BILL NYE'S RED BOOK
By Edgar Wilson Nye
Illustrated by J. H. Smith
Thompson & Thomas Chicago
1891
This is the fourth book that I have published in response to the clamorous appeals of the public. I had long hoped to publish a larger, better, and if possible a redder book than the first; one that would contain my better thoughts; thoughts that I had thought when I was feeling well; thoughts that I had omitted when my thinker was rearing up on its hind feet, if I may be allowed that term; thoughts that sprang forth with a wild whoop and demanded recognition. This book is the result of that hope and that wish. It is may greatest and best book.
Bill Nye.
This book is not designed specially for any one class of people. It is for all. It is a universal repository of thought. Some of my best thoughts are contained in this book. Whenever I would think a thought that I thought had better remain unthought, I would omit it from this book. For that reason the book is not so large as I had intended. When a man coldly and dispassionately goes at it to eradicate from his work all that may not come up to his standard of merit, he can make a large volume shrink till it is no thicker than the bank book of an outspoken clergyman.
This is the fourth book that I have published in response to the clamorous appeals of the public. Whenever the public got to clamoring too loudly for a new book from me and it got so noisy that I could not ignore it any more, I would issue another volume. The first was a red book, succeeded by a dark blue volume, after which I published a green book, all of which were kindly received by the American people, and, under the present yielding system of international copyright, greedily snapped up by some of the tottering dynasties.
But I had long hoped to publish a larger, better and, if possible, a redder book than the first; one that would contain my better though