"The primary aim of this book is to give as much information about English authors, including under this designation American and Colonial writers, as the prescribed limits will admit of. In the case of the more important, to give some indication of the relative place which they hold and the leading features of their work. Including the appendix of living writers, the work contains upwards of 1600 names; but large as this number is, the number of those who have contributed something of interest and value to the vast store of English Literature is larger still and any attempt to make a book of this kind absolutely exhaustive would be futile." (jacket)