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FAMILY LIBRARY.
The publishers of the Family Library, anxious to obtain
and to deserve the favourable opinion of the public, with
pleasure embrace the present opportunity to express their
warm and sincere thanks for the liberal patronage which has
been bestowed upon their undertaking, and their determination
to do all that lies in their power to merit its continuance.
For some time previous to the commencement of the
Family Library, they had entertained thoughts and wishes
of reducing the quantity of merely fictitious writings, which
the reading public had made it their interest to issue from
their press; and they were conscious that this could only
be done by substituting for them works that should be equally
entertaining and more instructive. The difficulty was to
find an adequate supply of books possessing these requisites.
At this time the attention of English philanthropists and
authors was strongly turned to the general dissemination of
useful knowledge by means of popular abridgments, convenient
in form, afforded at low prices, and as much as possible
simplified in style, so as to be accessible as well to the
means as to the comprehension of “the people,” in contradistinction
to the educated and the wealthy. The result has
been the production of numerous collections, embracing well
written works treating of almost every department of art and
science, and, by their simplicity, clearness, and entire freedom
from technicality, exactly calculated to attract and compensate
the attention of the general reader. From these collections,
with additions and improvements, and such alterations
as were necessary to adapt the work to the taste and wants
of the American public, Harper's Family Library has
been composed; and it is with pride and pleasure that the
publishers acknowledge the distinguished favour with which
it has been received. The approbation and support that
have already been bestowed upon it are greater than have
ever been conferred upon any work of a similar character
published in the United States; and the sale of every succeeding
volume still demonstrates its continually increasing
popularity. In several instances gentlemen of wealth and
of excellent judgment have been so much pleased with the
character of the Library, that they have purchased numbers
of complete sets as appropriate and valuable gifts to the
families of their less opulent relatives; and others have
circulation among their friends and acquaintances. With
these strong inducements to persevere, the publishers are
resolved to prosecute their undertaking with additional zeal,
energy, and circumspection. What has been done they
desire their patrons to consider rather in the light of an experiment,
than a specimen of what they hope and intend to
accomplish: they freely and gratefully acknowledge that
the circulation and popularity of the Family Library are now
such as to justify them in disregarding expense, and to
demand from them every care and every exertion. It shall
be their study to make such arrangements as shall warrant
them in assuring the friends and patrons of the Library that
the forthcoming volumes, instead of decreasing in interest
and value, will be found still more deserving of the support
and approbation of the public than those which have preceded
them.
In order to render it thus meritorious, the proprietors
intend incorporating in it hereafter, selections of the best
productions from the various other Libraries and Miscellanies
now publishing in Europe. Several well-known authors
have been engaged to prepare for it also works of an
American character; and the Family Library, when completed,
will include a volume on every useful and interesting
subject not embraced in the other “Libraries” now preparing
by the same publishers. The entire series will be the
production of authors of eminence, who have acquired colebrity
by their literary labours, and whose names, as they
appear in succession, will afford the surest guarantee for the
satisfactory manner in which the subjects will be treated.
With these arrangements, the publishers flatter themselves
that they will be able to offer to the American public a work
of unparalleled merit and cheapness, forming a body of literature
which will obtain the praise of having instructed many,
and amused all; and, above every other species of eulogy,
of being fit to be introduced to the domestic circle without
reserve or exception.
The Dramatic Series of the Family Library will consist
principally of the works of those Dramatists who flourished
contemporaneously with Shakspeare, in which all such
passages as are inconsistent with modern delicacy will be
omitted. The number of volumes will be limited, and they
will be bound and numbered in such a manner as to render it
not essentially necessary to obtain them to complete a set of
the Family Library.
“The publishers have hitherto fully deserved their daily increasing
reputation by the good taste and judgment which have influenced the
selections of works for the Family Library.”
—Albany Daily Advertiser.
“The Family Library—A title which, from the valuable and entertaining
matter the collection contains, as well as from the careful style of its
execution, it well deserves. No family, indeed, in which there are children
to be brought up, ought to be without this Library, as it furnishes
the readiest resources for that education which ought to accompany or
succeed that of the boarding-school or the academy, and is infinitely more
conducive than either to the cultivation of the intellect.”
—Monthly Review.
“It is the duty of every person having a family to put this excellent
Library into the hands of his children.”
—N. Y. Mercantile Advertiser.
“It is one of the recommendations of the Family Library, that it embraces
a large circle of interesting matter, of important information and
agreeable entertainment, in a concise manner and a cheap form. It is
eminently calculated for a popular series—published at a price so low,
that persons of the most moderate income may purchase it—combining a
matter and a style that the most ordinary mind may comprehend it, at the
same time that it is calculated to raise the moral and intellectual character
of the people.”
—Constellation.
“We have repeatedly borne testimony to the utility of this work. It is
one of the best that has ever been issued from the American press, and
should be in the library of every family desirous of treasuring up useful
knowledge.”
—Boston Statesman.
“We venture the assertion that there is no publication in the country
more suitably adapted to the taste and requirements of the great mass of
community, or better calculated to raise the intellectual character of the
middling classes of society, than the Family Library.”
—Boston Masonic
Mirror.
“We have so often recommended this enterprising and useful publication
(the Family Library), that we can here only add, that each successive
number appears to confirm its merited popularity.”
—N. Y. American.
“The little volumes of this series truly comport with their title, and are
in themselves a Family Library.”
—N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
“We recommend the whole set of the Family Library as one of the
cheapest means of affording pleasing instruction, and imparting a proper
pride in books, with which we are acquainted.”
—U. S. Gazette.
“It will prove instructing and amusing to all classes. We are pleased
to learn that the works comprising this Library have become, as they
ought to be, quite popular among the heads of families.”
—N. Y. Gazette.
“The Family Library is, what its name implies, a collection of various
original works of the best kind, containing reading useful and interesting
to the family circle. It is neatly printed, and should be in every family
that can afford it—the price being moderate.”
—New-England Palladium.
“We are pleased to see that the publishers have obtained sufficient encouragement
to continue their valuable Family Library.”
—Baltimore Republican.
“The Family Library presents, in a compendious and convenient form,
well-written histories of popular men, kingdoms, sciences, &c. arranged
and edited by able writers, and drawn entirely from the most correct and
accredited authorities. It is, as it professes to be, a Family Library, from
which, at little expense, a household may prepare themselves for a consideration
of those elementary subjects of education and society, without a
due acquaintance with which neither man nor woman has claim to be
well bred, or to take their proper place among those with whom they
abide.”
—Charleston Gazette.
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