EDU12HCL - History of Children’s LiteratureWeek 5 – Lecture 1

The Affecting and Instructive

Historyof

Chapbooks for Children

as developed particularly by

Mr. John Newbery,printer and bookseller

of the Bible and Sun in St. Paul’s Churchyard London

MDCCX111-MDCCLXVII

© La Trobe University, David Beagley, 2005

Defining Children’s Literature

For there to be Children’s Literature, there must be:• Children• Literature

• Children – the concept of childhood, the recognition that children have needs, interests and capacities that are different to adults

• Literature – the conscious creation of literary material specifically for those needs, interests and capacities.

References

Townsend, J.R. (1996) Written for Children: an outline of English-Language Children’s Literature. 6th ed. London: Scarecrow Press. (“Part One: before 1840”)

Jackson, M. (1989) Engines of Instruction, Mischief and Magic: children’s literature in England from its beginnings to 1839. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Shavir, Z. (1986) Stratification of a system. The poetics of Children’s Literature [online] Chap. 7. Available: http://tau.ac.il/~zshavit/pocl/seven.html

University of Pittsburgh (2005) The Elizabeth Nesbitt Room Chapbook Collection [online] Available: http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/

Printing

• Johannes Gutenberg 1456 (Germany), William Caxton (1475) Britain.

• By 1500 over 1,000 printers in Europe.

• Movable type – first wood, then lead

• Set into plates, inked and repeated over sheet after sheet of paper

Printing

• Paper and sizes – Folio, quarto, folding into units that determined the number of pages

• Type and layout reversed to mirror image• Illustrations done

as woodcuts (inreverse)

• Could print up to 250 units an hour

• Little change inthis process intomodern times.

Chapbooks, broadsheets and pamphlets

Chapman – itinerant salesman, merchant, buyer/seller• From OE ceap, ceapian related to German kaufen –

buying, bargaining, trade• Developed into Cheap, chap, and UK place names

Cheapside, Chepstow, Chipping• Chapmen were peddlers, tinkers, travellers – sold

small portable items, thread, needles, houseware, and books, broadsheets and pamphlets

• 1600s-1700s immensely popular market in ballad sheets, confessions of criminals, political pamphlets, stories, biographies etc. that were hawked around the streets and towns

Chapbooks, broadsheets and pamphlets

Chapbooks were simply cheaply and quickly produced books for the popular market, and they sold very very, well.

• Read eagerly by adults and children.• Inexpensive, small, attractive. One page folded

many times and cut. • Woodcut illustrations.• The popularity of these books attracted the

attention of more serious publishers and writers• The popularity also raised the question of

“appropriate for children?”.

John Newbery 1713-1767

The first successful commercial publisher for children• Son of a farmer• Became owner of a printing business in his 20s by

marrying the widow of the previous owner

• Moved to London 1743, • Published A Little

Pretty Pocket Book in 1744

• Aimed at newlyprosperous middleclass and their values

John Newbery 1713-1767

Recognized several important commercial points:• Must appeal to the child• But do not contradict the values of the parent• Included giveaways and special offers – e.g. ball,

pincushion, free editions from his shop – with apparent educational or benevolent purpose

• Constant and regular “penetration” of the market – build expectations of audience, and brand loyalty

• Have pictures

John Newbery 1713-1767

• Also sold patent medicines – Dr James Fever Powder – and used the books to promote it

• Mixed the audiences and “hooks” astutely – adventure and fantasy to interest the children, morals and education to please the parents

• Established and kept reputation for enthusiasm and best interests of children

• Mixed with leading literary figures• USA’s Children’s Book of the Year award is the

Newbery Medal

Goody Two Shoes

Goody Two Shoes

• Typical mixture of fantastic adventure and moral lessons

• Bit of “Shrek”-like tongue in cheek attribution – See the original manuscript in the Vatican at Rome, and the cuts by Michael Angelo

• Story drew on Cinderella (prohibited for a time) and was adapted by other authors, even for adults

Illustrations

• Simple woodcuts• Usually middle-distance representations, eye

level perspective, side elevation• Newbery’s use of illustrations was so popular that

they were established as an indispensable feature of children’s books.

• Led to the great 19th century children’s artists: Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott, Beatrix Potter

•