McGuffey, William: - William McGuffey (1800-1873), American educator, author, and Presbyterian minister is best known for creating the McGuffey Readers, the first widely used textbooks in the U.S. William McGuffey, who had a lifelong interest in teaching children, compiled the first four readers beginning in 1836, while his brother Alexander created the fifth and sixth readers in the 1840s. In 1879, the readers were revised to better portray America as a melting pot of moralities and middle-class values. The McGuffey Readers have been popular for more than 150 years, have sold more than 120 million copies since 1836, and are still in use today.