McGuffey, William

McGuffey, William (Holmes)

(1800–73) educator; born near Claysville, Pa. Largely self-educated through secondary school, McGuffey became a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Virginia (1845–73). He compiled the famous McGuffey Readers, six elementary schoolbooks (1836–57), that sold 122 million copies and became standard texts for generations of 19th-century American children.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.