Forgotten Books of the American Nursery. Rosalie Vrylina Halsey
Dickey—I thank you very much for the pretty picture book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant took care of the Master’s little boy, and put him on his back and would not let anybody touch his master’s little son. I can read three or four pages sometimes without missing a word. … I have a little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me but I mustn’t tell you who wrote the poetry.
| G. W.’s compliments to R. H. L. And likes his book full well, Henceforth will count him his friend And hopes many happy days he may spend. |
Your good friend
George Washington.
In a note Mr. Lossing states that he had copies of these two letters, sent him by a Mr. Lee, who wrote: “The letter of Richard Henry Lee was written by himself, and uncorrected sent by him to his boy friend George Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr. Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington.”
It would be gratifying to know the titles of these two books, so evidently English chap-book tales. It is probable that they were imported by a shop-keeper in Alexandria, as in seventeen hundred and forty-one there was only one press in Virginia, owned by William Sharps, who had moved from Annapolis in seventeen hundred and thirty-six. Luxuries were so much more common among the Virginia planters, and life was so much more roseate in hue than was the case in the northern colonies, that it seems most natural that two southern boys should have left the earliest account of any real story-books. Though unfortunately nameless, they at least form an interesting coincidence. Bought in seventeen hundred and forty-one, they follow just one hundred years later than the meeting of the General Court, which was responsible for the preparation of Cotton’s “Milk for Babes,” and precede by a century the date when an American story-book literature was recognized as very different from that written for English children.
6-* Records of Mass. Bay, vol. i, p. 37 h.
6-† Ibid., vol. i, p. 37 e.
6-‡ Ford, The New England Primer, p. 83.
6-§ Records of Mass. Bay, vol. i, p. 328.
7-* Ford, The New England Primer, p. 92.
7-† Ibid.
11-* In the possession of the British Museum.
14-* Ford, The New England Primer, p. 38.
14-† Ibid.
19-* Thomas, History of Printing in America, vol. iii, p. 145.
19-† Ibid., vol. i, p. 294.
26-* Sears, American Literature, p. 86.
26-† Although this appears to be the first advertisement of gilt horn-books in Philadelphia papers, an inventory of the estate of Michael Perry, a Boston bookseller, made in seventeen hundred, includes sixteen dozen gilt horn-books.
CHAPTER II
1747–1767
| He who learns his letters fair, Shall have a coach and take the air. |
| Royal Primer, Newbery, 1762 |
| Our king the good No man of blood. |
| The New England Primer, 1762 |
CHAPTER II
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,