Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from American Bibliography, Vol. 1: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications, Printed in the United States of America; 1639-1729
If read aright, the faces in this volume of the Fathers of American literature possess one attribute common to all of them;&e virtue of a personal sincerity. They believed what they wrote. Under the broad brim is seen a face earnest, thoughtful, dignified, intense of purpose, hopeful, often sad, sometimes with a gleam of humor wrinkling around the steadfast look in the eyes. Conscious of their responsibilities, they are shaping the destinies and laying the foundations of a Nation on which to build the superstructure of a Republic. Their work is done.' The results for which they labored and wrote are everywhere about us. To their memories should be accorded the undying gratitude of a people who have benefited by their teachings, to their printed words the reverential care due to the monuments of American literature, the sources of our National life. The true peerage of a Republic, the noblest order which can be formed, is that whose right and title rest in its literature. To their descendants belongs the duty of keeping alive the high ideals these Fathers of the Republic strove to impress upon the National character.
The earliest issues of the printing press in every country seem to follow the same general lines, which are apparently governed by the people's needs. As in the glorious dawn of printing came the sunburst of that matchless work, in the presence of which priest and pagan alike stand with uncovered head the Bible of Gutenberg, so, too, the Fathers of New England gave to their people, as the first offering of the press, that Bible of New England, the Bay Psalm Book.
Crude in its form, with little of the grace and beauty which ennoble the fair and stately page of the Gutenberg Bible; a thing for jest, perhaps, to those who find pleasure in a turned letter and mirth in a misspelled word, but to the thoughtful bearing on the scarred and rugged face of its page something of the heroic spirit under difficulties with which it was composed. The best thought of New England was given to its composition and revision. It was the Bible of the common people far into the next century. In many households its rugged psalmody was the only way in which the praises of the Lord could be sung. Around it was fought the battle of singing scriptural songs in churches whose echoes reached to the New England memories of our own time. Its popularity was such that new editions were required every four or five years in the first century Of its printing, and its use was transplanted to Scotland, where it was frequently reprinted.
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