Excerpt from My Autobiography IT will be seen from this narrative that to my mother and to my wife I owe much. I am in debted to the cooperation of Miss Willa Sibert Cather for the very existence of this book. Throughout my life I have had the good fortune to experience kindliness, consideration and helpful ness from many people. Among those whom I remember With especial affection was the late Mr. William M. Lafl'an, of the New York Sun, a man singularly loyal and generous. I owe much to Melville B. Anderson (formerly Professor of English Literature at Knox College, now Professor Emeritus of Leland Stanford), who first encouraged me to hope that I might find a place in the world. I was fortunate in my three employers: Co]. A. A. Pope, Roswell Smith, and Theodore L. De Vinne. I have told something of these three men in the following pages, but have scarcely expressed my appreciation of their high ability. I wish here to emphasize my indebtedness to the consideration and assistance of my long-time associates, Miss Ida M. 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.