William Holmes McGuffey (1800–1873)

5537. McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader I879 Edition by William Holmes McGuffey (read 28 Feb 2018) I read this cover to cover. It contains a lot of boring or cloying stuff which I can imagine kids who had to read it were a bit distressed by. I know my parents went to school and were not in grades--they went till they had finished the sixth reader. To get further education they would have had to leave home. My parents did not leave home but I never felt they were uneducated. Occasionally this reader had poems which I had committed to memory and it was neat to read those familiar lines, such as "Arnold Winkelried",, "Rock Me To Sleep", "The Village Blacksmith", and "Break, Break, Break", and poems I did not memorize but much appreciate such as "Burial of Sir John Moore" and "The Soldier of the Rhine". And a few of the prose pieces are exciting such as "The Crazy Engineer" and a play excerpt from William Tell by Sheridan Knowles. Unusual reading but not without its compensations.… (más)

Here I note that this is not a later reproduction. This is the actual "McGuffey's Newly Revised Rhetorical Guide; or Fifth Reader of The Eclectic Series" from 1853. As I note in the comments field for this book, "this is more like the Sixth Reader of the 1990s publication, but in terms of entries is totally different," and there are no illustrations.

One can see from the various 'diacritical' marks, that the essays and poetry in this volume were intended to be memorized and spoken aloud before a classroom of fellow students, or possibly before an audience of parents and fellow citizens.

Should you be so fortunate as to find a copy of this book, you will find it interesting reading if for no other reason than the 'cutoff date' of 1853. And may your copy have as many notes and marginalia as Riolley F. Rathmell provided in this copy!… (más)