PREFACE
The letters which form the first part of the book were published in the New York Times (simultaneously with their appearance in England) under the title of "American Jottings." This word exactly describes them; they are jottings and no more. As the term, however, seemed scarcely applicable to the essays composing the second part of the book, I was forced to choose for it a more general, and I fear more pretentious, title.
In the letters, and in the last of the essays, I have inserted a few passages which were in my mind, if not on paper, from the first, and were omitted only from considerations of space. All after-thoughts have been added either in footnotes or in postscripts. The essay on "American Literature," which appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine about eighteen months ago, has been largely re-written and brought up to date.
London, October 31, 1899.
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