呈现于读者面前的这套《美国语文读本》，亦名《麦加菲读本》，其编者威廉·H·麦加菲曾先后任美国迈阿密大学语言学教授和俄亥俄大学校长。考虑到"麦加菲"的英文名称在美国已被注册为商标，加之它是一套影响深远而广泛的语文课本，我们在中国首次原版出版这套著名教材时，便将书名定为《美国语文读本》。这套书既有教材功能，又可当作提高英语水平的有效读物。
《美国语文读本》从19世纪中期至20世纪中叶，一直被广泛用作美国学校的语文教材，据称有10000多所美国学校拿它当作教材。美国著名汽车制造商亨利·福特称赞这套书是他儿童时代最有兴趣的读物，后来他自费大量印刷这套书，分发给很多学校。到了21世纪，西方一些私立学校(Private School)和家庭学校(Homeschool)仍用它作为教材，足见这套书的价值与影响力。据估计，这套书从问世至1960年，至少发行了1.22亿册;1961年后，在西方每年销量仍达30000册以上。应该说，没有哪一套个人主编的教材能超过此发行量了!
人类文化的瑰宝不仅源远流长，而且具有很大***通性，在全社会不断呼吁教育改革的今天，我们将这套优秀的美国读本引进到国内，应该具有一定的借鉴意义。它也有益于中国孩子在学习英语的同时，了解西方的文学与文化历史，通过英语这门语言工具，开阔自己的视野，打开通往世界的心灵之窗。
威廉·H·麦加菲，美国著名教育家。1800年出生于宾夕法尼亚州，1826年毕业于华盛顿大学杰斐逊学院。在数十年教育生涯中，他曾担任过迈阿密大学语言学教授，俄亥俄大学校长。自1845年开始任弗吉尼亚大学道德哲学教授。他还帮助组建了俄亥俄州公立学校体系。
早在19世纪初期，麦加菲就意识到，应该给那些孤独的垦荒者和欧洲移民的后代提供普遍的教育，于是他利用自己作为演讲家与教育工作者的天赋，开始为孩子们编写系列教材。这套教材***7册，从学龄前至第6年级。他前后花费了20多年的时间才完成全套教材的编写。这套教材面世后就被美国很多学校选为课本。在75年间销量高达1.22亿，直到今天仍以各种版本流行于西方，被美国《出版周刊》评为"人类出版史上第三大畅销书"，对美国青年的心灵塑造与道德培养产生了史无前例的影响。
William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.
He was born the son of Alexander and Anna (Holmes) McGuffey near Claysville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which is 45 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. In 1802 the McGuffey family moved further out into the frontier at Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He attended country school, and after receiving special instruction at Youngstown, he attended Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he attended and graduated from Pennsylvania's Washington College, where he became an instructor.
He was close friends with Washington College's President Andrew Wylie and lived in Wylie's house for a time; they often would walk the 3 miles to Washington College together.
McGuffey's house in OxfordMcGuffey left Washington College in 1826 to become a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A year later in 1827, he was married to Harriet Spinning of Dayton, Ohio, with whom he had five children. In 1829, he was ordained at Bethel Chapel as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. It was in Oxford that he created the most important contribution of his life: The McGuffey Readers. His books sold over 122 million copies. He was very fond of teaching and children as he geared the books toward a younger audience.
In 1836, he left Miami to become president of Cincinnati College, where he also served as a distinguished teacher and lecturer. He left Cincinnati in 1839 to become the 4th president of Ohio University, which he left in 1843 to become president of Woodward College (really a secondary school) in Cincinnati.
In 1845, McGuffey moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. A year after his first wife Harriet died in 1850, he married Miss Laura Howard, daughter of Dean Howard of the University of Virginia, in 1851. McGuffey is buried in the university burial ground, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The School of Education at Miami University is housed in McGuffey Hall which is named for him and his home in Oxford is a National Historic Landmark offering tours on weekdays.
这套读本***包括6册。第1册从字母表开始，主要侧重于字母的发音与书写、简单的单词与句型，同时强调英文书写，课文后面附有不少书法练习，让孩子们不仅将英语说得像外国人，而且写得也跟外文书法一样，这是国内英语教学所缺少的一个环节。从第2册开始，均是比较正式的课文了，每一课包括词汇和课文，对一些生词有英文解释，让学生学会通过简单英文理解生词，养成用英语理解和思维的习惯。第4册还附有课后思考练习，这些练习可以帮助学生更好理解文章，引发孩子们的思考。第5册和第6册的课文前增加了作者简介与相关背景知识，内容丰富而有一定深度。
从所选课文的英文难易程度来看，大致而言，这套读本的第1-3册跟国内小学毕业程度相近，第4册则适用于初中生阅读使用，第5、6册可供高中及以上程度学习者阅读。从文体方面我们可以看出，除了常见的记叙、散文体以外，这套读本对诗歌、戏剧、论说文等文体也很重视，书中选取了不少名家的名作名篇。这对国内孩子们真正感受英语这一西方语言的魄力是大有帮助的。
This series of schoolbooks teaching reading and moral precepts, originally prepared by William Holmes who was a professor at Miami University McGuffey, had a profound influence on public education in the United States. The eclectic readers, meaning that the selections were chosen from a number of sources, were considered remarkably literary works and probably exerted a greater influence upon literary tastes in the United States more than any other book, excluding the Bible.
It is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. Since 1961 they have continued to sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies a year. No other textbook bearing a single person's name has come close to that mark. McGuffey's Readers are still in use today in some school systems, and by parents for home schooling purposes.