William Joseph Long (1866–1952) was an American writer, naturalist and minister. He lived and worked in Stamford, Connecticut as a minister of the First Congregationalist Church. As a naturalist, he went to travel to "the wilderness" of Maine. He wrote of these wilderness experiences in the books Ways of Wood Folk, Wilderness Ways, Wood-folk Comedies, Northern Trails, Wood Folk at School, and many others.
This book, is a history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. The first is to create or in every student the desire to read the best books, and to know literature itself rather than what has been written about literature. The second is to interpret literature both personally and historically, that is, to show how a great book generally reflects not only the author's life and thought but also the spirit of the age and the ideals of the nation's history.
