fact that no one library contains anything like a complete collection of
Mrs. Haywood's innumerable books. In pursuit of odd items I have
ransacked the British Museum, the Bodleian, and several minor literary
museums in England, and in America the libraries of Columbia, Harvard,
Yale, and Brown Universities, the Peabody Institute, and the University
of Chicago. The search has enabled me to correct many inaccuracies in
Miss Morgan's tentative list of prose fiction and even to supplement Mr.
Esdaile's admirable "List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed
before 1740," which mentions only works now extant in British libraries.

In the Bibliography I have adopted an alphabetical arrangement as most
convenient for ready reference. Under the various editions of each book
I have referred to libraries, English or American, where copies are to
be found. Or when no copy was to be had, I have referred to
advertisements, either in the newspapers of the Burney Collection, in
the "Gentleman's Magazine," the "Monthly," or the "Critical," or in the
catalogues of modern booksellers. In the Chronological List I have dated
each work from the earliest advertisement of its publication.

Naturally I have incurred obligations to scholars who have previously
passed over the same little-cultivated territory. Mr. Arundell Esdaile
of the British Museum staff both facilitated the course of my
investigations in England by valuable suggestions and cheered it by his
cordial hospitality. To Professors R.P. Utter of Amherst, J.M. Clapp of
Lake Forest College, A.H. Upham of Miami University, and A.H. Thorndike
of Columbia I am indebted for friendly advice, encouragement, and
helpful criticism. And above all my thanks are due to Professor W.P.
Trent, whose love of eighteenth century letters suggested the subject of
this research, whose sage and kindly supervision fostered the work
through every stage in its development, and for whose forthcoming "Life