The Library of Entertainment: Handbook

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
A section was inserted by the original printer between pages 54 and 55. The numbering of these pages, 54a to 54n, has been retained in the etext.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
A THOUSAND HOURS OF ENJOYMENT WITH THE WORLD'S GREAT WRITERS
HANDBOOK By JOHN CHILTON SCAMMELL, A.B.
CHICAGO AND BOSTON GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO. MCMXX
Copyright, 1915, By Geo. L. Shuman & Co. Norwood Press J. S. Cashing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Boston Bookbinding Co., Cambridge, Mass.


Nowhere so happy as curled up in a corner with a book. So said, or is reputed to have said, no less a genius than St. Thomas à Kempis. And thousands of men and women, boys and girls, still testify to the truth and power of that saying. For of all friends or companions a book is the most reliable—often quite as helpful as any Jonathan to any David. For instance, what could have given Abraham Lincoln more lasting help than those early volumes which he so hungrily devoured over and over again? Æsop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, The Pilgrim's Progress absorbed every moment he could spare from his chores and his sleep. Not mere knowledge, but inspiration entered his soul from those oft-read pages; in them he gleaned visions of life, its strain and anguish, its exaltation and thrill; there, too, he caught the secret of that quaint faculty for terse anecdote by which he was to win his way not only to the heads but to the hearts of the hardy, courageous folk of the Middle West, and, later, those of the East as well. It was through this power to read and understand and enjoy that Lincoln learned to penetrate to the very soul of mankind, the deep recesses of the thoughts and feelings of his fellow men.