Most people, when asked about their favorite book, will invariably include a book they read as a child. Hemingway famously proclaimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn". Twain's book, like its predecessor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were books whose intended audience was young readers. Such books speak to us on multiple levels. As literature, they are well-crafted and clever with memorable characters and conflicts, but they matter to us for more than these reasons because we discovered them at a formative period of our lives. Their ideas helped to form our own, and so they are more personal ...
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London: Orlando Hodgson, (c. 1840). 16mo. 6ff., + wrappers. Each leaf presents the reader with a half-page illustration of activities suitable for the time of day described in the verse below them. The images are hand-colored in a variety of shades, giving them uncommon depth. The book weaves counting from..... More
Gainsbrough: H. and G. Mozley, 1800. 32mo. 31pp. Frontispiece and twenty-seven other woodcuts throughout provide visual aid to this young girl's alphabet. The chapbook has intentions beyond its overt rhetorical claim; it uses the mnemonic device of the English alphabet to educate young girls on the proper components of a...... More
Cincinnati: U. P. James, (c. 1860). 24mo. 31pp. Illustrated throughout with stock wood engravings to accompany alphabets, vocabulary lists, grammar lessons, and short poems and moral stories. Crisply printed and, save expected minor soiling to exterior, remarkably clean in blue wrappers. Fine. More
London: John Harris, (c. 1826). 24mo. 16ff. On each page is a hand-colored woodcut showing punctuation in use, sometimes anthropomorphized, sometimes objectified, sometimes demonstrated. In one image, for example, a dash, a circumflex, a breve, a diaeresis, a hyphen, accents acute and grave, and a pair of parentheses form an..... More
(Easthampton, MA): Cheloniidae Press, 1986. Octavo. (54)pp., frenchfold. One of 231 copies, signed by Alan James Robinson. The alphabet and the Latin and common names of the birds are printed in two colors after lettering by Suzanne Moore. The opening text is from "Animate Creation," a popular edition of "Our..... More
Poughkeepsie, NY: Artists and Writers Guild, 1935. Square octavo. (14)ff., + opaque tissue sheets. A clever, interactive book calling on children to use scissors or a penknife to cut out the negative space in a printed image, and to fill in the then-missing background with colored paper so that, when..... More
London: J. S. Publishing & Stationery, (c. 1860). 32mo. 8pp. Decorated throughout with borders and captioned engravings. The primer's eight pages provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to reading and rhetoric, beginning with the English alphabet (including dipthongs) and concluding with narratively coherent sentences. Bound in teal wrappers with printed covers..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1900). Small quarto. (6)ff. The bulk of the book is devoted to paper toy soldiers, among them infantrymen, cavalrymen on horseback, cannons, and a drummer, all in the 19th-century uniforms of the British army. All are set on perforated pages, on each of which is printed..... More
New York: Minard W. Wilson, c. 1850. Octavo. 24pp. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts and wood engravings of various sizes, and likely from a variety of sources. The final engraving—a portrait of John Wesley—is signed "Jocelyn NY." According to OCLC, this primer was issued under at least three New York imprints..... More
London: McMorquodale & Co., (c. 1934). Small quarto. (20)pp. Illustrated with twenty-two full-page plates in vibrant colors, with text running underneath. The tale told here is an adaptation of the famous, and famously controversial, "Ten Little Niggers" story, but here the boys of the original become anthropomorphic balloons of various..... More
Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, (c. 1810). 12mo. (4)pp. Contains the alphabet (excluding j and u) with illustrations and street vendors' cries, printed in six compartments per page. A very fine copy in the original olive wrappers, on which are printed upper and lower-case alphabets and two unattributed woodcuts. Mild edgewear and..... More
NY: E. M. Leavens Co., 1918. Quarto. (12)pp. Bold, colorful illustrations of the American West, including American Indians, cowboys, stage coaches, and frontier cabins, accompany explanatory text, printed in blue, red, and brown. Bound in color printed wrappers. Some bumping to corners, tiny tear at bottom of rear cover, else..... More
London: Griffith & Farran, 1876. Quarto. 21pp. Illustrations and text printed together anastatically. Kemp's elaborate calligraphy and illustrations imbue her rhymes with whimsy, making them more worthy of the category of fairy tale rather than nursery rhyme. Exceedingly rare. Bound in red cloth stamped in black and gold. Light soiling..... More
London: Methuen, (1927). First edition. Number two of 200 copies, printed on handmade paper and signed by A.A. Milne and Ernest H. Shepard. This famous collection of children's verses, featuring Milne's son Christopher Robin and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Shepard's whimsical drawings. Bound in quarter cloth with orange..... More
Reading: Smart and Cowslade, 1792. First edition. The Preface notes that this series of versified history lessons is adapted from the Chronological and Historical Game of England, published by Dudley Adams. Once a young scholar has absorbed the mnemonic verse describing the monarch and his rule, they must then perform..... More
Mainz: Jos. Scholz, (c. 1890). Four stand-up scenes with forty-five die-cut paper figures, which can be used to stage the fairy tale of Snow White. The pieces include thirteen two-sided figures for our major players, including Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, Prince Charming, and the Evil Queen; six additional one-sided..... More
Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber, 1920. An unusual unused booklet with "magic leaves," which reveal a picture when lightly passed over with a pencil. For obvious reasons, it is especially rare to find such as this with a clean interior. Oblong 32mo. (8)ff. Bound in pictorial wrappers featuring an old-fashioned horse..... More
(Guildford, England): Circle Press, 1984. Small quarto. (55)pp., accordionfold. One of 150 copies, designed, executed, and signed by Ronald King. An innovative and beautiful alphabet, consisting of simplified pop-up letter forms, each against a blind-embossed square, cut in pure white hand-made paper. Opens out into a panorama with A-N on..... More
NY: Century Co., (c. 1933). Octavo. (x), 246pp. Copiously illustrated by Palmer Cox. This was the first adventure of the Brownies written in prose, and it is advertised as having "a detailed, connected story, with a beginning, a middle and an end." A later issue, with the text, binding, and..... More
NY: Lindner, Eddy & Clauss, (n.d.). 32mo. (12)pp. Full-page engravings throughout. Each illustrates a different customer of Clark's O.N.T. spool cotton, including the royal family, Native Americans, witches, and sailors. These are expounded upon by a four-line rhyming poem advertising the use of O.N.T. In pictorial paper wrappers. Fine. More
Chelsea: (Southernwood Press, c. 1915). Small quarto. (23)ff. One of thirty copies printed on handmade paper. Illustrated throughout by Josephine Winser. The drawings illustrate popular nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jack & Jill, and Sing a Song of Sixpence. Children take center stage in these depictions..... More
London: Darton, 1811. 32mo. 16pp., + 16 inserted plates. Each engraved image depicts the titular good boy engaged in less desirable activities, such as throwing stones, feeding scraps to the family pet, and drawing on the walls. Each is accompanied by a pithy couplet drawn from the soliloquy. The author..... More
Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1972. iv, 57pp. One of 200 copies. A no-nonsense guide to Greek grammar, intended to "smooth the student's way and enliven his task at the start." In the Preface, the author thanks Glen Dawson for his generous contribution of twenty dollars, which allowed for the..... More
(London): Dean & Son, (1860). Octavo. (6)ff. A collection of hand-colored engravings accompanied by rhyming stories about fictional people. Each story adopts a humorous tone, though some also bear moral lessons. Throughout its nineteenth-century lifespan, the publishing firm of Dean and Son specialized in innovative printing processes used in the..... More
London: Dean and Son / W. Kent & Co., (c. 1860). Octavo. Three volumes in one. (24); 30; (32)pp. A collection of three illustrated children's books published together by Dean and Son under the name Dean's Coloured Picture Book: The Home First Book. The titles herein are "The Nursery ABC..... More
