Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations by Charles W. Eliot is an anthology of literary gems by famous writers. It contains prefatory prose and criticism by Dryden, Wordsworth, Hugo, and others. Dr. Johnson's Preface to his great Dictionary, Walt Whitman's Preface to Leaves of Grass and other great introductory pieces by Spenser, Raleigh, Bacon, Newton, Dryden, and Fielding are included.

Contents: William Caxton: Title, Prologue and Epilogues to the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy; Epilogue to Dictes; Prologue to Golden Legend, Caton, Aesop; Proem to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Prologue to Malory's King Arthur and Virgil's Eneydos. John Calvin: Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Nicolaus Copernicus: Dedication of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies. John Knox: Preface to the History of the Reformation in Scotland. Edmund Spenser: prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on the Faerie Queene. Sir Walter Raleigh: Preface to the History of the World. Francis Bacon: Prooemium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna.