Forgotten Books of the American Nursery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 224 pages of information about Forgotten Books of the American Nursery.

Forgotten Books of the American Nursery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 224 pages of information about Forgotten Books of the American Nursery.

Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least one book for juvenile readers.  The title reads:  “Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl.  To the whole is prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents, Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy.”  To this extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope, probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.  A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even Newbery’s original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what he was accustomed to do for his father and mother.  And yet the habit of spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not without value:  it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make a better choice.

[Illustration:  A page from “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"]

The manner in which the “Little Pretty Pocket-Book” is written is so characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine briefly the topics treated.  An American reprint of a later date, now in the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine instruction with amusement.  The book itself is miniature in size, about two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers—­Newbery’s own specialty as a binding.  The sixty-five little illustrations at the top of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth century child, although they were crude in execution and especially lacked true perspective.  The first chapter after the “Address to Parents” and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly.  First, Tommy is congratulated upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as to the use of the “Pocket-Book,” “which will teach you to play at all those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with.”  The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with pins upon a red and black ball.  Little Polly is then given similar congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion is to be substituted for a ball.  Then follow thirty pages devoted to “alphabetically digested” games, from “The great A Play” and “The Little a Play” to “The great and little Rs,” when plays, or the author’s imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew.  Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle: 

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Forgotten Books of the American Nursery from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.