The Book of Prefaces

For the book by H. L. Mencken see A Book of Prefaces.

The Book of Prefaces, "Edited and Glossed" by the Scottish artist and novelist Alasdair Gray, provides a history of how literature spread and developed through the nations of England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States. Its subtitle "A Short History of Literate Thought in Words by Great Writers Of Four Nations From The 7th To The 20th Century" outlines its scope.
Gray's own preface begins with An Editor's Advertisement which cites William Smellie's preface to The Philosophy of Natural History published in Edinburgh in 1790 stating what every preface should contain, and concluding that "If this plan had been universally observed, a collection of prefaces would have exhibited a short, but curious and useful history both of literature and authors." In his postscript Gray recounts how reading this in the early 1980s inspired the plan of the book, and after sixteen...