McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book - Revised Edition (1879) by Alexander Hamilton McGuffey

The McGuffey Readers were a series of language arts textbooks that included a primer, a speller, and readers for grade levels 1-6, each successively building on the student's skills. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th Century to the early to mid-20th Century, extremely popular in multi-age rural schools. While they reached their peak about 1925 with more than 122 million copies, they are still used today in some private schools and in homeschooling. William Holmes McGuffey(1800-1873), the trailblazing American educator, was the author/editor of the first 5 books of the series beginning with the primer, and the 1st and 2nd readers in 1836, and the 3rd and 4th reader in 1837 all published originally by Truman and Smith publishers along with the original speller. His brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey (1816-1896) created the speller in 1846, the 5th reader in 1844, and the 6th reader in 1857. The series was revised in 1857 and later in 1879.

McGuffey’s Eclectic Spelling Book - Revised Edition (1879) abandons the earlier system of indicating pronunciation by numerals called "superiors," and adopts the diacritical marks used by Webster. This Speller conforms in orthography, pronunciation and syllabication to the latest edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, at the time. The Preface states that "...the object has been not to appeal merely to arbitrary memory, but to associate each lesson with some principle of sound, meaning or accent, ..." and contains a pictorial alphabet plus 248 lessons on spelling, grammar, usage and pronunciation. Several engravings depict children and families engaging in activities such as fishing, playing croquet, and reading. The inside front cover pages bear the signature of former owner “Belle Winter, Cedarville, OH, March 6th, 1891, along with the names of classmates and friends. The brown and green front cover contains a floral design. The back cover contains an illustration of a Viking sailing ship within a floral design. The textbook is 144 pages in length.

Publisher Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. was incorporated in 1877 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio. In May 1890, the American Book Company purchased all the copyrights and plates formerly owned by Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co, including those of the McGuffey Reader series. ABC was based in New York City and specialized in elementary school, secondary school and collegiate-level textbooks. The company was absorbed into D. C. Heath in 1981. Any remaining K-12 assets of the American Book Company were acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 1995.

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