FOOTNOTE:
[B] Vol. III. is out of print.
Quick Clues
Wide Awake, 1887.
Volumes W and X. 4to, boards, 1.75 a volume—cloth, 2.25.
“The files we have had bound are so popular as to be in danger of being literally read to pieces; and, knowing well that the new ones will meet the same treatment, we earnestly hope that the time will never come when it will be impossible to replace them; for they are a source of too much enjoyment and benefit to our young people to be allowed to get out of print—that would be a great misfortune.”—Extract from letter of the Librarian of the Morse Institute, Natick, Mass., ordering the first nineteen volumes of Wide Awake.
One in a dozen families—no, not so many—one in a hundred eats good food. About as many read good books. And yet the proportion of good eating and reading is quite as high in this as in any country. The fact is some good food is a little dry. Good reading is never peppery. We are losing our capacity for enjoyment of both when we crave unwholesome stimulants.
Wide Awake is one of those rare collections varied and bright enough to engage the common reader and good enough to lead the capable reader to higher pleasures and benefits.