fiske's life.
Turning to his