1776-1790
_Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery_
When John Mein was forced to close his London Book-Store in Boston and
to return to England in 1770, the children of that vicinity had need to
cherish their six-penny books with increased care. The shadow of
impending conflict was already deep upon the country when Mein departed;
and the events of the decade following seventeen hundred and
seventy-three--the year of the Boston Tea-Party--were too absorbing and
distressing for such trifling publications as toy-books to be more than
occasionally printed. Indeed, the history of the American Revolution is
so interwoven with tales of privation of the necessities of life that it
is astonishing that any printer was able to find ink or paper to produce
even the nursery classic "Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Robert Bell of
Philadelphia in seventeen hundred and seventy-six.
In New York the conditions were different. The Loyalists, as long as the
town was held by the British, continued to receive importations of goods
of all descriptions. Among the booksellers, Valentine Nutter from time
to time advertised children's as well as adults' books. Hugh Gaine
apparently continued to reprint Newbery's duodecimos; and, in a rather
newer shop, Roger and Berry's, in Hanover Square, near Gaine's, could be
had "Gilt Books, together with Stationary, Jewelry, a Collection of the
most books, bibles, prayer-books and patent medicines warranted
genuine."
Elsewhere in the colonies, as in Boston, the children went without new
books, although very occasionally such notices as the following were
inserted in the newspapers:
_Just imported and to be Sold by Thomas Bradford_
At his Book-Store in Market-Street, adjoining the Coffee-house
_The following Books_ ...
Little Histories for Children,
Among which are, Book of Knowledge, Joe Miller's Jests, Jenny
Twitchells' ditto, the Linnet, The Lark (being collections of best
Songs), Robin Redbreast, Choice Spirits, Argalus & Parthenia,
Valentine and Orson, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Wise Mistresses,
Russell's seven Sermons, Death of Abel, French Convert, Art's
Treasury, Complete Letter-Writer, Winter Evening Entertainment,
Stories and Tales, Triumphs of Love, being a Collection of Short
Stories, Joseph Andrews, Aesop's Fables, Scotch Rogue, Moll
Flanders, Lives of Highwaymen, Lives of Pirates, Buccaneers of
America, Robinson Crusoe, Twelve Caesars.
Such was the assortment of penny-dreadfuls and religious tracts offered
in seventeen hundred and eighty-one to the Philadelphia public for
juvenile reading. It is typical of the chapmen's library peddled about
the colonies long after they had become states. "Valentine and Orson,"
"The Seven Wise Masters," "The Seven Wise Mistresses," and "Winter
Evening Entertainment" are found in publishers' lists for many years,
and, in spite of frequent vulgarities, there was often no discrimination
between them and Newbery's far superior stories; but by eighteen hundred
and thirty almost all of these undesirable reprints had disappeared,
being buried under the quantities of Sunday-school tales held in high
favor at that date.
Meanwhile, the six years of struggle for liberty had rendered the
necessaries of life in many cases luxuries. As early as seventeen
hundred and seventy-five, during the siege of Boston, provisions and
articles of dress had reached such prices that we find thrifty Mrs. John
Adams, in Braintree, Massachusetts, foreseeing a worse condition,
writing her husband, who was one of the Council assembled in
Philadelphia, to send her, if possible, six thousand pins, even if they
should cost five pounds. Prices continued to rise and currency to
depreciate. In seventeen hundred and seventy-nine Mrs. Adams reported in
her letters to her husband that potatoes were ten dollars a bushel, and
writing-paper brought the same price per pound.
Yet family life went on in spite of these increasing difficulties. The
diaries and letters of such remarkable women as the patriotic Abigail
Adams, the Quakeress, Mrs. Eliza Drinker, the letters of the Loyalist
and exile, James Murray, the correspondence of Eliza Pinckney of
Charleston, and the reminiscences of a Whig family who were obliged to
leave New York upon the occupation of the town by British forces, abound
in those details of domestic life that give a many sided picture. Joys
derived from good news of dear ones, and family reunions; anxieties
occasioned by illness, or the armies' depredations; courageous efforts
on the part of mothers not to allow their children's education and
occupations to suffer unnecessarily; tragedies of death and ruined
homes--all are recorded with a "particularity" for which we are now
grateful to the writers.
It is through these writings, also, that we are allowed glimpses of the
enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, or King, which was imbibed from the
parents by the smallest children. On the Whig side, patriotic mothers in
New England filled their sons with zeal for the cause of freedom and
with hatred of the tyranny of the Crown; while in the more southern
colonies the partisanship of the little ones was no less intense. "From
the constant topic of the present conversation," wrote the Rev. John J.
Zubly (a Swiss clergyman settled in South Carolina and Georgia), in an
address to the Earl of Dartmouth in seventeen hundred and
seventy-five,--"from the constant topic of the present conversation,
every child unborn will be impressed with the notion--it is slavery to
be bound at the will of another 'in all things whatsoever.' Every
mother's milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your
lordship in America, you might see little ones acquainted with the word
of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering of a gun
before they are well able to walk."[92-A]
The children of the Tories had also their part in the struggle. To some
the property of parents was made over, to save it from confiscation in
the event of the success of the American cause. To others came the
bitterness of separation from parents, when they were sent across the
sea to unknown relatives; while again some faint manuscript record tells
of a motherless child brought from a comfortable home, no longer
tenable, to whatever quarters could be found within the British lines.
Fortunately, children usually adapt themselves easily to changed
conditions, and in the novelty and excitement of the life around them,
it is probable they soon forgot the luxuries of dolls and hobby-horses,
toy-books and drums, of former days.
In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the sentiment of the period was
expressed in two or three editions of "The New England Primer." Already
in 1770 one had appeared containing as frontispiece a poor wood-cut of
John Hancock. In 1775 the enthusiasm over the appointment of George
Washington as commander-in-chief brought out another edition of the A B
C book with the same picture labelled "General Washington." The custom
of making one cut do duty in several representations was so well
understood that this method of introducing George Washington to the
infant reader naturally escaped remark.
Another primer appeared four years later, which was advertised by
Walters and Norman in the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" as "adorned with a
beautiful head of George Washington and other copper-plates." According
to Mr. Hildeburn, this small book had the honor of containing the first
portrait of Washington engraved in America. While such facts are of
trifling importance, they are, nevertheless, indications of the state of
intense feeling that existed at the time, and point the way by which the
children's books became nationalized.
In New England the very games of children centred in the events which
thrilled the country. Josiah Quincy remembered very well in after life,
how "at the age of five or six, astride my grandfather's cane and with
my little whip, I performed prodigies of valor, and more than once came
to my mother's knees declaring that I had driven the British out of
Boston." Afterwards at Phillips Academy, in Andover, between seventeen
hundred and seventy-eight and seventeen hundred and eighty-six, Josiah
and his schoolfellows "established it as a principle that every hoop,
sled, etc., should in some way bear _Thirteen_ marks as evidence of the
political character of the owner,--if which were wanting the articles
became fair prize and were condemned and forfeited without judge, jury,
or decree of admiralty."[94-A]
Other boys, such as John Quincy Adams, had tutors at home as a less
expensive means of education than the wartime price of forty dollars a
week for each child that good boarding-schools demanded. But at their
homes the children had plenty of opportunity to show their intense
enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. Years later, Mr. Adams wrote to a
Quaker friend:
"For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt,
liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold
blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages. My mother lived in
uninterrupted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration
kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the Seventeenth of June
[1775] lighted the fires of Charlestown."[94-B]
He was, of course, only one of many boys who saw from some height near
their homes the signs of battle, the fires of the enemy's camps, the
smoke rising from some farm fired by the British, or burned by its owner
to prevent their occupation of it. With hearts made to beat quickly by
the news that filtered through the lines, and heads made old by the
responsibility thrust upon them,--in the absence of fathers and older
brothers,--such boys as John Quincy Adams saw active service in the
capacity of post-riders bearing in their several districts the anxiously
awaited tidings from Congress or battlefield.
Fortunate indeed were the families whose homes were not disturbed by the
military operations. From Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, families
were sent hastily to the country until the progress of the war made it
possible to return to such comforts as had not been destroyed by the
British soldiers. The "Memoirs of Eliza Morton," afterward Mrs. Josiah
Quincy, but a child eight years of age in seventeen hundred and
seventy-six, gives a realistic account of the life of such Whig
refugees. Upon the occupation of New York by the British, her father, a
merchant of wealth, as riches were then reckoned, was obliged to burn
his warehouse to save it from English hands. Mr. Morton then gathered
together in the little country village of Basking Ridge, seven miles
from Morristown, New Jersey, such of his possessions as could be hastily
transported from the city. Among the books saved in this way were the
works of Thurston, Thomson, Lyttleton, and Goldsmith, and for the
children's benefit, "Dodsley's Collection of Poems," and "Pilgrim's
Progress." "This," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was a great favorite; Mr.
Greatheart was in my opinion a hero, well able to help us all on our
way." During the exile from New York, as Eliza Morton grew up, she read
all these books, and years afterward told her grandchildren that while
she admired the works of Thurston, Thomson, and Lyttleton, "those of
Goldsmith were my chief delight. When my reading became afterward more
extensive I instinctively disliked the extravagant fiction which often
injures the youthful mind."
The war, however, was not allowed to interfere with the children's
education in this family. In company with other little exiles, they were
taught by a venerable old man until the evacuation of Philadelphia made
it possible to send the older children to Germantown, where a Mr. Leslie
had what was considered a fine school. The schoolroom walls were hung
with lists of texts of Scripture beginning with the same letter, and for
globes were substituted the schoolmaster's snuffbox and balls of yarn.
If these failed to impress a child with the correct notions concerning
the solar system, the children themselves were made to whirl around the
teacher.
In Basking Ridge the children had much excitement with the passing of
soldiers to Washington's headquarters in Morristown, and with watching
for "The Post" who carried the news between Philadelphia, Princeton, and
Morristown. "'The Post,' Mr. Martin," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was an old man
who carried the mail, ... he was our constant medium of communication;
and always stopped at our house to refresh himself and horse, tell the
news, and bring packets. He used to wear a blue coat with yellow
buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small-clothes, blue yarn
stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of
military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a
chaise, or on horseback.... Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself
in knitting coarse yarn stockings while driving or rather jogging along
the road, or when seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly
did not ride _post_, according to the present [1821] meaning of that
term."
Deprived like many other children of Newbery's peaceful biographies and
stories, the little Mortons' lives were too full of an intense daily
interest to feel the lack of new literature of this sort. Tales of the
campaigns told in letters to friends and neighbors were reëchoed in the
ballads and songs that formed part of the literary warfare waged by Whig
or Loyal partisans. Children of to-day sing so zestfully the popular
tunes of the moment, that it requires very little imagination to picture
the schoolboy of Revolutionary days shouting lustily verses from "The
Battle of the Kegs," and other rhymed stories of military incidents.
Such a ballad was "A Song for the Red Coats," written after the
successful campaign against Burgoyne, and beginning:
"Come unto me, ye heroes,
Whose hearts are true and bold,
Who value more your honor,
Than others do their gold!
Give ear unto my story,
And I the truth will tell,
Concerning many a soldier,
Who for his country fell."
Children, it has been said, are good haters. To the patriot boy and
girl, the opportunity to execrate Benedict Arnold was found in these
lines of a patriotic "ditty" concerning the fate of Major André:
"When he was executed
He looked both meek and mild;
He looked upon the people,
And pleasantly he smiled.
It moved each eye to pity,
Caused every heart to bleed;
And every one wished him released--
And _Arnold_ in his stead."[98-A]
Loyalist children had an almost equal supply of satirical verse to fling
back at neighbors' families, where in country districts some farms were
still occupied by sympathizers with Great Britain. A vigorous example of
this style of warfare is quoted by Mr. Tyler in his "Literature of the
American Revolution," and which, written in seventeen hundred and
seventy-six, is entitled "The Congress." It begins:
"These hardy knaves and stupid fools,
Some apish and pragmatic mules,
Some servile acquiescing tools,--
These, these compose the Congress!"[98-B]
Or, again, such taunts over the general poverty of the land and
character of the army as were made in a ballad called "The Rebels" by a
Loyalist officer:
"With loud peals of laughter, your sides,
Sirs, would crack,
To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-black,
With their hunting-shirts and rifle-guns,
See Cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like,
Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike."
Those Loyalists who lived through this exciting period in America's
history bore their full share in the heavy personal misfortunes of their
political party. The hatred felt toward such colonials as were true to
the king has until recently hardly subsided sufficiently to permit any
sympathy with the hardships they suffered. Driven from their homes,
crowded together in those places occupied by the English, or exiled to
England or Halifax, these faithful subjects had also to undergo
separation of families perhaps never again united.
Such a Loyalist was James Murray. Forced to leave his daughter and
grandchildren in Boston with a sister, he took ship for Halifax to seek
a living. There, amid the pressing anxieties occasioned by this
separation, he strove to reëstablish himself, and sent from time to time
such articles as he felt were necessary for their welfare. Thus he
writes a memorandum of articles sent in seventeen hundred and eighty by
"Mr. Bean's Cartel to Miss Betsy Murray:--viz: Everlasting 4 yards;
binding 1 piece, Nankeen 4-7/8 yards. Of Gingham 2 gown patterns; 2
pairs red shoes from A.E.C. for boys, Jack and Ralph, a parcel--to Mrs.
Brigden, 1 pair silk shoes and some flowers--Arthur's Geographical
Grammar,--Locke on Education,--5 children's books," etc. And in return
he is informed that "Charlotte goes to dancing and writing school,
improves apace and grows tall. Betsy and Charles are much better but not
well. The rest of the children are in good health, desiring their duty
to their Uncle and Aunt Inman, and thanks for their cake and gloves."
To such families the end of the war meant either the necessity for
making permanent their residence in the British dominion, or of bearing
both outspoken and silent scorn in the new Republic.
For the Americans the peace of Yorktown brought joy, but new beginnings
had also to be made. Farms had been laid waste, or had suffered from
lack of men to cultivate them; industries were almost at a standstill
from want of material and laborers. Still the people had the splendid
compensation of freedom with victory, and men went sturdily back to
their homes to take up as far as possible their various occupations.
An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was
rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity
for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Renewals of
orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked
to England for their intellectual needs. In Philadelphia--a town of forty
thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three--among the
principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse,
Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,--who had established a circulating
library,--Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and
David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell. Bell had
undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether
popular, if an allusion in "The Philadelphiad" is to be credited. This
"New Picture of the City" was anonymously published in seventeen hundred
and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert
Bell's book-shop:
BELL'S BOOK STORE
Just by St. Paul's where dry divines rehearse,
Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
And books that's neither ... for no age nor clime,
Lame languid prose begot on hobb'ling rhyme.
Here authors meet who ne'er a spring have got,
The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot,
Smart politicians wrangling here are seen,
Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen.
In 1776 Bell's facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an
edition of "Little Goody Two-Shoes," which seems likely to have been the
only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution.
Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 "Aesop's Fables," as did also Robert
Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book,
written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a
Philadelphian in his letters. After the Revolution Benjamin Bache
apparently printed children's books in considerable quantities, and
orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter.
New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several
towns soon after peace was established. John Carter, "at Shakespeare's
Head," in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November,
seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of
stationers' wares, and included in his list "Gilt Books for _Children_,"
among which were most of Newbery's publications. In Hartford,
Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred
and sixty-four, "The Children's Magazine" was reprinted in seventeen
hundred and eighty-nine. Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since
it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature
made for young people in America. One number contains:
An easy Introduction to Geography.
The Schoolboy addressed to the Editors.
Moral Tales continued.
Tale VIII. The Jealous Wife.
The Affectionate Sisters.
Familiar Letters on Various Subjects,--Continued....
Letter V from _Phillis Flowerdale_ to _Miss Truelove_.
Letter VI from _Miss Truelove_ to _Phillis Flowerdale_.
Poetry.--The Sweets of May.
The Cottage Retirement.
Advice to the Fair.
The Contented Cottager.
The Tear.
The Honest Heart.
The autograph of Eben Holt makes the contents of the magazine ludicrous
as subjects of interest to a boy But having nothing better, Eben most
surely read it from cover to cover.
In Charleston, South Carolina, Robert Wells imported the books read by
the members of the various branches of the Ravenel, Pinckney, Prioleau,
Drayton, and other families. Boston supplied the juvenile public largely
through E. Battelle and Thomas Andrews, who were the agents for Isaiah
Thomas, the American Newbery.
An account of the work of this remarkable printer of Worcester,
Massachusetts, has been given in Dr. Charles L. Nichols's "Bibliography
of Worcester." Thomas's publications ranked as among the very best of
the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and were sought by
book-dealers in the various states. At one time he had sixteen presses,
seven of which were in Worcester. He had also four bookstores in various
towns of Massachusetts, one in Concord, New Hampshire, one in Baltimore,
and one in Albany.
In 1761, at the age of ten, Thomas had set up as his "'Prentice's
Token," a primer issued by A. Barclay in Cornhill, Boston, entitled "Tom
Thumb's Play-Book, To Teach Children their letters as soon as they can
speak." Although this primer was issued by Barclay, Thomas had already
served four years in a printer's office, for according to his own
statement he had been sent at the age of six to learn his trade of
Zechariah Fowle. Here, as 'prentice, he may have helped to set up the
stories of the "Holy Jesus" and the "New Gift," and upon the cutting of
their rude illustrations perhaps took his first lessons in engraving.
For we know that by seventeen hundred and sixty-four he did fairly good
work upon the "Book of Knowledge" from the press of the old printer.
Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of this owned by the American Antiquarian
Society, founded by Thomas, is the statement in the Worcester printer's
handwriting, "Printed and cuts engraved by I. Thomas then 13 years of
age for Z. Fowle when I.T. was his Apprentice: bad as the cuts are
executed, there was not at that time an artist in Boston who could have
done them much better. Some time before, and soon after there were
better engravers in Boston." These cuts, especially the frontispiece
representing a boy with a spy-glass and globe, and with a sextant at his
feet, are far from poor work for a lad of thirteen. "The battered
dictionary," says Dr. Nichols, "and the ink-stained Bible which he found
in Fowle's office started him in his career, and the printing-press,
together with an invincible determination to excel in his calling,
carried him onward, until he stands to-day with Franklin and
Baskerville, a type of the man who with few educational advantages
succeeds because he loves his art for his art's sake."
In supplying to American children a home-made library, Thomas, although
he did no really original work for children, such as his English
prototype, Newbery, had accomplished, yet had a motive which was not
altogether selfish and pecuniary. The prejudice against anything of
British manufacture was especially strong in the vicinity of Boston; and
it was an altogether natural expression of this spirit that impelled the
Worcester printer, as soon as his business was well established, to
begin to reprint the various little histories. These reprints were all
pirated from Newbery and his successors, Newbery and Carnan; but they
compare most favorably with them, and so far surpassed the work of any
other American printer of children's books (except possibly those of
Bache in Philadelphia) that his work demands more than a passing
mention.
Beginning, like most printers, with the production of a primer in
seventeen hundred and eighty-four, by seventeen hundred and eighty-six
Thomas was well under way in his work for children. In that year at
least eleven little books bore his imprint and were sent to his Boston
agents to be sold. In the "Worcester Magazine" for June, 1786, Thomas
addressed an "Advertisement to Booksellers," as follows: "A large
assortment of all the various sizes of CHILDREN'S Books, known
by the name of Newbery's Little Books for Children, are now republished
by I. Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts. They are all done excellently
in his English Method, and it is supposed the paper, printing, cuts, and
binding are in every way equal to those imported from England. As the
Subscriber has been at great expense to carry on this particular branch
of Printing extensively, he hopes to meet with encouragement from the
Booksellers in the United States."
Evidently he did meet with great encouragement from parents as well as
booksellers; and it is suspected that the best printed books bearing
imprints of other booksellers were often printed in Worcester and bound
according to the taste and facilities of the dealer. That this practice
of reprinting the title-page and rebinding was customary, a letter from
Franklin to his nephew in Boston gives indisputable evidence:
Philada. Nov. 26, 1788.
LOVING COUSIN:
I have lately set up one of my grand-children, Benja. F. Bache, as a
Printer here, and he has printed some very pretty little Books for
Children. By the Sloop Friendship, Capt. Stutson, I have sent a Box
address'd to you, containing 150 of each volume, in Sheets, which I
request you would, according to your wonted Goodness, put in a way
of being dispos'd of for the Benefit of my dear Sister. They are
sold here, bound in marbled Paper at 1 S. a Volume; but I should
suppose it best, if it may be done, to sell the whole to some
Stationer, at once, unbound as they are; in which case I imagine
that half a Dollar a Quire may be thought a reasonable Price,
allowing usual Credit if necessary.
My Love to your Family, & believe me ever,
Your affectionate Uncle
B. FRANKLIN.
JONA. WILLIAMS, ESQ.
Franklin's reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in
marbled paper indicates that this home-made product was already
displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored
covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress
for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased,
Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery's stock, until by seventeen
hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for
his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these
books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in "The Picture
Exhibition" we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices
varying from six pence to a shilling and a half.
These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the
English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such
as the "Little Lottery Book," "Christmas Box," and "Tom Thumb's
Play-thing," are outside the limits of the present subject, since they
were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to
draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the
background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of
the author's intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under
the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes,
novels, and stories--all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day.
The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known
to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun
unfulfilled by the contents. "Be Merry & Wise, or the Cream of the Jests
and the Marrow of Maxims," by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated
extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The
children for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more
facetious than the following jest: "An arch wag said, _Taylors_ were
like _Woodcocks_ for they got their substance by their long bills."
Perhaps they understood also the point in this: "A certain lord had a
termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable
poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew.
I can't imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a
copy, who has so good an original." Other witticisms are not quotable.
[Illustration: _A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by
Isaiah Thomas_]
Conundrums played their part in the eighteenth century juvenile life,
much as they do to-day. These were to be found in "A Bag of Nuts ready
Cracked," and "The Big and Little Puzzling Caps." "Food for the Mind"
was the solemn title of another riddle-book, whose conundrums are very
serious matters. Riddle XIV of the "Puzzling Cap" is typical of its
rather dreary contents:
"There was a man bespoke a thing,
Which when the maker home did bring,
This same maker did refuse it;
He who bespoke it did not use it
And he who had it did not know
Whether he had it, yea or no."
This was a nut also "ready cracked" by the answer reproduced in the
illustration.
Nature stories were attempted under the titles of "The Natural History
of Four Footed Beasts," "Jacky Dandy's Delight; or the History of Birds
and Beasts in Verse and Prose," "Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of
Birds," and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds." All these were
written after Oliver Goldsmith's "Animated Nature" had won its way into
great popularity. As a consequence of the favorable impression this book
had made, Goldsmith is supposed to have been asked by Newbery to try his
hand upon a juvenile natural history.
Possibly it was as a result of Newbery's request that we have the
anonymous "Jacky Dandy's Delight" and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts
and Birds." The former appears to be a good example of Goldsmith's
facility for amusing himself when doing hack-work for Newbery. How like
Goldsmith's manner is this description of a monkey:
"The monkey mischievous
Like a naughty boy looks;
Who plagues all his friends,
And regards not his books.
"He is an active, pert, busy animal, who mimicks human actions so
well that some think him rational. The Indians say, he can speak if
he pleases, but will not lest he should be set to work. Herein he
resembles those naughty little boys who will not learn A, lest they
should be obliged to learn B, too. He is a native of warm countries,
and a useless beast in this part of the world; so I shall leave him
to speak of another that is more bulky, and comes from cold
countries: I mean the Bear."
To poke fun in an offhand manner at little boys and girls seemed to have
been the only conception of humor to be found in the children's books of
the period, if we except the "Jests" and the attempts made in a
ponderous manner on the title-pages. The title of "The Picture
Exhibition; containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples....
Published under the Inspection of Mr. Peter Paul Rubens,..." is
evidently one of Newbery's efforts to be facetious. To the author, the
pretence that the pictures were by "Disciples of Peter Paul Rubens"
evidently conveyed the same idea of wit that "Punch" has at times
represented to others of a later century.
Fables have always been a mine of interest to young folks, and were
interspersed liberally with all moral tales, but "Entertaining Fables"
bears upon its title-page a suggestion that the children's old friend,
"Aesop," appeared in a new dress.
Another series of books contained the much abridged novels written for
the older people. "Peregrine Pickle" and "Roderick Random" were both
reprinted by Isaiah Thomas as early as seventeen hundred and
eighty-eight. These tales of adventure seem to have had their small
reflections in such stories as "The Adventures of a Pincushion," and
"The Adventures of a Peg-top," by Dorothy Kilner, an Englishwoman.
Mention has already been made of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" in condensed
form. These were books of over two hundred pages; but most of the
toy-books were limited to less than one hundred. A remarkable instance
of the pith of a long plot put into small compass was "The History of
Tom Jones." A dog-eared copy of such an edition of "Tom Jones" is still
in existence. Its flowery Dutch binding covers only thirty-one pages,
four inches long, with a frontispiece and five wood-cut illustrations.
In so small a space no detailed account of the life of the hero is to be
expected; nevertheless, the first paragraph introduces Tom as no
ordinary foundling. Mr. Allworthy finds the infant in his bed one
evening and rings up his housekeeper Mrs. Deborah Wilkins. "She being a
strict observer of decency was exceedingly alarmed, on entering her
master's room, to find him undressed, but more so on his presenting her
with the child, which he ordered immediately to be taken care of." The
story proceeds--with little punctuation to enable the reader to take
breath--to tell how the infant is named, and how Mr. Allworthy's nephew,
Master Bilfil, is also brought under that generous and respectable
gentleman's protection. Tommy turned out "good," as Mr. Allworthy had
hoped when he assumed charge of him; and therefore eventually inherited
riches and gained the hand of Miss Sophia Western, with whom he rode
about the country in their "Coach and Six."
Of the stories in this juvenile library, the names, at least, of "Giles
Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody Two-Shoes" have been
handed down through various generations. One hundred years ago every
child knew that "Little King Pippin" attained his glorious end by
attention to his books in the beginning of his career; that "Giles
Gingerbread" first learned his alphabet from gingerbread letters, and
later obtained the patronage of a fine gentleman by spelling "apple-pye"
correctly. Thus did his digestion prove of material assistance in mental
gymnastics.
[Illustration: _Illustration of Riddle XIV in "The Puzzling-Cap"_]
But the nursery favorite was undoubtedly "Margery, or Little Goody
Two-Shoes." She was introduced to the reader in her "state of rags and
care," from which she gradually emerged in the chapters entitled, "How
and about Little Margery and her Brother;" "How Little Margery
obtained the name of Goody Two-Shoes;" "How she became a Tutoress" to
the farmers' families in which she taught spelling by a game; and how
they all sang the "Cuz's Chorus" in the intervals between the spelling
lesson and the composition of sentences like this: "I pray God to bless
the whole country, and all our friends and all our enemies." Like the
usual heroine of eighteenth century fiction, she married a title, and as
Lady Jones was the Lady Bountiful of the district. From these tales it
is clear that piety as the chief end of the story-book child has been
succeeded by learning as the desideratum; yet morality is still pushed
into evidence, and the American mother undoubtedly translated the
ethical sign-boards along the progress of the tale into Biblical
admonitions.
All the books were didactic in the extreme. A series of four, called
"The Mother's," "Father's," "Sister's," and "Brother's Gifts," is a good
example of this didactic method of story-telling. "The Father's Gift"
has lessons in spelling preceded by these lines:
"Let me not join with those in Play,
Who fibs and stories tell,
I with my Book will spend the Day,
And not with such Boys dwell.
For one rude Boy will spoil a score
As I have oft been told;
And one bad sheep, in Time, is sure
To injure all the Fold."
"The Mother's Gift" was confined largely to the same instructive field,
but had one or two stories which conformed to the sentiment of the
author of "The Adventures of a Pincushion," who stated her motive to be
"That of providing the young reader with a few pages which should be
innocent of corrupting if they did not amuse."
"The Brother's" and "Sister's Gifts," however, adopt a different plan of
instruction. In "The Brother's Gift" we find a brother solicitous
concerning his sister's education: "Miss Kitty Bland was apt, forward and
headstrong; and had it not been for the care of her brother, Billy, would
have probably witnessed all the disadvantages of a modern education"!
Upon Kitty's return from boarding-school, "she could neither read, nor
sew, nor write grammatically, dancing stiff and awkward, her musick
inelegant, and everything she did bordered strongly on affectation." Here
was a large field for reformation for Billy to effect. He had no doubts
as to what method to pursue. She was desired to make him twelve shirts,
and when the first one was presented to him, "he was astonished to find
her lacking in so useful a female accomplishment." Exemplary conversation
produced such results that the rest of the garments were satisfactory to
the critical Billy, who, "as a mark of approbation made her a present of
a fine pair of stays."
"The Sister's Gift" presents an opposite picture. In this case it is
Master Courtley who, a "youth of Folly and Idleness," received large
doses of advice from his sister. This counsel was so efficient with
Billy's sensitive nature that before the story ends, "he wept bitterly,
and declared to his sister that she had painted the enormity of his
vices in such striking colors, that they shocked him in the greatest
degree; and promised ever after to be as remarkable for generosity,
compassion and every other virtue as he had hitherto been for cruelty,
forwardness and ill-nature." Virtue in this instance was its own reward,
as Billy received no gift in recognition of his changed habits.
To the modern lover of children such tales seem strangely ill-suited to
the childish mind, losing, as they do, all tenderness in the effort of
the authors (so often confided to parents in the preface) "to express
their sentiments with propriety." Such criticism of the style and matter
of these early attempts to write for little people was probably not made
by either infant or adult readers of that old-time public. The children
read what was placed before them as intellectual food, plain and
sweetened, as unconcernedly as they ate the food upon their plates at
meal-time. That their own language was the formal one of the period is
shown by such letters as the following one from Mary Wilder, who had
just read "The Mother's Gift:"
Lancaster, October 9th, 1789.
HOND. MADM:
Your goodness to me I cannot express. My mind is continually crowded
with your kindness. If your goodness could be rewarded, I hope God
will repay you. If you remember, some time ago I read a story in
"The Mother's Gift," but I hope I shall never resemble Miss Gonson.
O Dear! What a thing it is to disobey one's parents. I have one of
the best Masters. He gave me a sheet of paper this morning. I hope
Uncle Flagg will come up. I am quite tired of looking for Betsy, but
I hope she will come. When school is done keeping, I shall come to
Sudbury. What a fine book Mrs. Chapone's Letters is: My time grows
short and I must make my letter short.
Your dutiful daughter,
P.W.
Nursery rhymes and jingles of these present days have all descended from
song-books of the eighteenth century, entitled "Little Robin Red
Breast," "A Poetical Description of Song Birds," "Tommy Thumb's
Song-Book," and the famous "Melodies of Mother Goose," whose name is
happily not yet relegated to the days of long ago. Two extracts from the
"Poetical Description of Song Birds" will be sufficient to show how
foreign to the birds familiar to American children were the
descriptions:
THE BULLFINCH
This lovely bird is charming to the sight:
The back is glossy blue, the belly white,
A jetty black shines on his neck and head;
His breast is flaming with a beauteous red.
THE TWITE
Green like the Linnet it appears to sight,
And like the Linnet sings from morn till night.
A reddish spot upon his rump is seen,
Short is his bill, his feathers always clean:
When other singing birds are dull or nice,
To sing again the merry Twites entice.
Reflections of the prevailing taste of grown people for biography are
suggested in three little books, of two of which the author was Mrs.
Pilkington, who had already written several successful stories for young
ladies. Her "Biography for Girls" contains various novelettes, in each
of which the heroine lives the conventional life and dies the
conventional death of the period, and receives a laudatory epitaph. They
are remarkable only as being devoid of any interest. Her "Biography for
Boys" does not appear to have attained the same popularity as that for
girls. A third book, "The Juvenile Biographers," containing the "Lives
of Little Masters and Misses," is representative of the changes made in
many books by the printer to cater to that pride in the young Republic
so manifest in all local literary productions. In one biography we note
a Representative to the Massachusetts Assembly:
"As Master Sammy had always been a very sober and careful child, and
very attentive to his Books, it is no wonder that he proved, in the End,
to be an excellent Scholar.
"Accordingly, when he had reached the age of fourteen, Mr. William
Goodall, a wealthy merchant in the city of Boston, took him into his
counting house, in order to bring him up in the merchantile Way, and
thereby make his Fortune.
"This was a sad Stroke to his poor Sister Nancy, who having lost both
her Papa and Mama, was now likely to lose her Brother likewise; but
Sammy did all he could to appease her, and assured her, that he would
spend all his leisure Time with her. This he most punctually performed,
and never were Brother and Sister as happy in each other's company as
they were.
"Mr. William Goodall was highly satisfied with Sammy's Behaviour, and
dying much about the Time that Miss Nancy was married to the Gentleman,
he left all his business to Sammy, together with a large Capital to
carry it on. So much is Mr. Careful esteemed (for we must now no longer
call him Master Sammy) that he was chosen in the late General Election,
Representative in the General Court, for one of the first Towns in New
England, without the least expense to himself. We here see what are the
Effects of Good Behaviour."
This adaptation of the English tale to the surroundings of the American
child is often found in Thomas's reprints, and naturally, owing to his
enthusiasm over the recent change in the form of government, is made
wholly by political references. Therefore while the lark and the linnet
still sang in songs and the cowslips were scattered throughout the
nature descriptions, Master Friendly no longer rode in the Lord Mayor's
coach, but was seated as a Congressman in a sedan chair, "and he
looked--he looked--I do not know what he looked like, but everybody was
in love with him." The engraver as well as the biographer of the
recently made Representative was evidently at a loss as to his
appearance, as the four dots indicating the young gentleman's features
give but a blank look perhaps intended to denote amazement at his
election.
The illustrations of Thomas's toy reprints should not be overlooked. The
Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the "Introduction" to "Goody
Two-Shoes," and at the end he affixed a "Letter from the Printer which
he desires may be inserted.
SIR: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it
to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up
his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good
impression."
This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an
introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the
making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the
frontispiece in "Goody Two-Shoes."
[Illustration: _Goody Twoshoes._]
It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to
booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in
bringing out the juvenile books in "the English method." But Mr. Edwin
Pearson, in his delightful discussion of "Banbury Chap-Books," has also
stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of
"Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous
English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick
engraving in Mr. Pearson's book with the frontispiece in Thomas's
edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr.
Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the
representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas's
letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition
should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing
the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a
different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of
the figure of "Goody" indicates a copy of the English original. Also the
expression of Thomas's heroine, although slightly mincing, is less
distressed than the British dame's, to say nothing of the variation in
the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the
English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem
to confirm the impression that the drawing was made after, but not by
Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in
execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable.
Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers' children to spell such
words as "plumb-pudding" "(and who can suppose a better?)," presents her
full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her
American admirers.
These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair
engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first
impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he
thought to better.
Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery's juvenile histories, but he
adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these
tales. For example, in "The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by
Himself," the little reader was told, "If you learn this Book well and
are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe
at your friend the Bookseller's in Worcester near the Court House." In
"The Mother's Gift," there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent
displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, "a pretty large collection of books
neatly bound and nicely kept," all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again
Mr. Careful, in "Virtue and Vice," "presented at Christmas time to the
sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as
are sold at Mr. Thomas' near the Court House in Worcester."
Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay
bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of
the nineteenth century.
FOOTNOTES:
[92-A] Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_, vol. i, p.
485.
[94-A] _Life of Josiah Quincy_, p. 27. Boston, 1866.
[94-B] Earle, _Child Life in Colonial Days_, p. 171.
[98-A] Tyler, _Literature of the American Revolution_, vol. ii, p. 182.
[98-B] _Ibid._, p. 156.