Part 5 (1/2)

The revised edition of the McGuffey Readers, having no author's name on the t.i.tle 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.

[Other Compet.i.tors]

At no time in the history of these readers have they been without formidable compet.i.tion. 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 compet.i.tors 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 compet.i.tion 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.

[Humorous Advertising]

In these books the publishers found s.p.a.ce 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 publis.h.i.+ng 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.

[Enduring Qualities]

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.

[Child Nature]

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 fas.h.i.+on 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 ma.s.s 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 sc.r.a.ps 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 pa.s.sed since our language a.s.sumed 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 enn.o.bling 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.

[Moral Teaching]

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 a.s.sembled 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.

[Copyright Files]