Excerpt from American Literature Through Illustrative Readings This volume is intended as a handbook for high-school students of American literature. The purpose of the book is to give a fair view of what has been done and is still being done in the domain of American letters, and to stimulate, through the illustrations, further reading in and appreciation of American authors. The work is by no means exhaustive, but it is believed that it is representative of the periods and the personalities in our literary development. A relatively large space has been given to living writers and recent literary activities because the high-school pupils interest is emphatically in the present-day author and his reading is chiefly from contemporary productions. Hence he needs direction and guidance in this field as much as anywhere. Moreover, through the study of the good modern writer, he may be drawn to the classic when he sees the dependence of the new writer on the old, when he realizes the modern authors appreciation of the great and the good in the achievement of earlier men. All work of a critical nature has been purposely omitted as outside the sphere of interest and comprehension of the high-school student. Even in the bibliographies no mention is made of books which are works of appraisal mainly. Further readings in the particular authors are indicated and reference is made to works which shed light on the period and on the environment of the author, for the sake of atmosphere and background. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.