The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast Read online

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  "Hallo!" cried Harold, his own voice husky with emotion .. . Frontispiece]

  THE YOUNG MAROONERS ON THE FLORIDA COAST

  BY F. R. GOULDING

  WITH INTRODUCTION BY JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS (Uncle Remus)

  ILLUSTRATED

  NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1927

  COPYRIGHT, 1862 BY F. R. GOULDING

  COPYRIGHT, 1881 BY F. R. GOULDING

  COPYRIGHT, 1887 BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

  PRINTED IN U. S. A.

  INTRODUCTION

  I have been asked to furnish an introduction for a new edition of "TheYoung Marooners." As an introduction is unnecessary, the writing of itmust be to some extent perfunctory. The book is known in many lands andlanguages. It has survived its own success, and has entered intoliterature. It has become a classic. The young marooners themselveshave reached middle age, and some of them have passed away, but theiradventures are as fresh and as entertaining as ever.

  Dr. Goulding's work possesses all the elements of enduring popularity.It has the strength and vigour of simplicity; its narrative flowscontinuously forward; its incidents are strange and thrilling, andunderneath all is a moral purpose sanely put.

  The author himself was surprised at the great popularity of his story,and has written a history of its origin as a preface. The internalevidence is that the book is not the result of literary ambition, but ofa strong desire to instruct and amuse his own children, and the story isso deftly written that the instruction is a definite part of thenarrative. The art here may be unconscious, but it is a very fine artnevertheless.

  Dr. Goulding lived a busy life. He had the restless missionary spiritwhich he inherited from the Puritans of Dorchester, England, whoestablished themselves in Dorchester, South Carolina, and in Dorchester,Georgia, before the Revolutionary War. Devoting his life to good works,he nevertheless found time to indulge his literary faculty; he alsofound time to indulge his taste for mechanical invention. He inventedthe first sewing-machine that was ever put in practical use in theSouth. His family were using this machine a year before the Howe patentswere issued. In his journal of that date (1845) he writes: "Havingsatisfied myself about my machine, I laid it aside that I might attendto other and weightier duties." He applied for no patent.

  "The Young Marooners" was begun in 1847, continued in a desultory way,and completed in 1850. Its first title was a quaint one, "Bobbins andCruisers Company." It was afterward called "Robert and Harold; or, theYoung Marooners." The history of the manuscript of the book is aninteresting parallel to that of many other successful books. Afterhaving been positively declined in New York, it was for months left inPhiladelphia, where one night, as the gentleman whose duty it was topass judgment upon the material offered had begun in a listless way histask, he became so much absorbed in the story that he did not lay itdown until long after midnight, and hastening to the publishers earlynext morning, insisted that it should be immediately put into print.Three editions were issued in the first year, and it was soon reprintedin England by Nisbet & Co., of London, followed by five other houses inEngland and Scotland at later dates.

  Dr. Goulding was the author of "Little Josephine," published inPhiladelphia (1848); "The Young Marooners" (1852); "ConfederateSoldiers' Hymn-Book," a compilation (1863); "Marooner's Island," anindependent sequel to "Young Marooners" (1868); "Frank Gordon; or, WhenI was Little Boy" (1869), and "The Woodruff Stories" (1870). With theexception of "Little Josephine" and the "Hymn-Book," they have all beenrepublished abroad. Born near Midway, Liberty County, Georgia,September 28th, 1810, he died August 21st, 1881, and is buried in thelittle churchyard at Roswell, Georgia.

  JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.