The Moore McGuffey Readers – Fourth Reader

Preface To The Fourth Reader

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Fourth Reader Hardback1 209x300 The Moore McGuffey Readers Fourth Reader

Moore-McGuffey Fourth Reader

When William Holmes McGuffey's READERS debuted in 1836, one-room schoolhouses contained all eight grades, and students progressed at their individual rates. Therefore, it is important to remember that the Fourth Reader does not mean "a reader for the fourth grade." In fact, many reading authorities today say that some of the selections found in this volume are equivalent to reading material presented in today's high school and college classrooms.

In the preface to the 1838 edition, McGuffey addressed the question of reading level. He stated that the student of the Fourth Reader "is to expect that higher claims will be made upon his power of thought." In his 1853 preface, he said if any lessons are found "unintelligible" to the young readers, they will not be those lessons of the "highest character for thought." He explains: "Nothing is so difficult to be understood as nonsense. Nothing is so clear and easy to comprehend as the simplicity of wisdom."

In an early revision of the Fourth Reader, McGuffey added extensive instructions for oral reading and interpretation. Thirty pages of rules and explanations on topics such as articulation, tone, inflection, emphasis and pause prefaced the volume. Throughout the book, the rules were restated and reinforced with exercises. Although his methods may have been artificial, stilted or misapplied by teachers, speech authorities generally concede that McGuffey's instructions on oral reading served the purpose of standardizing American speech patterns -- a task since taken over by radio and television.

As in the other volumes of the present edition, all new questions have been written for each lesson. A Spell-and-Define section has also been provided.

A unique feature of this edition of the Fourth Reader is the note preceding most lessons. Each note helps the reader understand the lesson's meaning, significance or historical setting. Information for the notes was researched from many sources, with particularly valuable material coming from The Annotated McGuffey: Selections From The McGuffey Eclectic Readers, 1836 - 1920, by Stanley W. Lindberg (copyright 1976 by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company; reprinted by permission of the publisher).

This volume completes the series of Eclectic Readers first written and compiled by Wm. McGuffey. The first volumes contain elementary lessons dealing largely with problems of conduct. The last volumes introduce the advanced student to the "best of the forensic, descriptive, sacred, and poetic literature of the world," according to McGuffey authority H.C. Minnich. He wrote, "Young America was led into courts of justice, temples of worship, halls of legislatures, church-yards of illustrious dead, and was filled with emotions of heroism of sacrifice, of sorrow, of patriotism and of noble living."

It is the hope of the present publishers that with this volume the young of a mature America will enter upon the same adventure.

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