Horace Elisha Scudder

(1838 – 1902)

Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger in their Children's Literature (1920, 1921) give the following introduction to an excerpt from one of Horace E. Scudder's works::

Most children who read public library books know something about the work of Horace E. Scudder (1838-1902). For eight years he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly, but he is more widely known as a writer and compiler of books for children. The entertaining and informing Bodley Books were widely read by a former generation and are still decidedly worth reading. Perhaps his most popular work is The Children's Book, a collection of literature suitable for the first four grades. Pupils in the third, fourth, and fifth grades read with pleasure The Book of Fables, The Book of Folk Stories, Fables and Folk Stories, and The Book of Legends. Mr. Scudder was the leading advocate of introducing litera­ture into the schools at a time when such advocacy was uphill work, and he edited a great number of literary classics for school use. He wrote a number of historical and biographical works of value. George Washington, from which the next selection is taken, is considered by many to be the best biography of Washington that has been written for children.