Washington Irving

Life Of Oliver Goldsmith Washington Irving

Life Of Oliver Goldsmith By Washington Irving At Sunnyside, Irving wrote his " Life of Oliver Goldsmith." Putnam, the bookseller, had said to him one day: "Here is Foster's ' Life of Goldsmith;' I think of republishing it." "I once wrote a Memoir of Goldsmith," answered Irving, " which was pre?xed to an edition of his works printed at Paris; and I have thought of enlarging it and making it more perfect." " If you will do that," was the reply of the bookseller, "I shall not republish the Life by Foster." Within three months afterward, Irving's " Life of Goldsmith" was ?nished and in press. It was so much superior to the original sketch, in the exactness of the particulars, the entertainment of the anecdotes, and the beauty of the style, that it was really a new work. There is no biographical memoir which carries forward the reader so delightfully and with so little tediousness of recital or re?ection. The reader is always being tempted to wish that Irving had written more works of the kind; but this could hardly be; for Where could he have found another Goldsmith ? We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.