Diffteffnt tIM00ton

book business. Valuable information has also been
furnished by descendants of the McGuffey family,
and by the educational institutions with which each
of the authors of the readers was connected.
  For half a century the present writer has had per-
sonal knowledge of the readers.   At first, as a
teacher, using them daily in the class room; but
soon, as an editor, directing the literary work of the
publishers and owners. It therefore falls to him
to narrate a story "quorum pars minima fui."
For more than seventy years the McGuffey Readers
have held high rank as text-books for use in the
elementary schools, especially throughout the West
and South. But during this time these books have
been revised five times and adjusted to the changed
conditions in the schools. In each one of these re-
visions the marked characteristics of the original
series have been most scrupulously retained, and the
continued success of the series is doubtless owing to
this fact. There has been a continuity of spirit.
  The First and Second Readers were first published
in 1836. In 1837 the Third and Fourth Readers
were printed. For reasons elsewhere explained these
books were "improved and enlarged" in 1838. In
1841 a higher reader was added to the series which
was then named McGuffey's Rhetorical Guide. In
the years 1843 and 1844 the four books then con-
stituting the series were thoroughly remodeled and
on the title pages were placed the words "Newly
Revised" and the Rhetorical Guide was annexed as
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