PREFACE This series of books is the result of earnest efforts to present to boys and girls the best literature in such a way that it will appeal to their imagination, interest them, and lead them to read for information, enjoyment and inspiration. It is reading outside of school hours that really fixes the taste of a young person, and if he is left wholly to his own resources, nothing is more natural than that he should read merely for his present enjoyment and for the excitement that the short-lived, modern stories furnish so abundantly. A youthful reader loves to learn, and it is necessary merely to suggest new lines of interest to lead him to follow them joyfully. In his work, the writer has drawn upon the experience of long years in the schoolroom, in institutes for teachers, and upon the frank criticisms of boys and girls who have seen the work at different times. The writer has had in all departments the valuable assistance of Miss Anna McCaleb, who has contributed not only the selections which bear her name, but also many other articles, annotations, comments and studies. The writer would acknowledge here his obligations to all persons who have assisted him, but so numerous have they been that it is impossible to mention them, so he must be content to express in this general way his deep sense of indebtedness to all. If the critical reader notices the absence of any of his favorite classics, or the omission of commendable selections from recent writings, he must remember that the object here is to create an interest, not to satisfy it, and that only old and tried literature is basic. Those readers who wish for a classification of the selections on the basis of their content will find what they desire in the Index in the tenth volume. Chicago, December, 1909. C. H. S. PREFACE TO THE NEW (FIFTEENTH) EDITION The favor with which Journeys Through Bookland has been received has more than justified the faith of the author in the conception and plan of the work and also in the selections from literature embodied in it. In many thousands of homes Journeys has proved its worth both to children and to their parents. The increasing demand for it has made it necessary to make new plates for the entire work. Only slight changes in the text have been made, but the publishers have taken advantage of the opportunity to give the work a setting which shall express their feeling of its value, and which shall enable it even more adequately to serve the public -parents and their children. The preparation of this edition has been under the direction of Karl H. Goodwin, who brought to the work the experience of many years in pub lishing books for young people. In the layout of the earlier volumes and in matters of special design he has had the benefit of the advice and assistance of Will H. Howell, specialist in artistic book design, also of R. Fayerweather Babcock, whose drawings and helpful criticisms have added much to the success of the undertaking. To these and to all others who have contributed in any way, thanks are due, both for the talent placed at our disposal, and for the sympathetic and helpful spirit manifested at all times. That Journeys Through Bookland may merit and continue to receive the approval of parents, and to bring helpfulness and joy into their lives and the lives of their children is the earnest hope of the author. June, 1922. C. H. S. PUBLISHERS' NOTE In these volumes the selections from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, John Hay, Alice Cary, Phoebe Cary, Henry D. Thoreau, Lucy Larcom and John G. Saxe, are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of the works of these authors. The selection from Prescott's Conquest of Mexico appearing in the eighth volume is used by permission of J. B. Lippincott Company, the authorized publishers of the work. Acknowledgment of other copyright material is made on the pages on which the selections appear. |
