The Elson Readers, Book 5 by Elson, William H., Keck, Christine M.

Phrases for Study

comparatively a new affair, fairest goldsmith, woven texture, cruel mortification, wisdom of the book, by dint of great quickness, cunningly made, features and tokens.

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

A Backward Look

A wonderful power lies in the Crystal Glass of Reading--the power to increase your circle of friends and to know intimately people who have lived in distant times and places. Through its power the great heroes of all ages--Joseph, Beowulf, Sigurd, Robin Hood, and our own Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt--become your companions.

Someone has said that the pen is mightier than the sword, which is another way of saying that great books have had more to do in shaping the lives and fortunes of men than bloody battles. The group of authors whose stories and poems you have just been reading is a company of friends whose thoughts about Nature, or about life and its meaning, have been a power in making America what it is today.

Acquaintance with these friends has been made easy for you; you have had placed before you their pictures and interesting facts about their lives, and best of all, you have been able to hear them tell their own thoughts. What authors are in this group? Which of them did you learn to know in Book IV and which were new to you in this book? Close your eyes and see whether your "inward eye" can picture the faces of Franklin, Bryant, Whittier, Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne. Make one interesting statement concerning each author and his works. Quote lines from poems by Bryant, Whittier, and Longfellow. Make from memory a list of title of stories or poems you have read from each of these six American authors.

Benjamin Franklin founded the first public library in America; the picture on page 18 shows you what a library must have been like in the old Greek days, and page 288 pictures a view of the Congressional Library at Washington, the home of the complete works of all our American authors. The building is considered one of the most beautiful in the world; report to the class some interesting facts about this library that you have learned from someone who has seen it.

In the last paragraph of the Forward Look, you are asked to notice the way in which authors tell what they have to say. When Franklin was a young boy he was not at all satisfied with his way of writing, so he sat himself the task of noticing carefully how a certain English writer, whom he admired very much, expressed himself, and tried to pattern after him. Notice how Franklin made the story "An Ax to Grind" seem very real by using direct quotations; where else has he used direct quotations with the same result?

Notice the way Hawthorne added interest to his stories: (a) by touches of fancy; (b) by delicate humor; (c) by apt descriptions. Point out examples of each of these qualities in "The Paradise of Children." Make a similar showing for "The Golden Touch." Compare the two stories in regard to each of These qualities.