1747-1767
_The Play-Book in England_
The vast horde of story-books so constantly poured into modern nurseries
makes it difficult to realize that the library of the early colonial
child consisted of such books as have been already described. The
juvenile books to-day are multiform. The quantities displayed upon
shop-counters or ranged upon play-room shelves include a variety of
subjects bewildering to all but those whose business necessitates a
knowledge of this kind of literature. For the little child there is no
lack of gayly colored pictures and short tales in large print; for the
older boys and girls there lies a generous choice, ranging from Bunny
stories to Jungle Books, or they
"May see how all things are,
Seas and cities near and far.
And the flying fairies' looks
In the picture story-books."
The contrast is indeed extreme between that scanty fare of dull sermons
and "The New England Primer" given to the little people of the early
eighteenth century, and this superabundance prepared with lavish care
for the nation of American children.
The beginning of this complex juvenile literature is, therefore, to be
regarded as a comparatively modern invention of about seventeen hundred
and forty-five. From that date can be traced the slow growth of a
literature written with an avowed intention of furnishing amusement as
well as instruction; and in the toy-books published one hundred and
fifty years ago are found the prototypes of the present modes of
bringing fun and knowledge to the American fireside.
The question at once arises as to the reason why this literature came
into existence; why was it that children after seventeen hundred and
fifty should have been favored in a way unknown to their parents?
To even the casual reader of English literature the answer is plain, if
this subject of toy-books be regarded as of near kin to the larger body
of writing. It has been somewhat the custom to consider children's
literature as a thing wholly apart from that of adults, probably because
the majority of the authors of these little tales have so generally
lacked the qualities indispensable for any true literary work. In
reality the connection between the two is somewhat like that of parent
and child; the smaller body, though lacking in power, has closely
imitated the larger mass of writing in form and kind, and has reflected,
sometimes clearly, sometimes dimly, the good or bad fashions that have
shared the successive periods of literary history, like a child who
unconsciously reproduces a parent's foibles or excellences.
It is to England, then, that we must look to find the conditions out of
which grew the necessity for this modern invention--the story-book.
The love of stories has been the splendid birthright of every child in
all ages and in all lands. "Stories," wrote Thackeray,--"stories exist
everywhere; there is no calculating the distance through which the
stories have come to us, the number of languages through which they have
been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many
of them have been narrated almost in their present shape for thousands
of years to the little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to
their mothers under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow
Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring
in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northern Vikings
as they lay on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the
stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered in, and their
mares were picketed by the tents." This picturesque description leads
exactly to the point to be emphasized: that children shared in the
simple tales of their people as long as those tales retained their
freshness and simplicity; but when, as in England in the eighteenth
century, the literature lost these qualities and became artificial,
critical, and even skeptical, it lost its charm for the little ones and
they no longer cared to listen to it.
Fashion and taste were then alike absorbed in the works of Dryden, Pope,
Addison, Steele, and Swift, and the novels from the pens of Richardson,
Fielding, and Smollett had begun to claim and to hold the attention of
the English reading public. The children, however, could neither
comprehend nor enjoy the witty criticism and subtle treatment of the
topics discussed by the older men, although, as will be seen in another
chapter, the novels became, in both the original and in the abridged
forms, the delight of many a "young master and miss." Meanwhile, in the
American colonies the people who could afford to buy books inherited
their taste for literature as well as for tea from the Puritans and
fashionables in the mother country; although it is a fact familiar to
all, that the works of the comparatively few native authors lagged, in
spirit and in style, far behind the writings of Englishmen of the time.
The reading of one who was a boy in the older era of the urbane Addison
and the witty Pope, and a man in the newer period of the novelists, is
well described in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. "All the little
money," wrote that book-lover, "that came into my hands was laid out in
books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my collection was of John
Bunyan's works in separate volumes. I afterwards sold them to buy R.
Burton's Historical Collections; they were Chapmen's books, and cheap,
40 or 50 in all."
Burton's "Historical Collections" contained history, travels,
adventures, fiction, natural history, and biography. So great was the
favor in which they were held in the eighteenth century that the
compiler, Nathaniel Crouch, almost lost his identity in his pseudonym,
and like the late Mr. Clemens, was better known by his nom-de-plume than
by his family name. According to Dunton, he "melted down the best of the
English histories into twelve-penny books, which are filled with
wonders, rarities and curiosities." Although characterized by Dr.
Johnson as "very proper to allure backward readers," the contents of
many of the various books afforded the knowledge and entertainment
eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American
nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made
Burton's account of the "English Empire in America" at once a mine of
interest to wide-awake boys of the day. Number VIII, entitled "Winter
Evenings' Entertainment," was long a source of amusement with its
stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a
similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the
series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called
"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were
such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime
for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the
same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.
To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
for the amusement of little children.
While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation
through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books
as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
which there is record.
In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses
delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for
larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such
exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which
did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
nature of its contents.
In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well
attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's
books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The
Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and
Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
that pictures were commendable to parents _because_ entertaining to
their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised
in so well-read a sheet as the "Boston Evening Post," must surely have
impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare
and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was
further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably
for the first time in this country, "Dilworth's New Guide to the English
Tongue." In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons,
a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated "Select Fables."
The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the
supposition that they were engraved by the printer himself; and the
constant use of the "Guide" by colonial school-masters and mistresses
made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and
fewer homiletic volumes.
Indeed, before the middle of the century pictures had become an accepted
feature of the few juvenile books, and "The History of the Holy Jesus"
versified for little ones was issued by at least two old Boston printers
in 1747 and 1748 with more than a dozen cuts. Among the rare extant
copies of this small chap-book is one that, although torn and disfigured
by tiny fingers and the century and a half since it pleased its first
owner, bears the personal touch of this inscription "Ebenezer ... Bought
June ... 1749 ... price 0=2=d." Was the price marked upon its page as a
reminder that two shillings was a large price to pay for a boy's book?
Perhaps for this reason it received the careful handling that has
enabled us to examine it, when so many of its contemporaries and
successors have vanished.
The versified story, notwithstanding its quaintness of diction, begins
with a dignified directness:
"The glorious blessed Time had come,
The Father had decreed,
Jesus of _Mary_ there was born,
And in a Manger laid."
At the end are two _Hymns_, entitled "Delight in the Lord Jesus," and
"Absence from Christ intolerable." The final stanza is typical of one
Puritan doctrine:
"The Devil throws his fiery Darts,
And wicked Ones do act their parts,
To ruin me when Christ is gone,
And leaves me all alone."
The woodcuts are not the least interesting feature of this old-time
duodecimo, from the picture showing the mother reading to her children
to the illustration of the quaking of the earth on the day of the
crucifixion. Crude and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely
sufficient to attract the child of their generation.
About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas,
and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston,
advertised among his list of books "Lately Publish'd" this same small
book, together with "A Token for Youth," the "Life and Death of
Elizabeth Butcher," "A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of
Childhood and Youth," "The Prodigal Daughter," "The Happy Child," and
"The New Gift for Children with Cuts." Of these "The New Gift" was
certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant
readily proves.
Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery's
miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in
England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be
interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the
character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or
home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract
those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies' destiny.
The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant
literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some
change in the kind of reading-matter to be put in the hands of the
younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once
there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.
Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's
ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's
New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to
story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters
under the title of "Thoughts on Education."
In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a
quaint plea for the _general welfare_ of Mr. Clarke's little son. "I
imagine," he wrote, "the minds of children are as easily turned this or
that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our
main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be
neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the
_Health_ of the body." Under Health he discussed clothing, including
thin shoes, "that they may leak and let in Water." A pause was then
made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent
disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in
that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next
received attention. Bathing every day in cold water, Locke regarded as
exceedingly desirable; no exceptions were to be made, even in the case
of a "puleing and tender" child. The beneficial effects of air,
sunlight, the establishment of good conduct, diet, sleep, and "physick"
were all discussed by the doctor and philosopher, before the development
of the mind was touched upon. "Education," he wrote, "concerns itself
with the forming of Children's Minds, giving them that seasoning early,
which shall influence their Lives later." This seasoning referred to the
training of children in matters pertaining to their general government
and to the reverence of parents. For the Puritan population it was
undoubtedly a shock to find Locke interesting himself in, and moreover
advocating, dancing as a part of a child's education; and worst of all,
that he should mention it before their hobby, LEARNING. In this
connection it is worth while to make mention of a favorite primer,
which, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, was
entitled "The Hobby Horse." Locke was quite aware that his method would
be criticised, and therefore took the bull by the horns in the following
manner. He admitted that to put the subject of learning last was a cause
for wonder, "especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This
may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man, and this making usually
the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children; this being almost
that alone, which is thought on, when People talk about Education, make
it the greater Paradox." An unusual piece of advice it most surely was
to parents to whose children came the task of learning to read as soon
as they were given spoon-food.
Even more revolutionary to the custom of an eighteenth century mother
was the admonition that reading "be never made a Task." Locke, however,
was not the man to urge a cure for a bad habit without prescribing a
remedy, so he went on to say that it was always his "Fancy that Learning
be made a Play and Recreation to Children"--a "Fancy" at present much in
vogue. To accomplish this desirable result, "Dice and Play-things with
the Letters on them" were recommended to teach children the alphabet;
"and," he added, "twenty other ways may be found ... to make this kind
of Learning a Sport to them." Letter-blocks were in this way made
popular, and formed the approved and advanced method until in these
latter days pedagogy has swept aside the letter-blocks and syllabariums
and carried the sport to word-pictures.
This theory had a practical result in the introduction to many households
of "The Child's New Play-thing." This book, already mentioned, was
printed in England in seventeen hundred and forty-three, and dedicated to
Prince George. In seventeen hundred and forty-four we find through the
"Boston Evening Post" of January 23 that the third edition was sold by
Joseph Edwards, in Cornhill, and it was probably from this edition that
the first American edition was printed in seventeen hundred and fifty.
From the following description of this American reprint (one of which is
happily in the Lenox Collection), it will be seen that the "Play-thing"
was an attempt to follow Locke's advice, as well as a connecting link
between the primer of the past and the story-book of the near future.
The title, which the illustration shows, reads, "The Child's New
Play-thing being a spelling-book intended to make Learning to read a
diversion instead of a task. Consisting of Scripture-histories, fables,
stories, moral and religious precepts, proverbs, songs, riddles,
dialogues, &c. The whole adapted to the capacities of children, and
divided into lessons of one, two, three and four syllables. The fourth
edition. To which is added three dialogues; 1. Shewing how a little boy
shall make every body love him. 2. How a little boy shall grow wiser than
the rest of his school-fellows. 3. How a little boy shall become a great
man. Designed for the use of schools, or for children before they go to
school."
[Illustration: _Title-page from "The Child's new Play-Thing"_]
Coverless and faded, hard usage is written in unmistakable characters
upon this play-thing of a whole family. Upon a fly-leaf are the
autographs of "Ebenezer Ware and Sarah Ware, Their Book," and upon
another page these two names with the addition of the signatures of
"Ichabod Ware and Cyrus Ware 1787." One parent may have used it when it
was fresh from the press of Draper & Edwards in Boston; then, through
enforced economy, handed it down to the next generation, who doubtless
scorned the dedication so eminently proper in seventeen hundred and
fifty, so thoroughly out of place thirty-seven years later. There it
stands in large black type:
To his ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE This Little
Play-thing is most humbly dedicated
By
His ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
Devoted Servant
Of especial interest are the alphabets in "Roman, Italian, and English
Names" on the third page, while page four contains the dear old alphabet
in rhyme, fortunately not altogether forgotten in this prosaic age. We
recognize it as soon as we see it.
"A Apple-Pye
B bit it
C cut it,"
and involuntarily add, D divided it. After the spelling lessons came
fables, proverbs, and the splendid "Stories proper to raise the
Attention and excite the Curiosity of Children" of any age; namely, "St.
George and the Dragon," "Fortunatus," "Guy of Warwick," "Brother and
Sister," "Reynard the Fox," "The Wolf and the Kid." "The Good Dr.
Watts," writes Mrs. Field, "is supposed to have had a hand in the
composition of this toy book especially in the stories, one of which is
quite in the style of the old hymn writer." Here it is:
"Once on a time two dogs went out to walk. Tray was a good dog, and
would not hurt the least thing in the world, but Snap was cross, and
would snarl and bite at all that came in his way. At last they came
to a town. All the dogs came round them. Tray hurt none of them, but
Snap would grin at one, snarl at the next, and bite a third, till at
last they fell on him and tore him limb from limb, and as poor Tray
was with him, he met with his death at the same time.
_Moral_
"By this fable you see how dangerous it is to be in company with bad
boys. Tray was a quiet harmless dog, and hurt nobody, but,
&c."[45-A]
Thus we find that Locke sowed the seed, Watts watered the soil in which
the seed fell, and that Newbery, after mixing in ideas from his very
fertile brain, soon reaped a golden harvest from the crop of readers,
picture-books, and little histories which he, with the aid of certain
well-known authors, produced.
According to his biographer, Mr. Charles Welsh, John Newbery was born in
a quaint parish of England in seventeen hundred and thirteen. Although
his father was only a small farmer, Newbury inherited his bookish tastes
from an ancestor, Ralph or Rafe Newbery, who had been a great publisher
of the sixteenth century. Showing no inclination toward the life of a
farmer, the boy, at sixteen, had already entered the shop of a merchant
in Reading. The name of this merchant is not known, but inference points
to Mr. Carnan, printer, proprietor, and editor of one of the earliest
provincial newspapers. In seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, at the
death of Carnan, John Newbery, then about twenty-four years of age,
found himself one of the proprietor's heirs and an executor of the
estate. Carnan left a widow, to whom, to quote her son, Newbery's "love
of books and acquirements as a printer rendered him very acceptable."
The amiable and well-to-do widow and Newbery were soon married, and
their youngest son, Francis Newbery, eventually succeeded his father in
the business of publishing.
[Illustration: _Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
Shortly after Newbery's marriage his ambition and enterprise resulted in
the establishment of his family in London, where, in seventeen hundred
and forty-four, he opened a warehouse at _The Bible and Crown_, near
Devereux Court, without Temple Bar. Meanwhile he had associated
himself with Benjamin Collins, a printer in Salisbury. Collins both
planned and printed some of Newbery's toy volumes, and his name likewise
was well-known to shop-keepers in the colonies. Newbery soon found that
his business warranted another move nearer to the centre of trade. He
therefore combined two establishments into one at the now celebrated
corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the same time decided to confine
his attention exclusively to book publishing and medicine vending.
Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least
one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: "Little Pretty
Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master
Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack
the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will
infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making
their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this
extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
a better choice.
[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so
characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine
instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about
two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers--Newbery's own
specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top
of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth
century child, although they were crude in execution and especially
lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the "Address to
Parents" and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives
letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated
upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as
to the use of the "Pocket-Book," "which will teach you to play at all
those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with."
The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with
pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar
congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion
is to be substituted for a ball. Then follow thirty pages devoted to
"alphabetically digested" games, from "The _great A Play_" and "The
_Little_ _a Play_" to "The _great and little Rs_," when plays, or the
author's imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew.
Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle:
"Great A, B and C
And tumble down D,
The Cat's a blind buff,
And she cannot see."
Next in order are four fables with morals (written in the guise of
letters), for in Newbery's books and in those of a much later period, we
feel, as Mr. Welsh writes, a "strong determination on the part of the
authors to place the moral plainly in sight and to point steadily to
it." Pictures also take a leading part in this effort to inculcate good
behaviour; thus _Good Children_ are portrayed in cuts, which accompany
the directions for attaining perfection. Proverbs, having been hitherto
introduced into school-books, appear again quite naturally in this
source of diversion, which closes--at least in the American
edition--with sixty-three "Rules for Behaviour." These rules include
those suitable for various occasions, such as "At the Meeting-House,"
"Home," "The Table," "In Company," and "When abroad with other
Children." To-day, when many such rules are as obsolete as the tiny
pages themselves, this chapter affords many glimpses of the customs and
etiquette of the old-fashioned child's life. Such a direction as "Be not
hasty to run out of Meeting-House when Worship is ended, as if thou
weary of being there" (probably an American adaptation of the English
original), recalls the well-filled colonial meeting-house, where weary
children sat for hours on high seats, with dangling legs, or screwed
their small bodies in vain efforts to touch the floor. Again we can see
the anxious mothers, when, after the long sermon was brought to a close,
they put restraining hands upon the little ones, lest they, in haste to
be gone, should forget this admonition. The formalism of the time is
suggested in this request, "Make a Bow always when come Home, and be
instantly uncovered," for the ceremony of polite manners in these
bustling days has so much relaxed that the modern boy does all that is
required if he remembers to be "instantly uncovered when come Home."
Among the numerous other requirements only one more may be cited--a rule
which reveals the table manners of polite society in its requisite for
genteel conduct: "Throw not anything under the Table. Pick not thy teeth
at the Table, unless holding thy Napkin before thy mouth with thine
other Hand." With such an array of intellectual and moral contents, the
little "Pocket-Book" may appear to-day to be almost anything except an
amusement book. Yet this was the phase that the English play-book first
assumed, and it must not be forgotten that English prose fiction was
only then coming into existence, except such germs as are found in the
character sketches in the "Spectator" and in the cleverly told incidents
by Defoe.
In 1744, when Newbery published this duodecimo, Dr. Samuel Johnson was
the presiding genius of English letters; four years earlier, fiction had
come prominently into the foreground with the publication of "Pamela" by
Samuel Richardson; and between seventeen hundred and forty and seventeen
hundred and fifty-two, Richardson's "Clarissa Harlowe," Smollett's
"Roderick Random" and "Peregrine Pickle," and Fielding's "Tom Jones" were
published. This fact may seem irrelevant to the present subject;
nevertheless, the idea of a veritable story-book, that is a book relating
a tale, does not seem to have entered Newbery's mind until after these
novels had met with a deserved and popular success.
The result of Newbery's first efforts to follow Locke's advice was so
satisfactory that his wares were sought most eagerly. "Very soon," said
his son, Francis Newbery, "he was in the full employment of his talents
in writing and publishing books of amusement and instruction for
Children. The call for them was immense, an edition of many thousands
being sometimes exhausted during the Christmas holidays. His friend, Dr.
Samuel Johnson, who, like other grave characters, could now and then be
jocose, had used to say of him, 'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I
know not whether he has read or written most Books.'"[51-A]
The bookseller was no less clever in his use of other people's wits. No
one knows how many of the tiny gilt bindings covered stories told by
impecunious writers, to whom the proceeds in times of starvation were
bread if not butter. Newbery, though called by Goldsmith "the
philanthropic publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard," knew very well the
worth to his own pocket of these authors' skill in story-writing. Between
the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and
sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his prosperity;
his name became a household word in England, and was hardly less well
known to the little colonials of America.
Newbery's literary associations, too, were both numerous and important.
Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to
have contributed articles for Newbery's "Literary Magazine" about
seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson's celebrated "Idler"
was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the
same time. For the "British Magazine" Newbery engaged Smollett as
editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith's "History of Miss
Stanton." When later this was published as "The Vicar of Wakefield," it
contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man
with red, pimpled face, "who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste
to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he
was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr.
Thomas Trip."[52-A] With such an acquaintance it is probable that
Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for
assistance in writing or abridging the various children's tales; even
the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their
production--since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself,
however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many
little "Histories," that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the
real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher's
juvenile library.
The histories of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" (once such nursery
favorites, and now almost, if not quite, forgotten) have been attributed
to various men; but according to Mr. Pearson in "Banbury Chap-Books,"
Goldsmith confessed to writing both. Certainly, his sly wit and quizzical
vein of humor seem to pervade "Goody Two-Shoes"--often ascribed to Giles
Jones--and the notes affixed to the rhymes of Mother Goose before she
became Americanized. Again his skill is seen in the adaptation of
"Wonders of Nature and Art" for juvenile admirers; and for "Fables in
Verse" he is generally considered responsible. As all these tales were
printed in the colonies or in the young Republic, their peculiarities and
particularities may be better described when dealing with the issues of
the American press.
John Newbery, the most illustrious of publishers in the eyes of the
old-fashioned child, died in 1767, at the comparatively early age of
fifty-four. Yet before his death he had proved his talent for producing
at least fifty original little books, to be worth considerably more than
the Biblical ten talents.
No sketch of Newbery's life should fail to mention another large factor
in his successful experiment--the insertion in the "London Chronicle"
and other newspapers of striking and novel advertisements of his gilt
volumes, which were to be had for "six-pence the price of binding." An
instance of his skill appeared in the "London Chronicle" for December
19, 1764-January 1, 1765:
"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every
faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New
Year's Day (oh, that we may all lead new lives!) Mr. Newbery intends to
publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby
invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the
Bible and Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, but those who are naughty to
have none."[54-A]
Christopher Smart, his brother-in-law, who was an adept in the art of
puffing, possibly wrote many of the advertisements of new books--notices
so cleverly phrased that they could not fail to attract the attention of
many a country shop-keeper. In this way thousands were sold to the
country districts; and book-dealers in the American commonwealths,
reading the English papers and alert to improve their trade, imported
them in considerable quantities.
After Newbery's death, his son, Francis, and Carnan, his stepson,
carried on the business until seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; from
that year until eighteen hundred and two Edward Newbery (a nephew of the
senior Newbery), who in seventeen hundred and sixty-seven had set up a
rival establishment, continued to publish new editions of the same
little works. Yet the credit of this experiment of printing juvenile
stories belongs entirely to the older publisher. Through them he made a
strong protest against the reading by children of the lax chap-book
literature, so excellently described by Mr. John Ashton in "Chap-Books
of the Eighteenth Century;" and although his stories occasionally
alluded to disagreeable subjects or situations, these were unfortunately
familiar to his small patrons.
The gay little covers of gilt or parti-colored paper in which this
English publisher dressed his books expressed an evident purpose to
afford pleasure, which was increased by the many illustrations that
adorned the pages and added interest to the contents.
To the modern child, these books give no pleasure; but to those who love
the history of children of the past, they are interesting for two
reasons. In them is portrayed something of the life of eighteenth
century children; and by them the century's difference in point of view
as to the constituents of a story-book can be gauged. Moreover, all
Newbery's publications are to be credited with a careful preparation
that later stories sadly lacked. They were always written with a certain
art; if the language was pompous, we remember Dr. Johnson; if the style
was formal, its composition was correct; if the tales lacked ease in
telling, it was only the starched etiquette of the day reduced to a
printed page; and if they preached, they at least were seldom vulgar.
The preaching, moreover, was of different character from that of former
times. Hitherto, the fear of the Lord had wholly occupied the author's
attention when he composed a book "proper for a child as soon as he can
read;" now, material welfare was dwelt upon, and a good boy's reward
came to him when he was chosen the Lord Mayor of London. Good girls were
not forgotten, and were assured that, like Goody Two-Shoes, they should
attain a state of prosperity wherein
"Their Fortune and their Fame would fix
And gallop in their Coach and Six."
Goody Two-Shoes, with her particular method of instilling the alphabet,
and such books as "King Pippin" (a prodigy of learning) may be
considered as tiny commentaries upon the years when Johnson reigned
supreme in the realm of learning. These and many others emphasized not
the effects of piety,--Cotton Mather's forte,--but the benefits of
learning; and hence the good boy was also one who at the age of five
spelt "apple-pye" correctly and therefore eventually became a great man.
At the time of Newbery's death it was more than evident that his
experiment had succeeded, and children's stories were a printed fact.
FOOTNOTES:
[45-A] Field, _The Child and his Book_, p. 223.
[51-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 23.
[52-A] Foster, _Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i, p. 244.
[54-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 109.