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A BOOK OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON. CHICAGO DALLAS

ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON. BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

TORONTO

AMERICAN LITERATURE

SELECTED AND EDITED

BY

FRANKLYN B. SNYDER, PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,

AND

EDWARD D. SNYDER, PH.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, HAVERFORD COLLEGE

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1927

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1927,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set,up and electrotyped.
Published August, 1927.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY

THE BERWICK & SMITH CO.

PREFACE

It is the aim of this book to represent the best in American poetry and prose from Colonial times to the present. More specifically, the selections here printed illustrate the personalities, ideas, and accomplishments of all our more important men of letters; the development of various literary types; and the status of our national thought and civilization at different epochs, as reflected in American literature.

Certain exclusions will be apparent at once: the drama; the novel, except in a few important cases where a short selection is at once significant, and typical of a writer's entire output; and many minor writers whose work differs but little from that of more important persons to whom adequate space has been given.

On the other hand, the major figures in American literature are here generously represented, and many less important persons have been included because of items of unique value. From the large and interesting field of political prose many selections have been admitted, for the adequate reason that they are as much part of our national literary tradition as of our history.

Teachers will find that the volume contains so much more reading than can be utilized in the ordinary year course, that by a mere process of exclusion they can suit the varied needs of many sorts of students. The Notes will be found to include biographies, bibliographies, and both explanatory and critical comment. This critical apparatus provides, furthermore, a means whereby advanced students can be guided into profitable fields of special study, such as an exhaustive consideration of any one of the major writers. Incidentally, it is the hope of the editors that the general bibliography, and the many special bibliographies, will prove of service to teachers who are rounding out collections of American literature in any but the larger libraries.

In the case of each selection, the editors have aimed to furnish the best available text. In the earlier sections of the book no attempt has been made to reproduce unusual and oftentimes fortuitous typographical peculiarities; rather, so far as capitalization, punctuation, use of italics and contractions, are concerned, these texts have been made to conform to more modern usage. Spelling, however, except for obvious misprints, has been left untouched.

To the many friends who from time to time have been of assistance, the editors express their cordial thanks: especially to Messrs. George E. Howes, James A. James, Rufus M. Jones, Raynor W. Kelsey, T. W. Koch, Dean P. Lockwood, O. F. Long, Arthur B. Perry, L. Arnold Post, and John A. Scott.

A more formal acknowledgment for the use of copyright material appears on the following page.

067789

F. B. S.

E. D. S.

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