TO
CHARLES DICKENS,
ONE OF THE MOST EARNEST LABOURERS IN THAT POPULAR
LITERATURE WHICH ELEVATES A PEOPLE,
THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
April 13th, 1854.
FOREWARD
In 1844 I wrote, and published in my series of 'The Weekly Volume,' William Caxton, a Biography. That little work sold as largely as any of the collection. It will not be reprinted, as I have cancelled the stereotype plates.
In the present work I have remodelled that biography; rendering it a more compact narrative of the state of knowledge before the invention of printing, of the personal history of the man who brought the invention to England, and of the nature of his efforts to diffuse information amongst his countrymen. This account forms the First Part of this volume.