1871 printing of 1860 copyrighted text. The author has Master of Arts and is credited as the author of other books. Boyd explains that his composition textbook is a culling together of numerous preceding texts on the topic, specifically, recent English treatises by Williams, Smart, Neil, and Harrison, and the standard works of Blair, Campbell, and Jamieson. He has also consulted the grammars of Clark, Murray, Fowler, Bullions, Goold Brown, Spencer, Greene, Butler, Tower, Bailey, Covell, and Mulligan. He also credits Welche's Analysis of the English Sentence, Tower's Grammar of Composition, Quakenbos's First Lessons And Advanced Course, and Parker's Aids. He claims that his wealth of experience as a teacher on the subject has given him a deeper understanding of what is necessary in a composition textbook. This book works its way through the most minute aspects of composition (capitalization, parts of speech, punctuation, etc.) through to larger concerns (style, hyperbole, subject matter, etc.). For each section, there are detailed lessons and examples. The Schultz Archive includes the entire text; however, there are numerous pages that are repeated or missing. Also, highlighter obscures the readability of some text.
1844 printing of 1844 copyrighted text. The author has a Master of Arts degree and is principal of Black River L. and R. Institute. As indicated by the title, Boyd's compilation is a comprehensive examination of English composition as well as rhetoric, criticism, linguistic history and English literature. Each of the aforementioned sections is covered in great detail; for example, there are sections on spelling, composition style, kinds of composition, the origins of the English language and excerpts from American and British literature. Boyd's introduction indicates that his vast teaching experience has proven to him that there is not a comparable text that is so varied and comprehensive available to the typical English teacher and that such a text was necessary to avoid compiling numerous books for a single class. Some of works included in the compilation: Reid's Rudiments of English Composition, Connel's Catechism of Composition, Beattie's rhetoric, Blair's rhetoric, Montgomery's lectures on poetry and literature, Lacon, Dr. Spring's lectures, Dr. Cheever's lectures. Exercises are included throughout. The Schultz Archive includes the text in its entirety with only pages 242-43 missing. Otherwise, the text is in very good condition.