An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  Renewals of orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked to England for their intellectual needs.  In Philadelphia—­a town of forty thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three—­among the principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse, Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,—­who had established a circulating library,—­Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell.  Bell had undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether popular, if an allusion in “The Philadelphiad” is to be credited.  This “New Picture of the City” was anonymously published in seventeen hundred and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert Bell’s book-shop: 

    BELL’S BOOK STORE

    Just by St. Paul’s where dry divines rehearse,
    Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
    And books that’s neither ... for no age nor clime,
    Lame languid prose begot on hobb’ling rhyme. 
    Here authors meet who ne’er a spring have got,
    The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot,
    Smart politicians wrangling here are seen,
    Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen.

In 1776 Bell’s facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an edition of “Little Goody Two-Shoes,” which seems likely to have been the only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution.  Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 “Aesop’s Fables,” as did also Robert Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book, written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a Philadelphian in his letters.  After the Revolution Benjamin Bache apparently printed children’s books in considerable quantities, and orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter.

New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several towns soon after peace was established.  John Carter, “at Shakespeare’s Head,” in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November, seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of stationers’ wares, and included in his list “Gilt Books for Children,” among which were most of Newbery’s publications.  In Hartford, Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred and sixty-four, “The Children’s Magazine” was reprinted in seventeen hundred and eighty-nine.  Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature made for young people in America.  One number contains: