sure, one might turn to biographies to learn about an orator, but for the
public address scholar these sources often prove unhelpful. Rhetorical
topics, such as speech invention, disposition, style, delivery, and persuasive
effect, are often treated in passing, if at all. Authoritative speech texts are
often difficult to locate and the problem of textual accuracy is frequently
encountered. This is especially true for early figures, or for those whose
persuasive role, though significant, was secondary to other leading lights of
the age.

Part I of this volume is a critical analysis of the orator and his or her
speeches. Within the format of a case study, one may expect considerable
latitude. For instance, in a given chapter an author might explicate a single
speech or a group of related speeches, or examine orations that comprise a
genre of rhetoric such as forensic speaking. But the critic's focus remains on
the rhetorical considerations of speaker and speech, purpose and effect.

Part II contains the texts of the important addresses that are discussed
in the critical analysis that precedes it. To the extent possible, each author
has endeavored to collect definitive speech texts, which have often been
found through original research in historical materials. In a few instances,
because of the extreme length of a speech, texts have been edited, but the
authors have carefully deleted material that is least important to the speech,
and these deletions have been held to a minimum.

Each book contains a chronology of major speeches that serves several
purposes. Pragmatically, it lists all of the orator's known addresses. Places
and dates of the speeches are also given, although this information is
sometimes difficult to determine precisely. But in a wider sense, the
chronology attests to the scope of rhetoric in the United States. Certainly
in quantity, if not always in quality, Americans are historically talkers and
listeners.

Because of the disparate nature of the speakers examined in the series,
there is some latitude in the nature of the bibliographical materials that have
been included in each book. But in every instance, authors have carefully
described historical collections, and have gathered primary and secondary
sources that bear on the speaker and the oratory. By combining in each
book critical chapters with bibliographical materials and speech texts, this
series notes that textual and research sources are interwoven in the act of
rhetorical criticism.

May the books in this series serve as a fitting memorial to the nation's
greatest orators as students and scholars study anew the history and criticism
of American public address.

Bernard K. Duffy

Halford R. Ryan

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