Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Forgotten Books of the American Nursery, by Rosalie V. Halsey This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Forgotten Books of the American Nursery A History of the Development of the American Story-Book Author: Rosalie V. Halsey Release Date: February 25, 2006 [eBook #17857] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY*** E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Julia Miller, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) Transcriber’s Note A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the current version of this book. They are marked and the corrected text is shown in the popup that appers when the cursor is placed over the marked text. A list of these errors is found at the end of this book. [i] [ii] Forgotten Books of the American Nursery [iii] The Devil and the Disobedient Child FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY A History of the Development of the American Story-Book BY ROSALIE V. HALSEY BOSTON Charles E. Goodspeed & Co. 1911 [iv] Copyright, 1911, by C. E. Goodspeed & Co. Of this book seven hundred copies were printed in November 1911, by D. B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston [v] TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Introductory The Play-Book in England Newbery’s Books in America Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery The Child and his Book at the End of the Eighteenth Century Toy-Books in the early Nineteenth Century American Writers and English Critics Index PAGE 3 33 59 89 121 147 191 233 [vii] [vi] ILLUSTRATIONS The Devil and the Disobedient Child Frontispiece From “The Prodigal Daughter.” Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5, Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?] Facing Page The Devil appears as a French Gentleman 26 From “The Prodigal Daughter.” Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5, Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?] Title-page from “The Child’s New Play-thing” Printed by J. Draper; J. Edwards in Boston [1750]. Now in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Title-page from “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book” Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII . Now in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations A page from “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book” Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII . Now in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations John Newbery’s Advertisement of Children’s Books From the “Pennsylvania Gazette” of November 15, 1750 Title-page of “The New Gift for Children” Printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Miss Fanny’s Maid Illustration from “The New Gift for Children,” printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania A page from a Catalogue of Children’s Books printed by Isaiah Thomas From “The Picture Exhibition,” Worcester, MDCCLXXXVIII 44 47 49 60 70 74 106 [viii] Illustration of Riddle XIV From “The Puzzling-Cap,” printed by John Adams, 110 Philadelphia, 1805 Frontispiece from “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes” From one of The First Worcester Edition , printed by Isaiah Thomas in MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Sir Walter Raleigh and his Man Copper-plate illustration from “Little Truths,” printed in Philadelphia by J. and J. Crukshank in 1800 Foot Ball Copper-plate illustration from “Youthful Recreations,” printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson about 1802 Jacob Johnson’s Book-Store in Philadelphia about 1800 A Wall-paper Book-Cover From “Lessons for Children from Four to Five Years Old,” printed in Wilmington (Delaware) by Peter Brynberg in 1804 Tom the Piper’s Son Illustration and text engraved on copper by William Charles, of Philadelphia, in 1808 A Kind and Good Father Woodcut by Alexander Anderson for “The Prize for Youthful Obedience,” printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807 A Virginian Illustration from “People of all Nations,” printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807 A Baboon Illustration from “A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds,” printed in Boston by Lincoln and Edmands in 1813 Drest or Undrest Illustration from “The Daisy,” published by Jacob Johnson in 1808 Little Nancy Probably engraved by William Charles for “Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of Greediness,” published in Philadelphia by Morgan & Yeager about 1830 117 125 126 155 165 170 172 174 [ix] 174 176 182 Children of the Cottage Engraved by Joseph I. Pease for “The Youth’s Sketch Book,” published in Boston by Lilly, Wait and Company in 1834 Henrietta Engraved by Thomas Illman for “The American Juvenile Keepsake,” published in Brockville, U. C., by Horace Billings & Co. in 1835 A Child and her Doll Illustration from “Little Mary,” Part II, published in Boston by Cottons and Barnard in 1831 The Little Runaway Drawn and engraved by J. W. Steel for “Affection’s Gift,” published in New York by J. C. Riker in 1832 196 200 206 227 [x] [1] CHAPTER I Introductory Thy life to mend This book attend. The New England Tutor London (1702-14) To be brought up in fear And learn A B C. FOXE, Book of Martyrs [3] [2] Forgotten Books of the American Nursery CHAPTER I Introductory full of books colonial A SHELFthe early daysbelonging to the Americanachildren of unfamiliartimes and of of the Republic presents strangely and curious appearance. If chronologically placed, the earliest coverless chapbooks are hardly noticeable next to their immediate successors with wooden sides; and these, in turn, are dominated by the gilt, silver, and many colored bindings of diminutive dimensions which hold the stories dear to the childish heart from Revolutionary days to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then bright blue, salmon, yellow, and marbled paper covers make a vivid display which, as the century grows older, fades into the sad-colored cloth bindings thought adapted to many children’s books of its second quarter. An examination of their contents shows them to be equally foreign to present day ideas as to the desirable characteristics for children’s literature. Yet the crooked black type and crude illustrations of the wholly religious episodes related in the oldest volumes on the shelf, the didactic and moral stories with their tiny type-metal, wood, and copper-plate pictures of the next groups; and the “improving” American tales adorned with blurred colored engravings, or stiff steel and wood illustrations, that were produced for juvenile amusement in the early part of the nineteenth century,—all are as interesting to the lover of [4] children as they are unattractive to the modern children themselves. The little ones very naturally find the stilted language of these old stories unintelligible and the artificial plots bewildering; but to one interested in the adult literature of the same periods of history an acquaintance with these amusement books of past generations has a peculiar charm and value of its own. They then become not merely curiosities, but the means of tracing the evolution of an American literature for children. To the student desiring an intimate acquaintance with any civilized people, its lighter literature is always a great aid to personal research; the more trivial, the more detailed, the greater the worth to the investigator are these penpictures as records of the nation he wishes to know. Something of this value have the story-books of old-fashioned childhood. Trivial as they undoubtedly are, they nevertheless often contain our best sketches of child-life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,—a life as different from that of a twentieth century child as was the adult society of those old days from that of the present time. They also enable us to mark as is possible in no other way, the gradual development of a body of writing which, though lagging much behind the adult literature, was yet also affected by the local and social conditions in America. Without attempting to give the history of the evolution of the A B C book in England—the legitimate ancestor of all juvenile books—two main topics must be briefly discussed before entering upon the proper matter of this volume. The first relates to the family life in the early days of the Massachusetts [5] Commonwealth, the province that produced the first juvenile book. The second topic has to do with the literature thought suitable for children in those early Puritan days. These two subjects are closely related, the second being dependent upon the first. Both are necessary to the history of these quaint toy volumes, whose stories lack much meaning unless the conditions of life and literature preceding them are understood. When the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom of faith, founded their first settlements in the new country, one of their earliest efforts was directed toward firmly establishing their own religion. This, though nominally free, was eventually, under the Mathers, to become a theocracy as intolerant as that faith from which they had fled. The rocks upon which this religion was builded were the Bible and the Catechism. In this history of toy-books the catechism is, however, perhaps almost the more important to consider, for it was a product of the times, and regarded as indispensable to the proper training of a family. The Puritan conception of life, as an error to be rectified by suffering rather than as a joy to be accepted with thanksgiving, made the preparation for death and the dreadful Day of Judgment the chief end of existence. The catechism, therefore, with its fear-inspiring description of Hell and the consequences of sin, b