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Preface

The writer owes a great debt of gratitude to a host of friends who have given assistance and encouragement from the time research was begun in 1938 preparatory to a doctoral dissertation on the subject of Early Methodist Autobiography. The counsel of Professor Helen C. White, University of Wisconsin, at that time proved invaluable. Much appreciated aid in continuing research has been frequently given by Dr. Neal F. Doubleday, Millikin University, and Professor Arthur W. Secord, University of Illinois.

To Florence and Ernest Vinson, who suggested and sponsored study in England, and to all those former students of Greenville College who gave so generously to the travel fund, heartfelt thanks are given. To English friends, also, goes an expression of deep gratitude: to the staff of Epworth Press associated with the Methodist Book Room, especially to Dr. Leslie Church, Robert Young, and Margaret Simpson; to the gracious friends at Littlegarth, especially to Doris Morgan; and to Dr. W. E. Sangster for his wise and stimulating suggestions.

The writer wishes to express appreciation for the leave of absence granted by President Long and the Trustees of Greenville College, and for the kindly interest shown by members of the Greenville College staff, particularly for the assistance from the librarians, Ruby Dare and Dorothy King. She gratefully acknowledges her debt to Dr. George Turner, Asbury Seminary, for reading the manuscript, and to Nadine Roller for preparing the script, and to various advisors at the Light and Life Press, in particular Mr. B. H. Gaddis, and Edna Evans. To Minta Secord thanks are due for the plans for the format of the book.

Acknowledgment is gratefully given to the following persons who have permitted use of copyright quotations:

To Abingdon-Cokesbury Press quotations from The Way, by E. Stanley Jones, and American Churches: An Interpretation, by W. W. Sweet;

To Mrs. Marjorie Meador for quotations from English Society in the Eighteenth Century, by J. B. Botsford;

To Epworth Press for brief quotations from various publications for which they hold the copyright.

MARY ALICE TENNEY