Excerpt from Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. 1 of 2 To the reader I have only a word to say: I fear his criticism that these volumes have too much Memoir, too little Correspondence. To this complaint, if it be made, I must plead in "confession and avoidance." The fact is that letter-writing was to Dr. Holmes an irksome task. Except to Motley and to Lowell, during their absences in Europe, he very rarely wrote spontaneously and in the way of friendship. His letters, it will be observed, were almost always written because some correspondent could not courteously be left unanswered, or under the more or less mild compulsion of some special occasion. Therefore his letters were few. Every effort has been made to collect them, and the result is spread very fully before the reader. Nothing has been omitted which, by any liberality of-judgment, could be supposed to have any interest: on the contrary, notes and letters are printed, which would hardly have been selected had there been an embarras de richesses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Life and Letter of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. 2 of 2 How formidable a little cheap knowledge looks to those who are wholly ignorant of its familiar terms! I recollect that the word forwarding made almost a sensation, as Sumner spoke of it. What is for warding It includes all that part of a book binder's work which is necessary for the preservation of a volume. All the rest is finishing, coloring the leather, gilding, and ornamentation of every kind. I think we were all interested in Sumner's dinner table lecture, I am sure he enjoyed giving it as much as any old Professor discoursing to a class of students. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.