Excerpt from Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, Vol. 1 HE preparation of this Memoir was originally undertaken by me, in compliance with the wishes of Mr. Ticknor's family. This selection was determined mainly by my long intimacy with him. Mr. Ticknor survived most Of his contemporaries, and at his death there was no one, of those who had known him in early youth, who was both willing and able to write a biography of their friend. My task was to be principally that Of selection from a very rich mass of journals and correspondence. When, however, the first ten chapters only had been completed, I was suddenly seized by illness, which withdrew me from all literary labour. After an interval of some months the work was necessarily assumed by others. Since it approached its conclusion, my health having much improved, the manuscript has been submitted to me, and I have been able to give it a faithful perusal and cordial acceptance. The ten chapters prepared by me were stereotyped before my illness, and the early direction thus given to the first portion of the book determined some points of its entire character. Its form and appearance were necessarily then settled, and the proportions to be assumed by the other parts were in great measure fixed. The next six or eight chapters were only partially sketched. The transition may be felt, and needs to be thus explained. When the work was resumed, it was undertaken by Mrs. Ticknor and her eldest daughter, who, thenceforward, devoted themselves conscientiously to the task. 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.