PREFACE TO THE LIBRARY EDITION.
BEING THE HISTORY OF A STORY.
"THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-MASTER" was written and printed in the autumn of 1871.

It is therefore now about twenty-one years old, and the publishers propose to mark its coming of age by issuing a library edition.

I avail myself of the occasion to make some needed revisions, and to preface the new edition with an account of the origin and adventures of the book.

If I should seem to betray unbecoming pride in speaking of a story that has passed into several languages and maintained an undiminished popularity for more than a score of years, I count on receiving the indulgence commonly granted to paternal vanity when celebrating the majority of a first-born.

With all its faults on its head, this little tale has become a classic, in the bookseller's sense at least; and a public that has shown so constant a partiality for it has a right to feel some curiosity regarding its history.
I persuade myself that additional extenuation for this biography of a book is to be found in the relation which "The Hoosier School-Master" happens to bear to the most significant movement in American literature in our generation.