Mr. Alexander Hamilton McGuffey was born August 13, 1816, in Trumbull County, Ohio. He was sixteen years younger than his brother, William, and when only ten years of age was placed under charge of his brother at Oxford, Ohio. There he studied Hebrew before he had any knowledge of the grammar of his mother tongue. He was a brilliant student, and he graduated from Miami University at the age of sixteen. Soon after graduation he was appointed Professor of Belles Lettres at Woodward College. In this field of labor his knowledge of English literature was broadened and he acquired a love for the classic English writers that lasted through life. But Mr. McGuffey determined to become a lawyer and, while still teaching English literature in Woodward College, he read law. He was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached his twenty-first year, and became a noted and wise counsellor. His labor for his clients was in keeping them out of the courts by clearly expressed contracts and prudent action. He was seldom engaged in jury trials; but was expert in cases involving contracts and wills. In such suits his knowledge of the principles of law and his power of close reasoning were valuable. He was often placed in positions of trust, and was for more than fifty years the watchful guardian of the interests of the Cincinnati College.
He prepared the manuscript of the Rhetorical Guide after the close of his labor as a teacher. The work probably occupied his leisure time in a law office before he acquired remunerative practice in his profession.
The contract between Mr. A.H. McGuffey and W.B. Smith, dated September 30, 1841, provided for the preparation within eighteen months, of the manuscript of a book to be called McGuffey's Rhetorical Reader, or by any other appropriate name which Mr. Smith might select. It was to contain not less than three hundred and twenty-four duodecimo pages nor more than four hundred and eighty. Mr. Smith paid five hundred dollars for it, in three notes payable in three, twelve, and eighteen months after the delivery of the manuscript. The book was issued in 1844 as McGuffey's Rhetorical Guide. Its material, revised by its author, later became, in modified form, the Fifth Reader in the five-book series, and again much of the same material was used in the Sixth Reader published first in 1855.
Mr. A.H. McGuffey died at his home on Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, on June 3, 1896. He was twice married. His first wife, married in 1839, was Miss Elizabeth M. Drake, daughter of the eminent Dr. Daniel Drake. After her death he married Miss Caroline V. Rich of Boston. He had a large family. A son, Charles D. McGuffey. Esq., lives at Chattanooga, Tenn.
Mr. A.H. McGuffey was a noteworthy figure in any assemblage of men. He was tall, slender and erect. His manner was urbane and reserved. He served on many charitable and educational boards and was attentive to his trusts. He was an active member of the Episcopalian Church, being many years a warden in his parish, and frequently a delegate to the Diocesan Convention, where he was a recognized authority on Ecclesiastical Law.
In a life of nearly eighty years in which he was active in many educational and beneficent enterprises his early work in the preparation of the Rhetorical Guide probably exercised the widest, the best, and the most enduring influence. Many of the newspapers in all parts of the country published notices of his death, recognizing in kindly terms the service that had been rendered the writers by the schoolbook of which he was the author.
THE PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS.
Since the McGuffey Readers became at an early day the absolute property of their publishers, they became responsible for all subsequent revisions and corrections of the books.
The firm of Truman & Smith was organized about 1834 by William B. Truman and Winthrop B. Smith. Both had had some experience in the business of selling books. It is highly probable that this firm became for a short time the Western agent for some schoolbooks made in the East. But Mr. Smith soon perceived a distinct demand for a series adapted to the Western market and supplied near at hand. He had the courage to follow his convictions.
Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was born in Stamford, Conn., September 28, 1808, the son of Anthony and Rebecca (Clarke) Smith. He was, in his youth, an employee in a book-house in New Haven. At the age of eighteen he went to Cincinnati, declaring that he would not return to his home until he was independent. He labored there fourteen years before he returned, not rich, but established in an independent career. He often declared that until 1840, he was "insolvent, but no one knew it."
Before entering business, Mr. Smith received a sound common school education. This, grounded on a nature well endowed with common sense, great energy, and strong determination, qualified him for success in business. He became a man of great originality, clear-headed and far-sighted. Toward his employees he was just, but exacting. He was a good judge of the character and qualities of other men, and was thus able to bring to his aid competent assistants who were loyal and effective.
Mr. Smith married in Cincinnati on November 4th, 1834, Mary Sargent. He died in Philadelphia, December 5th, 1885, in his 78th year. Of his family, one son is a banker in Philadelphia.
The firm of Truman & Smith published several miscellaneous books, mostly reprints of standard works likely to have a steady sale. Their first venture in a copyrighted book was "The Child's Bible with Plates; by a lady of Cincinnati," which was entered on June 2, 1834. On June 21st of the same year the firm entered the titles of three books: "Mason's Sacred Harp," a collection of church music by Lowell Mason of Boston, and Timothy B. Mason of Cincinnati; "Introduction to Ray's Eclectic Arithmetic," by Dr. Joseph Ray; and "English Grammar on the Productive System," by Roswell C. Smith. Of these four books the arithmetic was issued on July 4, 1834. It was the firm's first schoolbook. In revised and enlarged form it later became the first book in the successful series of "Ray's Arithmetics."
But even in those early days, books would not sell themselves unless their qualities were made known to the public. Agents had to be employed—and at first Mr. Smith was his own best agent. There were expenses for travel and for sample books, for advertising, as well as for printing and binding.
The Truman and Smith team did not always pull together. Mr. Truman was not versed in the schoolbook business. Mr. Smith was.
It is said that Mr. Smith went early one morning to their humble shop on the second floor of No. 150 Main street, and made two piles of sample books. In one he put all the miscellaneous publications of the firm, big and little—the Child's Bible and Sacred Harp among them—and on top of the pile placed all the cash the firm possessed; in the other, were half a dozen small text books, including the four McGuffey Readers. When Mr. Truman arrived, Mr. Smith expressed the desire to dissolve the partnership, showed the two piles and offered Mr. Truman his choice. He pounced on the cash and the larger pile and left the insignificant schoolbooks for Mr. Smith, who thereupon became the sole owner of McGuffey's Readers.
This separation of the partnership took place in 1841 and although there is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the incident as handed down by tradition.
Mr. Truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have come in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant. Sooner or later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some elementary instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright law through action taken in court. Messrs. Truman & Smith took a lesson in 1838.
On October 1st of that year Benjamin F. Copeland and Samuel Worcester brought suit in the court of the United States against Truman & Smith and William H. McGuffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that material had been copied from Worcester's Second, Third, and Fourth Readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been pirated.
A temporary injunction was issued December 25, 1838; but before that date the McGuffey Readers had been carefully compared with the Worcester Readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the Worcester Readers. As these McGuffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to set up new matter than to reset the old. On the title page of each book appeared the words, "Revised and Improved Edition," and two pages in explanation and defense were inserted. In these the publishers stated that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in New England, felt themselves aggrieved that the McGuffey books contained a portion of matter similar to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression of the McGuffey books and in the meantime had provided supplies of the Worcester books to meet the demand of the West.
No objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds; but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "The public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." They stated that to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would add to the value of the Eclectic Readers. Throughout this preface, after stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the support of Western enterprise.
Although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison of the early edition of the Second Reader with the "Revised and Improved Edition" shows that Mr. Smith took out seventeen selections and inserted in their places new matter. To an unprejudiced examiner it appears that the new matter was better than the old. The old marked copy of Worcester's Second Reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten pieces that were used in both books. It thus appears that the publisher took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them unassailable under the copyright law. In three months between the bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, Mr. Smith had made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction practically void.
The court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been inflicted on the owners of the Worcester Readers. But Mr. Smith was an attendant in church and doubtless had heard Dr. Beecher read, "Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing."
When the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. There was no further contest about the plan of the two books.
The Worcester Readers had a short and inconspicuous life. When this suit was brought, their publishers were Richardson, Lord and Holbrook of Boston. In 1836 Charles J. Hendee published them, and in 1854 they appeared with the name of Jenks, Hickling & Swan of Boston. These several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary Book Trust sixty years ago.
Dr. McGuffey undoubtedly inserted these selections innocent of any wrong intent and supposed them to be in common use.
As early as 1848 the success of the Eclectic Readers was sufficient to excite imitation and in the First Reader of that year Mr. Smith printed four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by "Newman's Southern Eclectic Readers."
In the first century after the settlement of this country the New England Primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of the McGuffey Readers. In that case, the settlers were widely removed from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs. The Primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of the people. It served as a first book in reading and was followed by the Bible. This Primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to supply the local demand. The excessive cost of transportation was thus avoided.
Somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and long-continued demands for Webster's Spelling Book, which was copyrighted. This book had the support of the authority of Webster's Dictionary—an original American work; and it soon became a staple article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store. It supplanted the New England Primer and became the first book in the hands of every pupil. Less marked in its religious instruction, the speller spread through the South and into regions where the people were not trained in the Puritan doctrines. The wonderful sales of Webster's Spelling Book remained for many years after the War; but have now dropped to insignificance. It is not probable that other books will under present conditions repeat the history of these books. There is now no wide region of fertile country rapidly filling with settlers and separated from their former sources of supply by great distance and by mountain ranges unprovided with passable roads. Even the more newly settled regions of the country are reached by railroads and the parts early settled are covered by a network of railroads, of telegraph and telephone wires which bring the consumer and the producer near together.
In the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has taken the place of hand work. When W.B. Smith carried on his business in the second story over a small shop on Main street, Cincinnati, nearly every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. The tools employed were of the simplest character. Now a book-factory is filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. New machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the manufacture. Thus a very large investment of capital is now required to set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and with perfect finish in every part. Books are seldom manufactured in places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of schoolbooks make the books which they sell. They contract for them with printers and binders.
The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression and endure more wear.
In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000 of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the saying, "There is nothing like leather."
It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience showed were needed; but, about 1843, he employed Dr. Timothy Stone Pinneo to act under his direction in literary matters.
Dr. Pinneo was the eldest son of the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, an early graduate of Dartmouth College, who was for more than half a century pastor of the First Congregational Church in Milford, Conn. Dr. Pinneo was born at Milford in February, 1804. His mother was a woman of culture, Mary, only daughter of the Rev. Timothy Stone of Lebanon, Conn., a graduate of Yale College. Dr. Pinneo graduated at Yale in the class of 1824. A severe illness in the winter after his graduation made it necessary for him to spend his winters in the South until his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine. He taught for a time in the Charlotte Hall Institute, Maryland, and then removed to Ohio. He acted one year as professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Marietta College. He studied medicine in Cincinnati and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio Medical College in 1843. On June 1, 1848, he married Jeanette Linsley, daughter of Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley, at one time president of Marietta College. Dr. Pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in Cincinnati. In 1862 he went to Greenwich, Conn., where he was occupied in literary work and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. In 1885, after his wife's death, he removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he died August 2, 1893. Two daughters and a son survived him. Dr. Pinneo contributed materially to the revisions of McGuffey's Readers made in 1843 and in 1853; but both these revisions passed through the hands of Dr. McGuffey, then at the University of Virginia, and were approved by him. It does not appear that Dr. Pinneo exercised any personal authority over the readers. He was employed, for moderate amounts, 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.
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 partners, Edward Sargent and Daniel Bartow Sargent, his wife's brothers, and the firm name became W.B. Smith & Co.
While books could be manufactured in the West even in the early years cheaper than they could be delivered in the West from the better organized establishments in the older cities of the East, it was not possible to deliver books in New York from Cincinnati so cheaply as the books could be made in the East. The cost of transportation constituted a very considerable element in the price of schoolbooks. Mr. Smith therefore made an arrangement with Clark, Austin & Smith, of New York, to become the Eastern publishers of the McGuffey Readers and other books, and a duplicate set of plates was sent to New York. From these plates, editions of the readers were manufactured, largely at Claremont, N.H., bearing on the title page the imprint of Clark, Austin & Smith, New York.
The Smith of this firm was Cornelius Smith, a brother of Winthrop B. Smith. Cornelius Smith withdrew from this firm before 1861. In that year the war broke out, and this New York firm, which as booksellers and stationers had a large trade in the South, lost not only their custom in that section, but were unable to collect large amounts due them for goods. Clark, Austin, Maynard & Co. failed and Mr. W.B. Smith bought, in 1862, all their assets for the sum of $6,000, placed Mr. W.B. Thalheimer in charge of the business and resumed control of the duplicate plates of the McGuffey Readers.
From the location of Cincinnati on the Ohio river, then affording the cheapest means of distributing goods to all parts of the South, Mr. Smith had obtained, before 1860, a very considerable part of the schoolbook trade in the Southern states of the Mississippi Valley. The opening of the Civil War swept this trade away and left on the books of the firm in Cincinnati many accounts not then collectible. The continuance of the war and the constant fluctuations in the price of materials, due to the use of paper money, joined to advancing age and ill health, all combined to lead Mr. Smith to withdraw from business.
A new firm, Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, was organized April 20, 1863, with Edward Sargent, Obed J. Wilson and Anthony H. Hinkle as general partners, and with W.B. Smith and D.B. Sargent as special partners.
These active partners had long been in this business, Mr. Sargent as a partner and bookkeeper, Mr. Wilson as literary editor of skill and judgment and also a forceful manager of agents, Mr. Hinkle as a thoroughly skilled binder and manufacturer.
Winthrop B. Smith and D.B. Sargent remained as special partners, furnishing capital but taking no part in the direction of the business.
The Confederate States, at the opening of the War, had within their limits no publisher of schoolbooks which had extensive sales. Nearly all of the schoolbooks used in the South were printed in the North. But there were printing offices and binderies in the South. The children continued to go to school, and the demand for schoolbooks soon became urgent. To meet this demand, a few new schoolbooks were made and copyrighted under the laws of the Confederacy; but others were reprints of Northern books such as were in general use. The Methodist Book Concern of Nashville, Tenn., reprinted the McGuffey Readers and supplied the region south and west of Nashville until the Federal line swept past that city. This action on the part of the Methodist Book Concern had the effect of preserving the market for these readers, so that as soon as any part of the South was strongly occupied by the Federal forces, orders came to the Cincinnati publishers for fresh supplies of the McGuffey Readers. This unexpected preservation of trade was of great benefit to the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle.
In 1866 the special interests were closed out, and Mr. Lewis Van Antwerp was admitted as a partner. On April 20, 1868, the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle was dissolved. Mr. Sargent retired and the new firm, Wilson, Hinkle & Co., bought all the assets. At this date Mr. Robert Quincy Beer became a partner. Mr. Beer had long been a trusted and successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department. Under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in departments. One partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts and the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of finding a market for the books. At the first organization of the firm of Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Mr. Wilson was the literary manager as well as the director of agency work. Mr. Hinkle was the manufacturer, having control of the printing and binding, and Mr. Van Antwerp had charge of the accounts. Mr. Beer was brought in to relieve Mr. Wilson in the direction of agents. But Mr. Beer died suddenly, January 3, 1870, and the surviving partners soon sought for another competent and experienced man to take his place.
Mr. Caleb S. Bragg had for years acted as the agent for a list of books selected by him from the publications of two or three publishers and was a partner in the firm of Ingham & Bragg, booksellers of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Bragg sold his interest in the business in Cleveland and became a partner in Wilson, Hinkle & Co., on April 20, 1871; and at the same time Henry H. Vail and Robert F. Leaman, who had for some years been employees, were each given an interest in the profits although not admitted as full partners until three years later. Mr. Hinkle's eldest son, A. Howard Hinkle, was brought up in the business, and the contract for 1874 provided that he should be admitted as a partner, with his father's interest and in his place, when that contract expired in 1877. The contract of 1874 was preparatory to the voluntary retirement of both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hinkle. Consequently, on April 20, 1877, the firm of Wilson, Hinkle & Co. was dissolved and the business was purchased by the new firm. Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., of which Lewis Van Antwerp, Caleb S. Bragg, Henry H. Vail, Robert F. Leaman, A. Howard Hinkle, and Harry T. Ambrose were the partners. This firm continued unchanged until January 1, 1892, except for the untimely death of Mr. Leaman on December 12, 1887, and the retirement of Mr. Van Antwerp, January 2, 1890, just previous to the sale of the copyrights and plates owned by the firm to the American Book Company.
This sale, completed May 15, 1890, did not then include the printing office and bindery belonging to the firm. These were used by the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. until January 1, 1892, in manufacturing books ordered by the American Book Company. The American Book Company became, on May 15, 1890, the owners, by purchase, of all the copyrights and plates formerly owned by Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. The four active partners in that firm, each of whom had then been in the schoolbook business some twenty-five or thirty years, entered the employ of the American Book Company. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hinkle remained in charge of the Cincinnati business, Mr. Vail and Mr. Ambrose went to New York; the former as editor in chief, the latter was at first treasurer, but later became the president.
Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. issued many new and successful books and remade many, including the McGuffey Readers and Speller, Ray's Arithmetics and Harvey's Grammars. Most of these met with acceptance and this was so full and universal throughout the central West as to give opportunity to the competing agents of other houses to honor Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. with such titles as "Octopus" and "Monopoly," names that were used before "Trusts" were invented. They also called the firm in chosen companies, "Van Anteup, Grabb & Co." These were mere playful or humorous titles in recognition of the fact that this firm had, by its industry, skill and energy, captured a larger share of the patronage of the people than was agreeable to its competitors, and they, in despair of success by fair means, resorted to the old-fashioned method of calling their antagonist bad names. The best books, if pressed vigorously and intelligently, were sure to win in the end, and the people who used the books cared little what name appeared at the foot of the title-page.
In all important book contests the firm that holds possession of the field is much in the situation of the tallest man in a Kilkenny Fair. His head sticks up above the crowd and therefore gets the most knocks.
The latest revision of the McGuffey Readers, five books, was prepared and published by the American Book Company in 1901, under the same general direction as the revision of 1878; but the actual work was done by Dr. James Baldwin who was the author of the Harper Readers and of Baldwin's Readers. Even in this latest edition there are in the higher books many selections that appeared in the earliest. Care was taken to maintain the high moral tone that so clearly marked Dr. McGuffey's work and to bring in from later literature some valuable new material to displace that which had proved less interesting and less instructive. These books acquired at once a large sale, and the sales of the previous editions are still remunerative.
Of the men connected with these successive owners of these copyrights it seems proper to name those who directed the revisions which took place. It is evident that none were undertaken without long and anxious discussions as to the need of revision and of its nature. In such decisions all partners would take part; but finally the actual direction must come into the hands of some one partner whose experience and qualification best fitted him for literary work.
As has been seen, Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was for a few years, while the business was still in its infancy, the sole owner and the manager of every part of his business. Mr. Pinneo contributed aid from 1843 to 1856; but even before his work was finished Mr. O.J. Wilson's skill became recognized and his mind was dominant in literary matters so long as he remained a partner—until 1877. But in the meantime he had carefully trained a successor in the editorial work, and from 1877 until 1907 the responsibility fell upon him.
The story of the revisions of 1843 and 1853 has been told. The books were apparently in satisfactory use in a large part of the West; but about 1874 the firm thought it wise to exploit a new series. At its request Mr. Thomas W. Harvey prepared a series consisting of five books. This series was published in 1875; but the experience of a few years with the Harvey Readers showed that the people still preferred the McGuffey Readers and after long discussion and hesitation it was agreed that these should again be revised. This determination was hastened by the publication of the Appleton Readers in 1877, and by the incoming of a number of skilled agents pushing these books in the field that had for many years been held so strongly for the McGuffey Readers as to baffle the best endeavors of two or three Eastern publishers who had tested the market.
The Appleton Readers were prepared by Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, then superintendent of the Cleveland schools; Mr. William T. Harris, then superintendent of the St. Louis schools, and Professor Mark Bailey of Yale College. They were largely aided in the lower readers by Mrs. Rickoff. These books, with this array of scholarly and well-known authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and went into use in many places where the McGuffey Readers had served at least two generations of pupils. The Harvey Readers stood no chance in this competition.
On April 9, 1878, the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. determined upon making a new series of readers bearing the well-recognized title of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers and distinguished as a "Revised Edition." Some details of the plan as presented by the partner having literary matters in charge were agreed to. The method of teaching in the first reader was to be adjusted to a phonic-word method, and the gradation was to be improved. The selections of the older books were to be retained except where they could be improved.
In accordance with this resolution the editor invited four persons to aid, during the summer, in this work. These were Thomas W. Harvey of Painesville, Ohio; Robert W. Stevenson, of Columbus; Edwin C. Hewett, of Bloomington, Ill.; and Miss Amanda Funnelle, of Terre Haute, Indiana. Each was a teacher of wide experience.
To these assistants assembled in Cincinnati the plan of revision was fully explained and the work was alloted. Miss Funnelle and Mr. Stevenson took charge of the first three readers, Mr. Harvey and Dr. Hewett of the three higher books. All were perfectly familiar with the old books and in a few days substantial agreement was reached as to the changes needed. By two months of constant and intelligent labor the manuscripts assumed approximate form. The opening of the schools called the assistants back to their homes and the editor of the firm shaped the manuscripts for the text and procured the necessary illustrations. These were made, regardless of cost, by the best artists and engravers to be found in the country. When the plates were finished, the publishers printed several hundred copies of each of the three smaller books and distributed them as proofs to selected teachers in many states, asking them for criticisms and suggestions. The answers made were of great value. The First Reader was entirely re-written by the editor and the plates of other readers were made more perfect. In this revision the three lower books were almost entirely new. The Fourth was largely new matter, while in the Fifth and Sixth such matter as could not be improved from the entire field of literature, was retained. The Fifth and Sixth readers furnished brief biographies of each author and contained notes explanatory of the text. These were new features and they proved valuable at that date.
As soon as these books were completed, large editions were printed and they were most vigorously exploited not only to take the place of the older edition of McGuffey Readers, but to supplant the newly introduced Appleton Readers.
This book-fight was a long and bitter one. Every device known to the agency managers of the houses engaged was employed. Even exchanges of books became common. It was war; and like every war was carried on for victory and not for profit. It is perhaps fortunate that such contests cannot in the nature of things last long. In the long run business must show a profit or fail. Contrary to popular opinion, a book war is not profitable in itself; but it is a form of competition that has existed for fully a century. It presents no novelties even now.
The two chief combatants at length withdrew with one accord. Neither firm could claim entire victory; but the McGuffey readers came through with much the larger sales and these increased for years. By this contest the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. won a reputation as fighters that protected them in after years from ill-considered attacks by its competitors.
The revised edition of the McGuffey Readers, having no author's name on the title page, designed and compiled under the direction of the publishers, but retaining the moral excellences and literary qualities that had been affixed to the series from its origin, attained the largest sales that have as yet been accorded by the public to a single series of books. Of the Sixth Reader, which must have the least sale, over a million copies have been distributed, as shown by the edition number. Of the First Reader more than eight million copies have been used.
At no time in the history of these readers have they been without formidable competition. Pickett's Readers were published in Cincinnati as early as 1832. Albert Pickett was at one time president of the College of Teachers and his books were published by John W. Pickett, who was probably his brother. Later some additional books were prepared by John W. Pickett, M.D., LL.D., and published by U.P. James in 1841, and by J. Earnst in 1845. These readers were vigorously pushed into the market for several years, but in the end were unsuccessful.
The Goodrich Readers published by Morton & Griswold in Louisville, Ky., were perhaps the most constant competitors with the McGuffey Readers in the early years throughout the states of the Mississippi Valley. These were prepared by S.G. Goodrich, the author of the then popular "Peter Parley Tales." The readers were originally published in Boston and some copies bear the imprint of Otis, Broaders & Co. They were first copyrighted in 1839 and were frequently revised. They finally became the property of the Louisville publisher. Mr. Smith and Mr. Morton kept up a most vigorous schoolbook war, especially in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky in the years from 1845 to 1860. Cobb's Readers, copyrighted in 1845, were published for some time in Cincinnati by B. Davenport. These were once widely introduced but soon went out of use.
It was very much the custom in those early days, before the railroads made transportation quick and cheap for Eastern publishers to furnish a set of plates to some enterprising bookseller in the West or to print an edition for him with his imprint.
Ebenezer Porter's Rhetorical Reader copyrighted in 1835 was sold largely in the western market by William H. Moore, of Cincinnati, and in 1848 the books bore his imprint. Thus there was ample competition for the market even at this early date. The Pickett Readers, Cobb Readers, Goodrich Readers, and even the excellent Rhetorical Reader of Ebenezer Porter were all swept out of the schools by the superior qualities of the McGuffey Readers and the persistent energies of their publishers.
In these books the publishers found space for a little advertising of their wares. In Pickett's Readers there is printed conspicuously at the top of a page a warm commendation of Pickett's Readers, written in 1835 by William H. McGuffey, Professor at Miami University, in which he "considers them superior to any other works I have seen." That was before he made his own readers. Mr. Smith responded by publishing a strong commendation of one of his books signed by Mr. Albert Pickett. Life is seldom devoid of the lesser amenities.
The Willson Readers, published by the Harper Brothers, were vigorously pushed into the schools of Ohio and Indiana about 1867. The first supply was usually sold to the school authorities by agents who operated on the commission plan. Thus the agents had an interest in the introduction sales, but cared nothing about the continuance of sales in after years. Booksellers, meanwhile, kept the McGuffey Readers in stock, and whenever new readers were desired these were easily obtained. In a few years the Willson Readers were out of the schools. Of course, there was no lack of traveling agents and of circulars which freely criticised these Willson Readers, which were constructed to teach not only reading but science. After a short time the children wearied of reading about bugs and beetles they had never seen and gladly welcomed the books that had a single aim.
In the eyes of a publisher a good schoolbook is one that can be readily introduced and one that will stay when it is put in use. The officials who adopt a schoolbook are not the users of the book. They are adults long past the school age. Cases have been known when in important adoptions the majority of the adopting board had not seen the inside of a school room for twenty-five years. Of course such men are far behind the schools. They are governed by their own past experience. When the teachers are allowed to have a voice in the way of advice, the real needs of the pupils obtain more consideration. But the final real judge of the merits of a schoolbook is the boy or girl who uses it. If the book is truly pedagogical, adjusted in every part to the average mental development of the child, it becomes a valuable tool in the school room. If on the other hand it is a mere collection of novelties such as catch the eye of inexpert judges and impress merely the imagination, the books may be introduced; but they won't stay.
The McGuffey Readers had staying qualities. Teachers often became so familiar with their contents that they needed no book in their hands to correct the work, but to each child the contents of the book were new and fresh. It is the fashion of the present day to exalt the new at the expense of the old. But the child of today is very much such as Socrates and Plato studied in Greece. The development of the human mind may be more generally understood than it was then; but it may be doubted whether the mass of teachers are today wiser in the results of child-study than were the philosophers of ancient days. Child nature remains the same. At a given stage in his upward progress, he is interested in much the same things. He is led to think for himself in much the same way, and the whole end and aim of education is to lead toward self activity. The readers that deal simply with facts—information readers—may lodge in the minds of children some scraps of encyclopedic information which may in future life become useful. But the readers that rouse the moral sentiments, that touch the imagination, that elevate and establish character by selections chosen from the wisest writers in English in all the centuries that have passed since our language assumed a comparatively fixed literary form, have a much more valuable function to perform. Character is more valuable than knowledge and a taste for pure and ennobling literature is a safeguard for the young that cannot be safely ignored.
The success of the McGuffey Readers was due primarily to their adaptation to the general demand of the schools and secondarily to the energy and skill of their publishers.
The books in their first form were strongly religious in their teaching without being denominational. If a selection taught a moral lesson this was stated in formal words at the close. The pill was not sugared. Thus at the close of a lesson narrating the results of disobedience, the three little girls assembled and "they were talking how happy it made them to keep the Fifth Commandment." There was in the books much direct teaching of moral principles, with "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." In the later revisions this gradually disappeared. The moral teaching was less direct but more effective. The pupil was left to make his own deduction and the formal "haec fabula docet" was omitted. The author and the publishers were fully justified in their firm belief that the American people are a moral people and that they have a strong desire that their children be taught to become brave, patriotic, honest, self-reliant, temperate, and virtuous citizens.
In some of these books the retail price is printed. In 1844 the retail price of the First Reader was twelve and a half cents. It contained 108 pages. In the same year, the Second Reader of 216 pages was priced at 25 cents. The Fourth Reader cost 75 cents, and contained 336 pages.
These prices were in a market when the day's wage of a laboring man was only fifty cents. Relatively to the cost of other articles, schoolbooks were not nearly so cheap as they are now.
When Truman & Smith began publishing, the copyright law required the deposit of titles and copies of the several books in the office of the Clerk of the District Court. At first such deposits were made in Columbus, Ohio, but later in Cincinnati. When Congress organized the Copyright Bureau in Washington, the several clerks were required to send to the Library of Congress all the sample copies deposited; but these had been carelessly kept and many were lost. A duplicate set was for years required to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. These were also passed into the custody of the Librarian of Congress; but this collection had been carelessly preserved and the files of the McGuffey Readers at Washington are now quite defective for the earliest issues. The Library seems to have no copy of any number of the first edition except possibly the Second and Fourth. The copy of the Second was deposited December 12, 1836. The Fourth bears date of July, 1837. All the other early copies found in that library are of later dates and are "Revised and Improved."
It may be well to indicate in a general way the progress that has been made in illustrating schoolbooks. The first editions of the McGuffey Readers as issued in 1836 and 1837 did not contain a single original engraving. All seem to have been copied from English books. The nice little boys wear round-about jackets with wide, white ruffled collars at the neck. The proper little girls have scoop bonnets and conspicuous pantalets. Most of the men wear knee breeches. The houses shown have the thatched roofs of English cottages. In one picture a boy has a regular cricket bat. Other schoolbooks of that date show similar appropriations of English engravings; but even at that time there were a few wood engravers in America. When the second general revision was made in 1843 some original illustrations appeared and in the edition of 1853 notice was given on the title page that the engravings were copyright property that must not be used by others.
As pictures are closely studied by children, some of the users of these early books may remember the cut showing vividly the dangers of "whale catching." Two boats are thrown high in the air by one sweep of the animal's tail and one seaman is shown head downward still in the boat. Another represented Jonah being cast overboard from the ship toward the whale below whose mouth is manifestly large enough to accommodate Jonah.
But the engravings in this edition of 1853 had no considerable artistic quality and they were very coarsely engraved. In 1863 came the first employment of a genuine artist in wood engraving. This was Mr. E.J. Whitney who had made a reputation by work done for New York publishers. His engravings were to take the place of some then in the books and their sizes were precisely determined. The drawings were most carefully made by Mr. Herrick with pencil on the whitened boxwood blocks, and sent to the publisher for examination. These, when approved, were returned to the engraver who followed precisely the lines of the drawing. When the engraving was finished, a carefully rubbed proof on India paper was sent to the publisher. If this was satisfactory, the block was delivered and from it an electrotype was made for printing. The block itself was preserved as an original. Mr. Whitney's work was thoroughly good. He was a wood engraver of the old school.
When the revision of 1878 was decided on, the publishers of the McGuffey Readers realized that much improvement must be made in the illustrations. About this time the magazines were placing great stress upon pictorial work and a new school of engravers came into existence. The wood engravers had already departed from the painful reproduction of each line of a pencil drawing and had become skilled in representing tints of light and shade if placed on the whitened block with a brush. This gave greater freedom of interpretation to the engraver. The next step was to have the drawing made large and reproduced on the block by photography. By this method most of the engravings were made for the edition of 1878. Care was taken to employ artists of reputation and the engravings were usually signed by the artist and by the engraver.
Before the last edition came out in 1901, photo-engraving had nearly supplanted wood engraving. By this process the artist's drawing with the brush is reproduced in fine tints which, when well engraved and carefully printed, produce effective results. Pen and ink drawings are also reproduced in exact facsimile. By this process the hand work of the engraver is nearly eliminated. The blocks are sometimes retouched to produce effects not attained by the process work. The skill of the artist in making the drawing thus becomes all important.
The introduction of color work in the schoolbooks intended for young children resulted from the invention of the three-color plates. From nature, or from a colored painting, three photographs are taken—one excluding all but the yellow rays of light, one for the red rays, and one for the blue. From these photographs three tint blocks are made which to the eye in many cases look exactly alike. From one of these an impression is made with yellow ink, exactly over this the red plate prints with red ink and this is followed by an impression from the blue plate. If the effects of the color screens of the camera are exactly reproduced by the printer's inks and with exactly the right amount of ink, the result is wonderfully satisfactory.
What are the qualities in these McGuffey Eclectic Readers that won for them through three-quarters of a century such wide and constant use?
The best answer to this question may be drawn from the many newspaper articles which appeared in Western and Southern papers after the death of one of the authors. There is general recognition on the part of the writers of these articles that while the books served well their purpose of teaching the art of reading, their greatest value consisted in the choice of masterpieces in literature which by their contents taught morality, and patriotism and by their beauty served as a gateway to pure literature. One editor, who used these books in his school career, said, "Thousands of men and women owe their wholesome views of life, as well as whatever success they may have attained to the wholesome maxims and precepts found on every page of these valuable books. The seed they scattered has yielded a million-fold. All honor to the name and memory of this excellent and useful man."
One of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he might write their songs. Among a people devoid of books the folk-songs are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child. They influence his whole life. The modern schoolbooks—particularly the readers—furnish the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in every community. The McGuffey Readers, from their own peculiar inherent qualities, retained their hold upon the schools until in some states laws were passed which in their operation caused schoolbooks to be regarded as commodities estimated almost solely upon the cost of paper, printing and binding. The value of these material things can easily be ascertained and compared; but unless the print carries the lessons that help to form a life the paper is wasted and the pupil's most valuable time is misspent. The teaching power of a schoolbook cannot be weighed in the grocer's scales nor measured with a pint cup. In the field open to free and constant competition, the books best suited to the wants of each community will in the end succeed. It was under such conditions that the McGuffey Readers won and held their place in the schools.