Murray, Lindley. The English Reader, or, Pieces in Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Best Writers. Designed to assist young persons to read with propriety and effect; to improve their language and sentiments; and to inculcate some of the most important principles of piety and virtue. With a few preliminary observations on the principles of good reading. Exeter, (N. H.): Printed and Published by John C. Gerrish | Stereotyped by B. and J. Collins, N. York, 1824. Stereotype edition. [11721]
Worn calf over wood boards, joints good, lacks the spine title label, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches, tight. Lacks the front free end papers, scribbles/stains on the paste-down. Foxing and old stains in the text; two small holes in the first two leaves. Lacks some leaves and runs [i]-xiv, xvii-xxii, [23]-62, 65-250, 253-263, last page is torn without text loss. Lacking 3 leaves total. Fair . Full leather.
An English school book that was recommended by Abraham Lincoln, "as the best school book ever put in the hands of American youth."
Lindley Murray (1745-1826), b. Lebanon Co., Pa; d. York, England. He was the son of a New York merchant, of Quaker stock. Murray went to England at the outbreak of the Revolution, and remained there the rest of his life. He wrote eleven schoolbooks and it has been said that some sixteen million copies of his books were printed.
"His most popular work was The English Reader, full of selections from the liberal-minded writers of the Scottish Enlightenment, most notable the Rev. Hugh Blair...[It] dominated the American market for readers for over a generation from 1815 into the 1840's," being replaced mainly by the McGuffey Readers.
