unmistakable American character. It is the production mainly of American mind. It views every subject from an American standpoint, and, in all that relates to biography, history, geography, and the institutions of our country, furnishes a fund of information which can be obtained nowhere else.
IV. In Interest of Style.—Many of the writers are men who hold the foremost rank in general literature, and their articles have been characterized by our best critics as models of elegance, force, and beauty. The Press unite in echoing the sentiment of a leading editor of New York, who says: “We have found the continuous reading of it as entertaining as if, instead of being a book of matter-of-fact, it had been a romance from the pen of a master.”
V. In Convenience of Form.—No ponderous quartos, crowded with fine type that strains the eyes and wearies the brain, are here presented. The volumes are just the right size to handle conveniently; the paper is thick and white, the type is large, the binding elegant and durable.
VI. In Cheapness.—Appletons' American Cyclopædia has been universally pronounced a miracle of cheapness. The publishers determined at the outset to enlarge its sphere of usefulness, and make it emphatically a book for the people, by putting it at the lowest possible price. A reference to the Terms will show that it is within the reach of everybody.
How to get a Library.
THE AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA IS IN FACT A LIBRARY IN ITSELF. It is the knowledge of the centuries boiled down; the essence of all books crystallized. It stands on the shelves ready to answer briefly every conceivable question in physics, history, politics, art, philosophy, and what not; to furnish precisely the information wanted on almost every possible subject; to turn your children's wide-eyed wondering into the best of school-masters; to make of every question sprung in the family circle an instructive lesson; to convert your guesses into positive knowledge; to give you in brief paragraphs the result of other men's years of toilsome investigation. It is everything in little, and no skill is necessary to the finding of the particular thing the owner may happen to want. It is far more truly one of the “necessaries of life” than are many of the things which we commonly mean by that phrase.
The work has been entirely rewritten by the ablest writers on every subject, printed from new type, and illustrated with several thousand engravings and colored lithographic maps. It is not obligatory to take all the volumes upon the first delivery; a volume may be delivered once a month, or once in two months, at the option of the subscriber. The question is only, How much can be spared each month? Three dollars a month, which is only ten cents a day, the price of a cigar, will pay for a complete set of the Cyclopædia by bimonthly subscription. Then there will be something substantial saved, and a storehouse of knowledge, indeed a UNIVERSAL LIBRARY in itself, secured, with but little effort or sacrifice.
Price and Style of Binding.
| In Extra Cloth, per volume | | $ 5.00 |
| In Library Leather, per vol. | 6.00 | |
| In Half Turkey Morocco, per vol. | 7.00 | |
| In Half Russia, extra gilt, per vol. | 8.00 | |
| In Full Morocco, antique, guilt edges, per vol. | 10.00 | |
| In Full Russia, per vol. | 10.00 |
The publishers respectfully give notice to the public that the above-named work is not sold
by them or their Agents to any one at less than the prices printed on this circular, and is sold
only by subscription through their authorized Agents; nor will it be sold in the book-stores.
They would advise those wishing the earliest impressions of the work, to subscribe at once.
Specimen pages will be forwarded on application to the publishers,
549 & 551 Broadway, New York.
