McGuffey Readers

The McGuffey Readers, first published in 1836-37, were a set of highly influential school textbooks for use in the elementary grades in the United States. Indeed, owing to their widespread usage over many years, they played an important role in shaping the American character itself. From the year in which they were first published, and for nearly a century thereafter, successive generations of American schoolchildren used these readers to acquire basic literacy and to imbibe the moral lessons they taught.

Through the 1850s, William Holmes McGuffey (1800-73) was the author of the first four volumes of what would eventually become a six-volume set, one for each grade level. In subsequent years, a series of editors took over the responsibility for the readers, which nevertheless were faithful in retaining their original character as moral shapers of youth.

A major revision in 1879 altered the slant of the readers away from the stark Calvinism which had marked the earlier versions, but did so without sacrificing the religious and moral objectives.

The readers have sold over 125 million copies, and remain in demand among many who are dissatisfied with modern trends in education and seek a return to a more traditional, "values oriented" education of an earlier era.

Publication history

It was at the request of the fledgling publishing firm of Truman & Smith, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in accordance with their general plan as to size and number, that William H. McGuffey, then the President of Cincinnati College, was contracted to produce the first edition of the readers. Issued in 1836/37, it consisted of four books which were designed not only to teach the young students how to read, but in the third and fourth numbers of the series, to provide suitably moral and instructive reading examples.

In the same year, 1837, Alexander H. McGuffey, the brother of William H., was engaged to produce a Speller, which presented information on sounds, pronunciation, syllabication, and spelling.

1838 plagiarism lawsuit

This initial publishing venture was soon involved in court litigation brought by a Boston firm (publishers of a competing schools' text, the Worcester Readers) claiming that certain of the selections in the 1836-37 version of the McGuffey Readers violated their copyright holdings. In fact, in December 1838, an injunction was issued against Truman & Smith prohibiting them from further distribution of the materials pending trial on the charges. But by then, the publishers had combed the books and removed all material which could be even unreasonably suspect of offending the copyright statutes and brought forth a new edition - that of 1838 - suitably labeled "Revised and Improved".

The remainder of the suit, dealing with the prior distribution of the original 1836-37 version, was dismissed upon payment of a sum of money to the plaintiffs, although the publishing firm continued to assert that the disputed material was "common property".

The questions surrounding this lawsuit have provoked spirited debate, not only at the time, but in the years since. Opinion is divided on the matter, with critics of Dr. McGuffey asserting that the revision of the material and the payment of money essentially proves the truth of the claims.

The defenders of McGuffey and his publishers, at the time and since, have charged that the plaintiffs were acting out of sectional interests and were resorting to the courts in an attempt to gain leverage for their own pecuniary interests But, whatever the success or failure of such arguments in the realm of public opinion, there still remains the legal and ethical questions surrounding this episode.

In this regard, it may be fairly disputed as to whether the payment of a settlement fee is such a certain indicator of truth as some have averred. It should also be considered that at the time there was an unclear legal situation. The concepts of copyright and plagiarism were evolving, the full legal theory only beginning to be worked out at the time. Indeed, the foundational decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the matter, Wheaton v. Peters, was issued only in 1834.

Finally, in an editorial in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Catherine Beecher (who was originally approached by the publishers to compile the Readers, but declined) argued, among other things, that the actions of McGuffey were in keeping with the commonly accepted methods and practices of producing textbooks in those days and that, indeed, the plaintiffs themselves had followed this same practice in the compilation of their readers.

Revisions through 1853

A few years after this unfortunate incident, in 1841, Alexander H. McGuffey was contracted to produce the Rhetorical Guide which was to be used alongside the Readers as a continuation of the series. When, in 1843, the first four Readers were again revised and reissued as "Newly Revised", the Rhetorical Guide was adduced to the lot as the Fifth Reader of the series.

For the 1843 edition, the first and second readers were revised by Daniel G. Mason, while the third and fourth were revised with contributions from Dr. Timothy Stone Pinneo. All revisions were approved by both Dr. McGuffey and the publishers.

Then, in 1853, the entire series was reordered and issued as a six-volume set, labeled the New McGuffey Readers. For this work, Dr. Pinneo was responsible. And thus the readers came to assume the familiar six-volume structure by which they were subsequently known.

Major revision of 1879

In the years following the Civil War, there was a demand in the schools for readers which would contribute to national unity as well as to the assimilation of the increasing number of immigrants. At the same time, the McGuffey Readers were facing increasing pressure from competitors. The publishing firm which at that time had the rights to the readers decided to bring forth a new version under the general editorship of Henry H. Vail. Reflecting the developing method of school textbook production by collective authorship, a number of different assistant editors were brought in to work on the project.

The result was the "Revised Edition" of 1879. The three lower readers were almost entirely new. The fourth reader had largely new material, while the fifth and sixth readers (consisting mainly of selections from well-known authors) sported new features in a short biographical introduction to each of the selections by named authors and the addition of explanatory notes.

But the main change was a decidedly more secular approach to the material, softening or removing much of the Presbyterian Calvinism which had marked the first (and subsequent) editions. What remained was the overall high moral tone exhibited by a largely non-denominational religious approach featuring a general civic morality and piety, teaching such civic virtues such as thrift, hard work, honesty, and kindness.

Contents and description of the 1879 Revised Edition

Upon the issuance of the Revised Edition in 1879, the publishers, in their Preface to the series, stated: "The plan of the book enables the teacher to pursue the Phonic Method, the Word Method, the Alphabet Method, or any combination of these methods." While this may be true, the Readers themselves were almost always used then, as they are today, in connection with the use of phonics to instruct the pupil in learning how to read and write. Indeed, they were constructed with this method especially in mind.

Eclectic Primer

The Primer is really a prerequisite for commencing work in the First Eclectic Reader. It consists of 52 lessons, numbered using Roman numerals, with every fifth lesson being a review of the previous material. Each lesson is illustrated by an engraving and commences with a new word list, the words being presented phonetically, that is, with diacritical markings. The diacritical markings are used only in the word list and are not repeated in the reading exercises. There are a total of 318 vocabulay words thus presented in the Primer, or about six words per lesson. With a very few exceptions (a couple of proper names, some contractions) all are monosyllabic.

The reading passages themselves are not yet stories, but vignettes keyed to the engravings. The subject matter reflects life on the farm and in rural and small town settings in 19th century America. We see such scenes as the one room schoolhouse, a barefoot boy fishing with a willow pole at the local pond, cows being brought in from pasture, skating on a frozen pond, the mill by the creek, laying in a store of wood for the winter, and a variety of typical animals and wildlife seen on a farm. In contrast to the first edition (1836-37) of the McGuffey Readers, only the final two stories are specifically religious, though all of them reflect a general civic piety and morality.

But the core of any primer or reader intended for phonics based instruction is the presentation of the 44 basic sounds of the English language.

Fifth Eclectic Reader

The Fifth Reader begins with an introductory section concerning the reading of literature, including articulation ("Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and their combinations"), inflections ("Inflections are slides of the voice upward or downward"), accent("In every word which contains more than one syllable, one of the syllables is pronounced with a somewhat greater stress of voice. ... This syllable is said to be accented."), emphasis ("A word is said to be emphasized when it is uttered with a greater stress of voice than the other words wit which it is connected"), modulation ("Modulations includes the variations of the voice."), and poetic pauses ("The object of these is to promote the melody"). Various rules are given concerning these subjects, with examples. The whole is followed by a section of exercises illustrating the rules and providing practice therein.

Next come the reading passages themselves, numbering 117. Included are selections from Louisa May Alcott, William Ellery Channing, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Shakespeare, Robert Southey, John Greenleaf Whittier, and, of course, the Bible, with sometimes several selections from each. Over 80% of the reading passages are by named authors. It was the intent that the students would read the passages out loud in front of the class so as to obtain practice and instruction in such matters in keeping with the introductory material on reading.

Most of the selections have a strong moral quality and, should anyone miss the point, the moral is frequently explained in rather direct terms in the closing paragraph of the selection. Those selections which are by a named author are prefaced with a brief introductory paragraph giving some rudimentary details concerning the author and his/her life and works. All the selections are followed by a section of vacabulary definitions in which the more unfamiliar words are explained.

A is for Ax: the continued appeal of the McGuffey Readers

In colonial America, the basic function of education was to prepare the young students for life as good Christians. This approach had its origins during the Reformation when literacy was promoted as a means of enabling people to read the Bible. Following the Revolution, a gradual change occurred, in which it was considered increasingly important that the citizens of the newly free Republic, based on the voting franchise, be prepared for participation as a self-governing people.

At the same time, an effort was made, most notably by Noah Webster, with his Dictionary of the English Language and his Elementary Spelling Book, to create a lexicon and instructional material uniquely "American" in tone.

Pedagogy

By 1920 the hey-day of the McGuffey Readers, which were based upon the phonics method of teaching reading, had come to a close and by the end of that decade school texts based on the word method had swept the field. Some time later, in 1955, Rudolf Flesch authored a widely read and much discussed book, Why Johnny Can't Read, which delivered a scathing indictment of America's schools and educators in which he calimed that they had failed to teach America's young to read properly and called for a return to the use of phonics in teaching reading and writing.