Excerpt from Edward Edwards: The Chief Pioneer of Municipal Public Libraries To Dr. Richard Garnett, c.b., I am indebted for the active and sympathetic interest with which he has followed this undertaking throughout. He has also been good enough to read the proof sheets. To Mr. James Duff Brown, Librarian of the Finsbury Public Libraries, my thanks are given for the compilation of the index. I am grateful to those who have sent me letters received from Edwards. Should this little volume serve in any measure to aid in securing for Edward Edwards the recognition due to his splendid services in the cause of education and librarianship, its sole purpose will be accomplished. His memory deserves to be held in everlasting remem brance among the great mass of users of municipal public libraries. TO Edwards I owe much of the stimulus which led to an increased activity in the public library movement. The year of his death saw the issue of my first writing upon the subject, and what then became to me an interesting hobby remains the same after the lapse of years. Edwards is to me as a library father, and ifi can cultivate but a fraction of his enthusiasm and able advocacy of municipal libraries, I shall be content. 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.