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Article: McGuffey's Readers
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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McGUFFEY'S READERS
McGUFFEY'S READERS
formed a series of textbooks that molded American literary taste and morality, particularly in the Middle West, from 1836 until the early twentieth century. The total sales reached 122 million copies by 1920. Only the Bible and
Webster's Spelling Book
have enjoyed equal acceptance in the United States.
William Holmes McGuffey prepared the Eclectic Series of school readers at the request of a Cincinnati publisher interested in books adapted to the western schools. The books followed the conventional pattern of readers, teaching the principles of religion, morality, and patriotism through literary samples and pictures. They included considerable lore ...