author
William Holmes McGuffey
1800–1873
Best known for the hugely influential McGuffey Readers, this American educator helped shape how generations of children learned to read in the 19th century. His books blended reading lessons with moral instruction and became some of the most widely used school texts in the United States.
8 Audiobooks
The New McGuffey First Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader
by William Holmes McGuffey
McGuffey's Eclectic Primer, Revised Edition
by William Holmes McGuffey
About the author
Born in Pennsylvania on September 23, 1800, and raised largely in Ohio, William Holmes McGuffey grew up on the early American frontier with limited formal schooling. He became a teacher while still young, studied at Washington College, and built a career as an educator, professor, and college president.
McGuffey is remembered above all for creating the McGuffey Readers, a series of elementary reading books first published in the 1830s while he was teaching at Miami University in Ohio. The books were designed to teach children how to read clearly and confidently, but they also reflected the religious and moral values he believed education should pass on.
Over time, the Readers became a central part of classroom life across the United States and sold in enormous numbers, giving McGuffey a lasting place in American educational history. He later served in academic leadership roles, including at the University of Virginia, and died in Charlottesville, Virginia, on May 4, 1873.