AND LITERATURE BOOK ONE BY MELVIN E. HAGGERTY the College of Education (00) WORLD BOOK COMPANY LIFT PUBLISHER EDUCATION DEPT. WORLD BOOK COMPANY THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE Established 1905 by Caspar W. Hodgson The zest to explore is one of the best things HRL: 1-1 Copyright 1927 by World Book Company All rights reserved PRINTED IN U.S.A. PREFACE THROUGH the years that these books have been in preparation, the author has incurred indebtedness to many persons and has drawn help from many sources, some of which are now difficult to identify. The work began in an attempt to locate the literary selections most widely used in the upper elementary grades. From a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the contents of school readers there was derived a long list of poems, stories, and other forms of prose classified by common thought elements and evaluated in terms of frequency of occurrence. This list was then examined and further evaluated by a group of fifty teachers of English and principals composing the author's university class in Problems of Junior High School English. The selections that survived this scrutiny with high appraisal were then checked against the findings of many investigators, including Jordan, Bamberger, Uhl, Crow, Knight and Franzen, and Washburne, and were compared with the numerous lists of "best books," "best stories," "best poems," etc. From these evaluations there emerged a shorter list of selections which served as the nucleus for the several volumes of Reading and Literature. The content thus derived was then distributed into groups of common elements and enriched by the addition of many new selections in prose and verse. Wide ranges of literature have been searched for this new material with the aim of finding things of compelling interest and value to adolescent boys and girls. First emphasis was placed upon securing selections of maximum appeal to youthful readers and upon representing in the reading content a wide range of human experience and childhood need. For the thing of vital interest it has sometimes been necessary to forego something in literary quality. Nevertheless, the books abound in things of artistic merit and at times I have chosen exquisite bits at the risk of sacrificing something in directness of appeal. The resulting total gives ample recognition to time-tested literary selections and at the same time it offers modern writings for various aspects of adolescent interest. Here are the best of the old and a generous offering of living writers and, withal, a wealth of material that will intrigue the 676613 young reader into many hours of pleasure and enrich his life with the choicest companions the world has known. The successful fruition of these studies is due in large measure to Laura Garretson Haggerty who, through a score of years, has shared the author's interests and his problems. At different times through many months and in divers ways, but particularly in the task of arranging the supplementary aids to study, the author has been aided by Miss Dora V. Smith, instructor in English in the University of Minnesota High School. Her rich experience as a teacher of high school boys and girls and as an instructor of teachers in the technique of junior high school English teaching has furnished many of the most important helps to study with which the books abound. Miss Smith assisted in the search for material to give proper setting to the older literary selections and has tested in her classes many of the new selections and the instructional devices which the author has provided. The author gladly recognizes his obligations also to Mrs. Grace Ziegler, to Mrs. Gratia Kelly Habenicht, to Miss Mary K. Dwyer, and to scores of students and teachers who have in ways large and small furthered the completion of these books. The author acknowledges with gratitude the courtesy of the many publishers who have given permission for the reprinting of copyrighted selections. The sources of these stories and poems are indicated throughout the book. The selections from Emerson, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, and Sill are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers. Acknowledgment and thanks are expressed also to Karle Wilson Baker, Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, General John J. Carty, Grace Noll Crowell, Hamlin Garland, Joseph Husband, David Starr Jordan, Richard Le Gallienne, Mrs. Enos A. Mills, and Nancy Byrd Turner. |