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: Grant Richards, 1904. 103pp. A comical miniature illustrating the inhabitants of London and poking fun at everyone from the telegraph boy to the sentry at Buckingham Palace. Full-page color plates by the famous British poster artist and illustrator John Hassall are accompanied by rhyming verses. In a limerick about..... More
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, 1852. Octavo. vi, (7), 256pp. First edition. First issue, with “lifed” for “lifted” on page 21, line 3. Illustrated with a frontispiece and six plates after designs by Hammat Billings. Hawthorne’s groundbreaking attempt to retell Greek myths in a style suitable for children met with..... More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1963. 64pp. One of 350 copies. The second book of the Press. Contains six little-known tales taken from a miniature edition published in Boston, 1863, and wood-engraved vignettes from the same source. Fine in pictorial boards backed in cloth. (2 5/16 by 1 7/8; 59x48mm). More
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
Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1945. Folio. (14)ff., two of which fold out, + (7) strips. Intact and unused paper activity book designed by Italian artist Edina Altara. Includes a wide variety of colorful paper toys and dolls: an illusionist, finger-puppet dancing girls, a three-dimensional carousel, a regiment of soldiers, birds and..... More
Boston: Henry Hoyt, (1860). 12mo. 164pp. Each lesson is illustrated with wood engravings, and contain passages from the New Testament followed by questions and an explanatory verse. There was a second edition of this work published in 1876, issued by Hoyt's successor. This edition is known in six institutional holdings..... More
(Otley, Yorkshire: J. S. Publishing & Stationery Co., Ltd., c. 1850). Sixteen 16mo. issues, each 8pp., comprising a complete series, as indicated on the back covers of each issue. All the chapbooks are illustrated with woodcuts on every page, and approximately half of the illustrations in each are hand-colored. The..... 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
Dordrecht: A. Blusse & Zoon, (c. 1794). 24mo. 24pp., + 8 plates. The engraved plates depict the marvels of a fair and the street performances therein, including dancing, singing, and a magician, all hand-colored. Particular highlights include a hurdy-gurdy man and a magic lantern show featuring a naval battle. The..... More
London: A. Park, c. 1840. Quarto. 6ff. First and last page pasted to inside covers. Illustrated with sixteen handcolored lithographed engravings, presumably by the publisher, Arthur Park, an engraver, lithographer, and artist who produced figures and scenes for juvenile toy theaters. He emigrated to America in 1842. The text covers..... More
London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1867. Small quarto. (36)pp. Illustrated with thirty-two chromolithographs, each with verse or prose captions. The book is divided into four subjects: Sunny Days, Home for the Holidays, Right and Wrong, and Picture Rhymes of Happy Times. Most of the scenes take place on farms and..... 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
NY: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975. Quarto. xxx, 263pp. Illustrated throughout with photographic replicas of title pages, covers, woodcuts, and engravings, in both black & white and color. Inscribed as a special copy to Gerald Gottlieb, the main author of the text. A wonderfully comprehensive and well-organized reference. Bound in blue..... More
(Mexico City: D. E. Herrero Y Cia, c. 1955). Oblong octavo. (56)pp. Tenth edition (stated). With a pedagogical outline from the Secretary of Education. Beginning with correct posture for standing and running, the text covers a wide range of topics designed to encourage good habits, understand natural phenomena, and become..... 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
York: J. Kendrew, (c. 1823). 24pp., including covers. Illustrated with fifteen woodcuts. One of the 24-page penny books published by Kendrew, which were stitched in a single gathering and then pasted into printed covers later. Often the covers were illustrated with wood engravings and verses that were not relevant to..... More
York: J. Kendrew, (c. 1820). 48mo. A collection of verses for children, illustrated throughout with woodcut vignettes on nearly every page, and a large cut of a preacher at his pulpit to the rear cover. Slight split starting to spine, else near fine in white printed wrappers. (Davis 42; Gumuchian..... More
NY: Kiggins & Kellogg, (c. 1860). 32mo. 24pp. Decorated with various wood engravings. An impressive collection of riddles and rebuses, for at-home amusement. Bound in pale pink wrappers. Fine. More
NY: Kiggins & Kellogg, (c. 1865). 8pp. One full-page engraving and six half-page engravings. Each image is accompanied by explanatory text on the object's creation and function. Examples include a tub, a raft, and a bed. In plain paper wrappers, with advertisement for Kiggins & Kellogg at rear. Remarkably crisp..... More
NY: Kiggins & Kellogg. 64mo. 8pp. Illustrated with six woodcuts, plus a title-page vignette. The images are highly detailed for their small size—a ship at sea buffeted by rolling waves under thick clouds, and a fish at the end of a fishing line with an entire landscape scene behind it..... More
Philadelphia: Kimber and Conrad, (c. 1812). 24mo. (24)pp., partially unopened. Illustrated with twenty-two half-page wood engravings, each with a simple sentence underneath related to the image; also included is a full-page engraving on the title page. The woodcuts are all collected from other books. On the back of the title..... More
Paris: La Renaissance du Livre, 1922. Oblong quarto. (13)ff., interleaved with twelve pochoir plates. First edition. A poignant fable about the escapades of a magpie—whose body is made of a pinecone—and three little pinecone chicks as they leave the mantel of the fireplace on which they live to venture out..... More
Paris: Delarue, (c. 1820). 12mo. 90pp. With frontispiece and forty illustrations from engravings. Contains detailed explanations for performing a variety of magic tricks, including passing a ring through a stick, number divination, the “oeuf dansant,” and many others. Only three copies recorded in institutions, two of which are in the..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1880). 48mo. (8)pp. Illustrated throughout with the antics and mishaps of a troublemaking young boy. Bound in wrappers with an uncommonly colorful upper cover of green, orange, and black. Faint edgewear and minor dampstain to inside upper cover, else fine. More
New York: McLoughlin Bros. 1898. Small quarto. (12)ff. A painting book for children, including six color sample pages and six pages showing the same images as outlines. With faded hues similar to those in the full-color images, the outlines suggest colors for the young painter to use. The verso of..... More
