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On the 19th of November, 1863, a tall, gaunt man faced an audience on the battle-field of Gettysburg, where not many months before two mighty armies had been locked in deadly conflict. He was not the orator of the occasion, but he had come as the nation's Chief Executive to make a few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the National Cemetery. What he said was less than 300 words; but those carefully chosen words of The Gettysburg Address were of such significance and made so direct and sincere an appeal that they passed at once into the immortal literature of the world. Many an ambitious poet or novelist, after long years of conscientious toil, has failed to win such renown as those few words assured to Abraham Lincoln.

As a youth John Milton once expressed the hope that he might live to write a work that the world would not willingly let die. Such writings, after all, really comprise the literature that is worth while. Out of the great mass of spoken, written, or printed words we treasure only those that have a vital message or an abiding value as a piece of literary art.

The literature of America is that of a young nation; young in years, in experience, and in outlook. Those who are inclined to be impatient because we have not yet produced a Shakespeare or a Milton should remember that the country that produced those writers had behind it more than a thousand years of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Our earliest efforts, like those of most beginners, were imitative in character. We are just beginning to understand that the recent writers who seek to give expression to the distinctive individuality of our country are accomplishing far more toward attaining our ideals than the earlier authors whose

chief glory lay in the degree of success with which they imitated the accepted models of English letters.

The story of our literary achievements from the time of Captain John Smith to the present day is a record that should be familiar to every loyal American. He need not remember all the writers, nor most of the books, nor any of the dates; but he should have a clear idea of our progress in the implanting of national ideals and traditions through the magic wrought by the spoken or printed word. It is a record of which we may be justly proud, but in the following pages it will not be a mere glorification of the dead past. Unless we conceive of our literature as an art now in the making, our effort to grasp its true meaning will be futile. No country can hope to produce a notable literature that reserves its praise for the dead and its sneers for the ambitious attempts of the living. Not a day passes but brings forth somewhere new expressions of ideals and aspirations; surely none is wise enough to foretell when and where the inspired voice will next be heard.

No apologies are therefore offered to account for the large number of living writers included in these pages. The narrative aims to be a trustworthy guide to the things that are worth while in the whole range of our literature, and to tell its story in a straightforward, continuous manner.

At the end of the book are Suggestions for Reading and Study, a Supplementary List of American Writers, and Some Interesting Problems, which are intended to help the student form opinions and judgments on matters relating to American Literary History.

Our former methods of teaching literary history have very

properly met with general disapproval during the past decade. Many of our teachers undoubtedly stressed the letter at the expense of the spirit. No course in American literature can ever justify itself unless it stimulates the pride of young America not only in the achievement of the past but also in the earnest endeavor of to-day. Those who now carry the torch must hand it on to young America in due time and young America should be prepared to receive the sacred charge.

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

PHILADELPHIA

J. L. H.

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