The chief American prose writers

Front matter

k0

/SffifV

* 4<

Preface

The nine writers represented in this volume have become, by general consent, the American prose classics. Others, such as Brockden Brown, Bret Harte, Whitman, Prescott, Mark Twain, and Mr. Howells, to name but a few among many who have achieved high distinction, are not far below the unquestioned nine; perhaps some of them will, as time goes on, displace certain of the elect. Yet, if all of these candidates had been accepted, this collection of prose might not have deserved the word "Chief" in its title; and if some had been accepted and others rejected, I could hardly have been other than arbitrary and tentative. As it stands, however, the book may pretend to a certain finality.

My first object has been to bring together in one volume liberal illustrations of the best work of these nine American prose classics.

My second object has been to bring together sufficient examples of the characteristic work of these authors to give in each case a well-rounded view.

My third object has been to bring together important essays, letters, etc., that are at present altogether or virtually inaccessible in textbooks; instances are Emerson's "Divinity School Address," Thoreau's "Journal" and "Life Without Principle," and Lowell's "Letters" and "Dante." The thirty-eight selections that constitute the book represent a score or more of separate volumes.

All of the selections, with the exception of half a dozen, are unabridged. Of the exceptions^two — Franklin's Autobiography and Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table — are abridged at one end only, and a third, the chapters from The Last of the Mohicans, is an engrossing episode that loses little when read in isolation. It is assumed, however, that the instructor will prefer to assign all of this novel, using the selection for detailed discussion in the classroom.

The notes were prepared in the expectation that the student iv PREFACE

would have at hand a copy of either Webster's Secondary-School Dictionary or the Desk Standard Dictionary. In general, I have explained only allusions left unexplained in these admirable dictionaries.

JNORMAN FOERSTER University of North Carolina May 31, 1916