AMERICAN AUTHORS SERIES The chief purposes of the present series of volumes are two. The first is to provide for college students, teachers, and general readers authentic texts, with explanatory and critical commentary, of books in American literature unexploited but secure in reputation. Such a book is Wieland, by Charles Brockden Brown. The second purpose is to furnish complete texts of individual writers rather than selections from them. An illustration of this principle may be observed in The Connecticut Wits. It will not invariably be possible to include all the writing of an author, or even all of a particular book, but enough material will always be given to afford the reader an opportunity to know the writer thoroughly, rather than to encounter slight portions of his work. Since the second aim of the series is, within given limits, completeness, the emphasis will be upon the text of a book rather than upon annotation or critical apparatus. Aside from a moderate number of footnotes and a brief selected bibliography, editorial comment, for reasons of space, will be limited to a comprehensive introduction. Early texts will be reproduced, so far as practicable for their study in college classes, with the original spelling and punctuation. The American Authors Series will also include texts of the standard writers of our literature. S. T. W. M42431 |
