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 ...
Read more about Children's Books and Toys
York: J. Kendrew, (c. 1820). 48mo. 30pp. Playful woodcuts decorate each page, depicting bizarre scenes, such as the devil hugging a witch, a tailor riding a goose, and a monkey shaving a goat. Each is accompanied by rhyming verses lending whimsical comentary. Bound in orange wrappers, pleasantly crisp with scant..... More
York: J. Kendrew, (c. 1820). 48mo. 31pp. Woodcut frontispiece depicting Crusoe, as well as several throughout portraying scenes of Crusoe's hunts, his interactions with Friday, and his ultimate rescue. An abridged version of Daniel Defoe's seminal work. Faint toning throughout, minimal edgwear, else fine in orange printed wrappers. 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
NY: Kiggins & Kellogg, (c. 1850). 48mo. Illustrated throughout with full-page black & white engravings and smaller vignettes. This near-miniature chapbook contains a tale about American colonization and independence, told to a young audience in order to explain the significance of the July 4th holiday. Fine in printed buff wrappers..... 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
Frankfurt A.M. Bertele, Bilder, Buecher, (c. 1925). Quarto. (26)pp. First edition. Written and illustrated with thirteen fantastic, chromolithographed plates by Kleyer, who studied under the expressionist painter and printmaker Ludwig Meidner. Kleyer’s text, which is a series of rhyming couplets printed on facing pages, concerns a family visit to a...... 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
(England): 1849. Octavo. 5ff. Verse manuscript with original watercolor illustrations, including a full-page cover title and title-page and sixteen vignettes throughout. The text tells the tale of Timothy Brown, who is introduced as "a wild little lad" who constantly tears his clothes and searches for ways to spend his days..... More
New Britain, CT: Robert E. Massmann, 1980. (5)ff. One of 500 copies. A foldout panorama, with flaps which unfold further to reveal changing pictures. Based on the early moralizing "Metamorphoses" or "Harlequinades," but with new, hand-colored illustrations. This one in particular is adapted from the 1852 edition "Improved and Published"..... More
Boston: Mayhew & Baker, 1858. Square octavo. (32)pp., including wrappers. One of the Fireside Picture Books. Illustrated with nine large engravings and two smaller vignettes by "Morte". Each illustration is accompanied by one of the nine verses from the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, "There was a Little Man, and he..... 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
NY: D. Appleton & Co., (n.d.). Square octavo. 4pp., + six full-page chromolithographed illustrations. Another title from the long partnership between McLoughlin and Appleton, which began in the 1860s and enabled McLoughlin to gain a foothold in South America. This title likely appeared in McLoughlin’s “Familiar Series,” though we cannot..... More
NY: D. Appleton & Co., (n.d.). Square octavo. 4pp + six full-page chromolithographed illustrations. Originally published by McLoughlin under the “Familiar Series”, the present edition was issued in a Spanish translation by Appleton for distribution in South America. This title apparently not held in any institutional collection. Minor wear and..... More
NY: D. Appleton & Co., (c. 1890-1900). Quarto. (10)ff. Illustrated with six full-page chromolithographs. Each accompanies a fable, in verse or in prose, in which animals learn a moral lesson. These include "El Leon y el Raton [The Lion and the Mouse]," "El Perro del Hortelano [The Dog in the..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1872). 16mo. (8)pp. Eight hand-colored illustrations of the titular Master Rose in various garb, from traditional Greek and Spanish dress to that of a Native American warrior and a Turkish Sultan. Beneath each illustration is a four-line poem describing the culture, or at least beliefs about..... More
NY: D. Appleton & Co., 1886. Quarto. (6)ff. Illustrated with six three-quarter-page chromolithographed images depicting animals, such as cats, horses, and hogs, at their customary activities. Underneath the images are a variety of lessons on counting and vocabulary, all in Spanish. Twelve further lessons appear in between, increasing in difficulty..... 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
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1875). Small quarto. (14)pp. Four full-page color woodblock illustrations, each showing a child playing out one of the activities recounted in the verses opposite. Some bear moral overtones: usefulness over idleness, obedience over indolence, and care for all living creatures. Others are more playful, dealing with..... More
Springfield, MA: McLoughlin Bros. 1940-1941. Four quarto volumes. (60)pp. each. Illustrated throughout in color and black & white. This set of four volumes come from the McLoughlin Bros. series "The Little Color Classics," with the titles "Raggedy Ann Helps Grandpa Hoppergrass" (#843), "Raggedy Ann and the Hoppy Toad" (#844), "Raggedy..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1873). (12)pp. A chapbook of moral songs by Isaac Watts, illustrated with four color engravings. Part of a series of "Illuminated texts for Sunday school rewards" published by McLoughlin Brothers. Minor internal soiling, previous owner's stamp to inside rear wrapper, which has offset onto last page..... More
London: Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, (1891). Small quarto. 64pp. First edition. With photo-etched illustrations in black & white throughout by Mrs. E. M. Boyd, Mr. R. André, and by the poet, Louisa A. Meredith. Although born in Birmingham, England, Meredith moved to New South Wales, and then Tasmania, after..... More
Concord, NH: J. A. Merriam & Rufus Merrill, (c. 1855). Small octavo. 16pp. Wood engravings throughout illustrate the rhyming tale of two children lost in a forest, who are captured by ruffians before finding their way home again. The author, "H. S. B.", provides a preface asserting that this version..... More
