thumb|upright|Cover of McGuffey's First Reader

The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, and are still used today in some private schools and homeschooling.

The editors of the Readers were brothers William Holmes McGuffey and Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. William created the first four readers and Alexander McGuffey created the fifth and sixth reader. About 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. Since 1961, they have continued to sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies a year.

alt=Page of simple text with illustration|left|thumb|McGuffey Reader 1901

Most schools of the 19th century used only the first two in the series of McGuffey's four readers. The first Reader taught reading by using the phonics method, the identification of letters and their arrangement into words, and aided with slate work. The second Reader was used once students could read. It helped them to understand the meaning of sentences, while providing vivid stories which children could remember. The third Reader taught the definitions of words and was written at a level equivalent to the modern 5th or 6th grade. The fourth Reader was written for the highest levels of ability on the grammar school level.

Influence

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ron Powers notes that the Readers affected the first mass-educated and mass-literate generation in the modern world. The books made Shakespeare's plays widely known in America. Author Hamlin Garland said "I got my first taste of Shakespeare from the selected scenes which I read in these books." Students were encouraged to memorize, and read aloud, classic orations such as Antony's Oration over Dead Caesar's Body and Henry V. to His Troops. Shakespeare's tragedies were represented by The Hamlet Soliloquy. The McGuffey canon contributed to an American belief in Shakespeare's authority as second only to the Bible.

thumb|[[Henry Ford|Henry Ford's childhood set of McGuffey's Readers]]

Industrialist Henry Ford cited McGuffey's Readers as one of his most important childhood influences. Otherwise Ford was poorly educated and read little. He was an avid fan of McGuffey's Readers first editions. Ford republished all six Readers from the 1867 edition and donated complete sets of them to schools across the United States. In 1934, Ford had the log cabin where McGuffey was born moved to Greenfield Village, Ford's museum of Americana at Dearborn, Michigan. In 1936, Ford sponsored a collection of excerpts from McGuffey Readers.

American composer Burrill Phillips composed a work entitled Selections from McGuffey's Reader, for orchestra, based on poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. It was completed in 1933.

In the late 20th century many evangelical homeschooling parents used the McGuffey Readers to recapture 19th century conservative values for their children.

See also

  • Basal reader
  • Primer (textbook)
  • Dick and Jane
  • Why Johnny Can't Read

References

Bibliography

  • Corinth, Jacqueline. "'McGuffey's Eclectic Readers' and their Continuing Influence on American Education: A Historical Analysis of the Secondary Literature." International Journal of the Book 6.1 (2009).
  • Kammen, Carol. "The McGuffey Readers." Children's Literature 5.1 (1976): 58–63 online.
  • Lindberg, Stanley W. "Institutionalizing a Myth: The McGuffey Readers and the Self‐Made Man." Journal of American Culture 2.1 (1979): 71–82. excerpt
  • online reviewonline
  • Neem, Johann N. "The strange afterlife of William McGuffey and his readers." The Hedgehog Review 20.2 (2018): 114–123. online
  • Saunders, Dero A. "Social ideas in McGuffey readers." Public Opinion Quarterly 5.4 (1941): 579–589 online.
  • Sullivan, Dolores P. William Holmes McGuffey: Schoolmaster to the Nation (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994).
  • Vail, Henry Hobart. A history of the McGuffey Readers (Burrows Brothers, 1911) online.
  • McGuffey Reader Collection From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
  • Project Gutenberg downloads of McGuffey Readers