Forgotten Books of the American Nursery Part 4

[51-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 23.

[52-A] Foster, _Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i, p. 244.

[54-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 109.

CHAPTER III

1750-1776

Kings should be good Not men of blood.

_The New England Primer_, 1791

If Faith itself has different dresses worn What wonder modes in wit should take their turn.

POPE: _Essay on Man_

CHAPTER III

1750-1776

_Newbery's Books in America_

In the middle of the eighteenth century Thursdays were red-letter days for the residents of the Quaker town of Philadelphia. On that day Thomas Bradford sent forth from the "Sign of the Bible" in Second Street the weekly number of the "Pennsylvania Journal," and upon the same day his rival journalists, Franklin and Hall, issued the "Pennsylvania Gazette."

On Thursday, the fifteenth of November, seventeen hundred and fifty, Old Style, the good people of the town took up their newspapers with doubtless a feeling of comfortable antic.i.p.ation, as they drew their chairs to the fireside and began to look over the local occurrences of the past week, the "freshest foreign advices," and the various bits of information that had filtered slowly from the northern and more southern provinces.

On this particular evening the subscribers to both newspapers found a trifle more news in the "Journal," but in each paper the same domestic items of interest, somewhat differently worded. The latest news from Boston was that of November fifth, from New York, November eighth, the Annapolis item was dated October tenth, and the few lines from London had been written in August.

The "Gazette" (a larger sheet than the "Journal") occasionally had upon its first page some timely article of political or local interest. But more frequently there appeared in its first column an effusion of no local color, but full of sentimental or moral reflections. In this day's issue there was a long letter, dated New York, from one who claimed to be "Beauty's Votary." This expressed the writer's disappointment that an interesting "Piece" inserted in the "Gazette" a fortnight earlier had presented in its conclusion "an unexpected shocking Image." The shock to the writer it appears was the greater, because the beginning of the article had, he thought, promised a strong contrast between "Furious Rage in our rough s.e.x, and Gentle mildness adorn'd with Beauty's charms in the other." The rest of the letter was an apostrophe to the fair s.e.x in the sentimental and florid language of the period.

To the women, we imagine, this letter was more acceptable than to the men, who found the shipping news more to their taste, and noted with pleasure the arrival of the ship Carolina and the Snow Strong, which brought cargoes valuable for their various industries.

Advertis.e.m.e.nts filled a number of columns. Among them was one so novel in its character that it must have caught the eye of all readers. The middle column on the second page was devoted almost entirely to an announcement that John Newbery had for "Sale to Schoolmasters, Shopkeepers, &c, who buy in quant.i.ties to sell again," "The Museum," "A new French Primer," "The Royal Battledore," and "The Pretty Book for Children." This notice--a reduced fac-simile of which is given--made Newbery's debut in Philadelphia; and it must not be forgotten that but a short period had elapsed since his first book had been printed in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _John Newbery's Advertis.e.m.e.nt of Children's Books_]

Franklin had doubtless heard of the publisher in St. Paul's Churchyard through Mr. Strahan, his correspondent, who filled orders for him from London booksellers; but the omission of the customary announcement of special books as "to be had of the Printer hereof"

points to Newbery's enterprise in seeking a wider market for his wares, and Franklin's business ability in securing the advertis.e.m.e.nt, as it is not repeated in the "Journal."

This "Museum" was probably a newer book than the "Royal Primer,"

"Battledore," and "Pretty Book," and consequently was more fully described; and oddly enough, all of these books are of earlier editions than Mr. Welsh, Newbery's biographer, was able to trace in England.

"The Museum" still clings to the same idea which pervaded "The Play-thing." Its second t.i.tle reads: "A private TUTOR for little MASTERS and MISSES." The contents show that this purpose was carried out. It tutored them by giving directions for reading with eloquence and propriety; by presenting "the antient and present State of _Great Britain_ with a compendious History of _England_;" by instructing them in "the Solar System, geography, Arts and Sciences" and the inevitable "Rules for Behaviour, Religion and Morality;" and it admonished them by giving the "Dying Words of Great Men when just quitting the Stage of Life." As a museum it included descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the World, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Tower of London, with an ethnological section in the geographical department! All of this amus.e.m.e.nt was to be had for the price of "One Shilling," neatly bound, with, thrown in as good measure, "Letters, Tales and Fables ill.u.s.trated with Cuts." Such a library, complete in itself, was a fine and most welcome reward for scholarship, when prizes were awarded at the end of the school session.

Importations of "Parcels of entertaining books for children" had earlier in the year been announced through the columns of the "Gazette;" but these importations, though they show familiarity with Newbery's quaint phraseology in advertising, probably also included an a.s.sortment of such little chap-books as "Tom Thumb," "Cinderella" (from the French of Monsieur Perrault), and some few other old stories which the children had long since appropriated as their own property.

In 1751 we find New York waking up to the appreciation of children's books. There J. Waddell and James Parker were apparently the pioneers in bringing to public notice the fact that they had for sale little novel-books in addition to horn-books and primers; and moreover the "Weekly Post-Boy" advertised that these booksellers had "Pretty Books for little Masters and Misses" (clearly a Newbery imitation), "with Blank Flourished Christmas pieces for Scholars."

But as yet even Franklin had hardly been convinced that the old way of imparting knowledge was not superior to the then modern combination of amus.e.m.e.nt and instruction; therefore, although with his partner, David Hall, he without doubt sold such children's books as were available, for his daughter Sally, aged seven, he had other views. At his request his wife, in December, 1751, wrote the following letter to William Strahan:

MADAM,--I am ordered by my Master to write for him Books for Sally Franklin. I am in Hopes She will be abel to write for herself by the Spring.

8 Sets of the Perceptor best Edit.

8 Doz. of Croxall's Fables.

3 Doz. of Bishop Kenns Manual for Winchester School.

1 Doz. Familiar Forms, Latin and Eng.

Ainsworth's Dictionaries, 4 best Edit.

2 Doz. Select Tales and Fables.

2 Doz. Costalio's Test.

Cole's Dictionarys Latin and Eng. 6 a half doz.

3 Doz. of Clarke's Cordery. 1 Boyle's Pliny 2 vols. 8vo.

6 Sets of Nature displayed in 7 vols. 12mo.

One good Quarto Bibel with Cudes bound in calfe.

1 Penrilla. 1 Art of making Common Salt. By Browning.

My Dafter gives her duty to Mr. Stroyhan and his Lady, and her compliments to Master Billy and all his brothers and Sisters....

Your humbel Servant DEBORAH FRANKLIN

Little Sally Franklin could not have needed eight dozen copies of Aesop's Fables, nor four Ainsworth's Dictionaries, so it is probable that Deborah Franklin's far from ready pen put down the book order for the spring, and that Sally herself was only to be supplied with the "Perceptor," the "Fables," and the "one good Quarto Bibel."

As far as it is now possible to judge, the people of the towns soon learned the value of Newbery's little nursery tales, and after seventeen hundred and fifty-five, when most of his books were written and published, they rapidly gained a place on the family book-shelves in America.

By seventeen hundred and sixty Hugh Gaine, printer, publisher, patent medicine seller, and employment agent for New York, was importing practically all the Englishman's juvenile publications then for sale. At the "Bible and Crown," where Gaine printed the "Weekly Mercury," could be bought, wholesale and retail, such books as, "Poems for Children Three Feet High," "Tommy Trapwit," "Trip's Book of Pictures," "The New Year's Gift," "The Christmas Box," etc.

Gaine himself was a prominent printer in New York in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Until the Revolution his shop was a favorite one and well patronized. But when the hostilities began, the condition of his pocket seems to have regulated his sympathies, and he was by turn Whig and Tory according to the possession of New York by so-called Rebels, or King's Servants. When the British army evacuated New York, Gaine, wishing to keep up his trade, dropped the "Crown" from his sign.

Among the enthusiastic patriots this ruse had scant success. In Freneau's political satire of the bookseller, the first verse gives a strong suggestion of the ridicule to follow:

"And first, he was, in his own representation, A printer, once of good reputation.

He dwelt in the street called Hanover-Square, (You'll know where it is if you ever was there Next door to the dwelling of Mr. Brownjohn, Who now to the drug-shop of Pluto is gone) But what do I say--who e'er came to town, And knew not Hugh Gaine at the _Bible_ and _Crown_."

A contemporary of, and rival bookseller to, Gaine in seventeen hundred and sixty was James Rivington. Mr. Hildeburn has given Rivington a rather unenviable reputation; still, as he occasionally printed (?) a child's book, Mr. Hildeburn's remarks are quoted:

"Until the advent of Rivington it was generally possible to tell from an American Bookseller's advertis.e.m.e.nt in the current newspapers whether the work offered for sale was printed in America or England. But the books he received in every fresh invoice from London were 'just published by James Rivington' and this form was speedily adopted by other booksellers, so that after 1761 the advertis.e.m.e.nt of books is no longer a guide to the issues of the colonial press."

Although Rivington did not set up a press until about seventeen hundred and seventy-three,--according to Mr. Hildeburn,--he had a book-shop much earlier. Here he probably reprinted the t.i.tle-page and then put an elaborate notice in the "Weekly Mercury" for November 17, 1760, as follows:

JAMES RIVINGTON

_Bookseller and Stationer from London over against the Golden Key in Hanover Square._