DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ✓ PREFACE. THE design of this book is to give the beginner in the study of literature a correct knowledge of the prominent British and American authors, with their writings, and also to present the subject in such a way as to create a love for literature itself, in order that the pursuit of this study may become a pleasure rather than a task. The biographies here given are not a mere collection of dates, but they are made to embrace also such incidents and important facts in the lives of the various authors as seem best designed to attract the attention of the student and make the biography interesting and at the same time easy to be remembered. Much of the indifference which has characterized students of literature may be attributed to the fact that too often the study of literature has been a mere study of chronology, in which the most uninteresting facts as to the date of births and deaths have been presented as the essentials of the subject. In the preparation of this work the author has aimed to present the life and work of the chief writers in such a way as will lead the student to pursue a more extended course of reading on the subject. Brief extracts are given in connection with each author, in order that the learner may associate author and thought. This same plan is pursued in treating briefly of the contemporaneous writers of the different ages or periods. Wherever it has been found possible to link the author with some brilliant, wise or beautiful thought that is found in his writings, the two have been associated. Only a limited number of authors have been selected, and these the most noteworthy, because it is believed that the student should first acquaint himself with the life and the works of those authors who are recognized on all hands as the great writers of the language. Attention is directed to the Gems of Thought presented in the latter part of the book, as well as to the extracts in connection with the biographies. Much time and attention have been given to the selection of these, and care has been taken to insert such only as are likely to awaken and cultivate a love for the beautiful and the good in both thought and expression. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, LOCK HAVEN, PA. September 1, 1883. H. B. S. |