MCGUFFEY’S READERS

a series of six school books (1836–57) designed to teach American children to read. They were created by William McGuffey (1800–73), the President of Cincinnati College, who wrote the first four. He believed that they should also develop good character in children, so he included wise advice and sentences from great British writers such as Shakespeare and Shelley (II). About 122 million copies of the books were sold, and their moral stories influenced Americans for more than a century.