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HOW TO KNOW HIM

8787

By

WILLIAM P. TRENT

Author of

John Milton, A History of American Literature
Longfellow and Other Essays, etc.

WITH PORTRAIT

INDIANAPOLIS

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

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PREFATORY NOTE

This book has been prepared, as far as the nature of the materials would permit, along the lines laid down by the general editor of the series in which it appears. All biographical, bibliographical and critical statements are made on the basis of a study of Defoe's life and writings extending over ten years, the results of which have been recorded in an equal number of volumes still in manuscript. When I contradict what has been written by previous biographers and bibliographers, or by myself in articles published in a number of places, it should be understood that I think myself, in the summer of 1916, in possession of facts that warrant the statements to be found here. Every month, however, as I extend my studies in the miscellaneous literature, particularly the pamphlets, of the time, I find occasion to supplement or to alter what I have written upon this or that point, especially in matters bibliographical; hence I am likely to be the first person to call into question details in the record of Defoe's extraordinarily complicated career as I have given them in the following pages. I have merely done my best to present succinctly the essential points of that record, as I now see them, within the compass of a

PREFATORY NOTE

small book, part of which had to be given up to selections from Defoe's writings.

These selections are inadequate and not fairly representative simply because of Defoe's almost unrivaled copiousness and versatility. I trust, however, that they will be found to give a clearer idea of his varied activity than any previous collection of specimens, and that taken in and for themselves the separate selections will not appear to be devoid of present interest. In practically all cases I have followed the text of a copy of the first edition of the work quoted to be found in my own collection of Defoe's writings, modernizing in respect to spelling, capitalization and punctuation only where such changes seemed essential to the purposes of the series. A few explanatory notes have been added, and in one or two cases I have permitted myself to be swayed in my choice of a selection by the fact that the pamphlet or the book quoted is practically inaccessible to students. I have also refrained from giving selections from a few important poems and tracts-e. g. The True-Born Englishman and A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal --because these are easily to be found in one or another of the well-known editions of Defoe's works, none of which, be it remembered, contains more than a small fraction of his undisputed writings. W. P. T.

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