IV. CONCERNING NOW AND THEN

Ce que je vois alors dans ce jardin, c’est un petit bonhomme qui, les mains dans les poches et sa gibecière au dos, s’en va au collège en sautillant comme un moineau. Ma pensée seule le voit; car ce petit bonhomme est une ombre; c’est l’ombre dumoique j’étais il y a vingt-cinq ans. Vraiment, il m’intéresse, ce petit: quand il existait, je ne me souciais guère de lui; mais, maintenant qu’il n’est plus, je l’aime bien. Il valait mieux, en somme, que les autresmoique j’ai eus après avoir perdu celui-là. Il était bien étourdi; mais il n’était pas méchant et je dois lui; rendre cette justice qu’il ne m’a paslaisséun seul mauvais souvenir; c’est un innocent que j’ai perdu: il est bien naturel que je le regrette; il est bien naturel que je le voie en pensée et que mon esprit s’amuse à ranimer son souvenir.... Tout ce qu’il voyait alors, je le vois aujourd’hui. C’est le même ciel et la méme terre; les choses ont leur âme d’autrefois, leur âme quim’égayeet m’attriste, et me trouble; lui seul n’est plus.—Anatole France, in “Le Livre de mon Ami.”“I preferthe little girls and boys ... that come as you call them, fair or dark, in green ribbons or blue. I like making cowslip fields grow and apple-trees bloom at a moment’s notice. That is what it is, you see, to have gone through life with an enchanted land ever beside you....”—Kate Greenaway to Ruskin.

“I preferthe little girls and boys ... that come as you call them, fair or dark, in green ribbons or blue. I like making cowslip fields grow and apple-trees bloom at a moment’s notice. That is what it is, you see, to have gone through life with an enchanted land ever beside you....”—Kate Greenaway to Ruskin.

Whatever change in children’s literature was now to take place was due entirely to the increasing importance of elementary education. A long while was to elapse before the author was whollyfreed from the idea that situations could be dealt with, apart from any overbearingmorale, and even then he found himself constrained to meet the problem of giving information—of teaching instead of preaching.

The interest in external nature, the desire to explain phenomena according to the dictates of belief, infused a new element into authorship for young people. But those writers brought to meet this latent stirring of the scientific spirit all the harness of the old régime. First they thought that they could explain the evident by parables, but they found that fact was too particular for generalisations, and the child mind too immature for such symbol. Then they attempted to define natural objects from a childish plane, making silly statements take the place of truth. They soon became aware that their simple style had to deal with a set of details that could not be sentimentalised.

The truth of the matter is that a new impulse was started; the national spirit began to move toward a more democratic goal; the rank and file began to look beyond the narrow hill and dale; women sought wider spheres; the poor demanded constitutional rights; energy began to stir from underneath. The wordmodernwas in every one’s mind. The old order changeth, giving place to new. The child’s intellect must be furnished with food for its growth; Rousseau’s doctrine of “back to nature” was found notto have worked; it was realised that special training must begin early for all the walks of life. Carlyle was pleading for apubliclibrary, education was widening its sphere.

In the preceding pages, we have tried to establish a continuous line of development in children’s books through several centuries; upon such a foundation the English story and the American story of to-day are based. The table of English writers on page 147 contains names of minor importance, but still forming a part of the past history—foreshadowers of the new era. For therein you will discover that juvenile literature first begins to show signs of differing from adult literature only in its power; that where Macaulay tells the story of England in terms of maturity, Miss Strickland, Lady Callcott, Miss Tytler, and Miss Yonge adopt a descending scale. Where children were wont to act in accord with the catechism, they are now made to feel an interest in their surroundings. Mrs. Marcet writes for them “talks” on chemistry and political economy, Mrs. Wakefield on botany and insects. The extension of schools meant that literature must be supplied those schools; writers were encouraged in the same way that Miss More was prompted to produce her “Repository Tracts.” Grammars and histories began to flood the market, and in the wake of Scott’s novels, taking into consideration the fact that books were being written for the purpose of information, thechild’s historical story was a natural consequence. Thus we discover the connection between “Waverley” and Henty. The death-blow to fairy tales in England, brought about by the didactic writers, resulted in a deplorable lack of imaginative literature for children, until a German influence, around 1840–1850, began to take effect, and the Grimms’ Household Tales afforded a new impulse.[41]Mrs. Gatty, author of the famous “Parables of Nature,” deigned to rejoice over the classic nonsense of Lewis Carroll. The line of descent can be drawn from Perrault to Grimm, from Grimm to Andrew Lang’s rainbow series of folk-lore.

The table is intended to do no more than indicate the gradual manner in which this break took effect. The student who would treat the evolution fully will find it necessary to place side by side with his discussion of individual books for young people, a full explanation of those social changes in English history which are the chief causes of the changes in English literature. Children’s books are subject to just those modifications which take place in the beliefs, the knowledge, and the aspirations of the adult person. The difference between the two is one of intensity and not of kind. The student will discover, after a study of the development of the common school, how and why the educational impulse dominatedover all elements of pure imagination; how the retelling craze, given a large literary sanction by such a writer as Lamb, and so excellently upheld by Charles Kingsley, lost caste when brought within compass of the text-book. He will finally see how this educational pest has overrun America to a far greater extent than England, to the detriment of much that is worthy and of much which should by rights be made to constitute a children’s reading heritage.

Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield.1751–1832. Member of Society of Friends; philanthropic work among the poor. Author: Juvenile Anecdotes; Juvenile Travellers; Conversations; Introduction to Botany; Introduction to Insects; Present Condition of Female Sex, with Suggestions for Its Improvement; Life of William Penn. Reference: D. N. B.[42]

Frances Burney (Madame D’Arblay).1752–1840. Reference: D. N. B.

William Fordyce Mavor.1758–1837. Ed. 1799, juvenile periodical for Walker, Newbery. Reference: D. N. B.

Joanna Baillie.1762–1851. Work among the poor made her known as Lady Bountiful. Reference: D. N. B.

Jeremiah Joyce.1763–1816. Author: Lectures on the Microscope.

Mrs. Jane Marcet.1769–1858. Macaulay wrote: “Every girl who has read Mrs. Marcet’s little dialogues on political economy could teach Montague or Walpole many fine lessons in finance.” Author: Scientific text-books; Conversations on Chemistry intended for the Female Sex; Conversations on Political Economy, imitated by Harriet Martineau in her Illustrations of Political Economy. Reference: D. N. B.

Mrs. Barbara Hofland.1770–1844. Imitated the Edgeworth style. Author: Emily; The Son of a Genius; Tales of a Manor; Young Crusoe. Reference: D. N. B.

Mrs. Mary Martha Sherwood.1775–1851. Stories and tracts evangelical in tone. With her sister, Mrs. Cameron, invented a type of story for rich and for poor. Author: The Fairchild Family (intended for the middle classes); Little Henry and His Bearer. Reference:New Review(May 18, 1843); Life of Mrs. Sherwood by her daughter; D. N. B. An edition of The Fairchild Family, New York, Stokes, $1.50.

Jane Porter.1776–1850. Reference: D. N. B.

Maria Hack.1778–1844. Quaker parentage. A believer in the “walk” species of literature. Author: Winter Evenings, or Tales of Travellers; First Lessons in English Grammar; Harry Beaufoy, or the Pupil of Nature. Reference: D. N. B.

Mrs. Elizabeth Penrose.1780–1837. Pseud. Mrs. Markham. Daughter of a rector. One critic wrote: “Mrs. Penrose adapted her history to what she considered the needs of the young, and omitted scenes of cruelty and fraud, as hurtful to children, and party politics after the Revolution as too complicated for them to learn.” Author: Began school histories in 1823; these were brought up to date afterward by Mary Howitt. Moral Tales and Sermons for Children. Reference: D. N. B.

John Wilson Croker.1780–1857. One of the founders of theQuarterly Review; reviewed abusively Keats’s Endymion. Author: Stories from the History of England, 1817, which supplied Scott with the idea for his Tales of a Grandfather; Irish Tales. Reference: Jenning’s Diaries and Correspondence of Croker (London, 1884); Internat. Encyclo.

Lady Maria Callcott.1785–1842. Author: Little Arthur’s History of England. Reference: D. N. B.

Mary Russell Mitford.1787–1855. Careful detail of description, akin to Dutch style of painting. Author: Tragedies; Village Stories; Juvenile Spectator. She was among the first women to adopt writing as a profession. Miss Yonge speaks of her “writing so deliciously of children,” but she “could not write for them.” Reference: D. N. B.; Recollections; Letters.

Agnes Strickland.1796–1874. “With the exception of Jane Porter, whom she visited at Bristol, and with whom she carried on a frequent correspondence, and a casual meeting with Macaulay, whom she found congenial, she came little in contact with the authors of the day.” Author: Lives of the Queens of England; Two RivalCrusoes. [Note the hybrid type of story that sprung up around the real Robinson Crusoe.] Edited Fisher’s Juvenile Scrap Book, 1837–1839. Reference: D. N. B.

Mrs. May Sewell.1797–1884. Left Society of Friends for the Church of England. Wrote homely ballads.Videdaughter, Anna Sewell. Author: Her ballad, Mother’s Last Words, circulated about 1,088,000 copies when it first appeared. Reference: Mod. Biog.

Mary Howitt.1799–1888. Authorship linked with that of her husband. In 1837 began writing children’s stories and poems. Her daughter, Anna Mary, also was a writer of children’s books. Author: Translator of Fredrika Bremer’s novels; editor, Fisher’s Drawingroom Scrap Book. Reference: Reminiscences of My Later Life (Good Words, 1886); D. N. B.

Catherine Sinclair.1800–1864. Fourth daughter of Sir John Sinclair. Her work considered the beginning of the modern spirit. A friend of Scott. Author: Holiday House; Modern Accomplishment; Modern Society; Modern Flirtations. Reference: A Brief Tribute to C. S. (Pamphlet); D. N. B.

G. P. R. James.1801–1860. Influenced by Scott and encouraged by Irving. Thackeray parodied him in Barbazure, by G. P. R. Jeames, Esq., in Novels by Eminent Hands; also in Book of Snobs (chaps. ii and xvi). Author of a long list of novels.

Harriet Martineau.1802–1876. Reference: D. N. B.

Mrs. Margaret Scott Gatty.1809–1873. She was forty-two before she began to publish.VideEwing. Author: Aunt Judy Tales; Parables of Nature; 1866—Aunt Judy Magazine(monthly), continued after her death, with her daughter as editor; stopped in 1885. Reference: Life in ed. Parables (Everyman’s Library);Illustrated London News, Oct. 18, 1873;Athenæum, Oct. 11, 1873, p. 464; D. N. B.

Anna Sewell.1820–1878. Author: Black Beauty (1877). Reference: D. N. B.

Charlotte M. Yonge.1823-. Author: Heir of Redclyffe; The Kings of England; The Chaplet of Pearls.

Mrs. Mary Louisa Whateley.1824–1889. Went to Cairo and lived from 1861–1889, where she had a Moslem school. Wrote chiefly about Egypt. Fairy tale influence. Author: Reverses; or, the Fairfax Family. Reference: Hays’ Women of To-day; LondonTimes(March 12, 1889).

Mrs. Dinah Maria Mulock Craik.1826–1887. Pseudo-fairy tale writer. Author: Adventures of a Brownie, etc.

Juliana Horatio Ewing.1841–1885. Reference: J. H. Ewing and Her Books, by Horatia K. T. Gatty; D. N. B.

Ann Fraser Tytler.Daughter of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselel. Author: Leila on the Island; Leila in England; Leila at Home.

As for the American phase of the subject, we have already indicated three stages by which the Colonial or Revolutionary reader was given his “New England Primer,” his “Mother Goose,” and his Thomas books obtained directly from Newbery of England. The whole intellectual activity was in the hands of the clergy; even the governing body pretended to be God-fearing men, and were prone to listen to the dictates of the ministry. The austere demands of the Puritan Sunday, more than anything else, caused the writing of religious books, and so firm a hold did the Sabbathgenreof literature take, that, in 1870, it was still in full sway, and even now exists to a limited extent. The history of education in America for a long while has to do with denominational schools, and teaching was largely left in the hands of the clergy. So that we shall find our early writer of “juveniles” either a man of the church, or his wife; prompted solely by the desire to supply that character of story which would fitly harmonise with the sanctity of Sunday, rather than with the true excellenceof all days. If, in the school, a book was needed, it was far better to write one than to trust to others for what might turn out to be heretical.[43]The Rev. Jedidiah Morse began his literary career in the capacity of teacher; Noah Webster’s idea was at first to prepare a treatise on grammar which could be used in the schools. These two were the most scientific thinkers of their period. The list on page 158, indicating but a few of the forgotten and only faintly remembered authors of early days, fairly well represents the general trend; in the writing done, there were the same morals, the similar luckless children, subject to the same thin sentiment of piety and rectitude as we discovered holding sway in England for nearly two centuries. The name of Peter Parley is no longer familiar to children, and a crusade is fast being formed against the Jacob Abbott class of book. The type of writer was the kind that debated for or against slavery in terms of the Bible. The Puritan soil was rich for the rapid growth of the Hannah More seed, and no one assisted in sowing it to greater extentthan Samuel G. Goodrich (1793–1860). He may symbolise for us the reading child in New England at the beginning of the nineteenth century; his training, his daily pursuits, as told in his autobiography, supply pages of invaluable social colour.[44]

“It is difficult,” so he says, “... in this era of literary affluence, almost amounting to surfeit, to conceive of the poverty of books suited to children in the days of which I write. Except the New England Primer—the main contents of which were the Westminster Catechism—and some rhymes, embellished with hideous cuts of Adam’s Fall, in which ‘we sinned all’; the apostle and a cock crowing at his side, to show that ‘Peter denies his Lord and cries’; Nebuchadnezzar crawling about like a hog, the bristles sticking out of his back, and the like—I remember none that were in general use among my companions. When I was about ten years old, my father brought from Hartford ‘Gaffer Ginger,’ ‘Goody Two Shoes,’ and some of the rhymes and jingles now collected under the name of ‘Mother Goose,’ with perhaps a few other toy books of that day. These were a revelation. Of course I read them, but I must add, with no relish.”

The confession follows that when he was given “Red Riding Hood,” he was filled with contempt; and in this spirit he condemns such nonsense as “hie diddle diddle,” which is not fit for Christian parents to use. He found some considerable pleasure in “Robinson Crusoe,” but it was not until he met with Miss Hannah More’s tracts that he might be said to have enjoyed with relish any book at all.

Thus his reading tastes foreshadowed his literary activity. When he turned writer, he aimed for the style which distinguishes Mary Howitt, Mrs. Hofland, and Miss Strickland; he disclaimed any interest in the nursery book that was unreasonable and untruthful, for so he considered most of the stories of fancy. In his books, his desire was chiefly “to feed the young mind upon things wholesome and pure, instead of things monstrous, false, and pestilent.... In short, that the element of nursery books should consist of beauty instead of deformity, goodness instead of wickedness, decency instead of vulgarity.” In this manner, the mould of the Peter Parley tales was shaped. Goodrich at first adopted no philosophy of construction, so he says; he aimed to tell his story as he would have spoken it to a group of boys. But after a while, a strong sense of the child’s gradual growth took hold of him; he recognised psychological stages, and he saw that, as in teaching, his books must consider that children’s“first ideas are simple and single, and formed of images of things palpable to the senses.”

While on a visit to England in 1823—the memorable time he met Miss More—he turned his attention to what was being accomplished there in popular education for children. After investigation, he thus wrote:

“Did not children love truth? If so, was it necessary to feed them on fiction? Could not history, natural history, geography, biography become the elements of juvenile works, in place of fairies and giants, and mere monsters of the imagination? These were the inquiries that from this time filled my mind.”

Under such conditions Peter Parley was born, and reborn, and overborn; battles were waged for and against him, just as they have only recently been waged for and against the Elsie books. But no sooner was Peter Parley identified with a definite person than Mr. Goodrich’s trials began. He became a victim of the imperfect copyright system; he found his tales being pirated in England. And as fast as he would settle one difficulty, another would arise; spurious Parleys came to light, conflicting with his sales. It was the case of GoodrichaliasKettell,aliasMogridge,aliasMartin, and many more beside. In fact, a writer, considering the life of William Martin (1801–1867), quotes a statement to the effect that “Messrs. Darton, Martin’s publishers, inespecial used to prefix the name [Peter Parley] to all sorts of children’s books, without reference to their actual authorship.”

Isaiah Thomas may be taken as representative of our Revolutionary period, even as the “New England Primer” may typify the chief literary product of our Colonial life. Peter Parley marks for us the war of 1812. It was after this that our country began to expand, that the South and the Southwest unfolded their possibilities, that the East began the Westward move that led to the craze of ’49. The Indian, the scout, the cowboy, the Yankee trader have been the original contributions of America to juvenile literature. A close study will indicate that Cooper was the creator of thisgenreof story,—more painstaking, more effulgent, more detailed than the Indian story-writer of to-day, but none the less a permanent model. So, too, he will be found, in his accounts of the navy, in his records of common seamen, in his lives of naval officers, to be no mean, no inaccurate, no dry historian; in fact, Cooper, as one of our first naval critics, has yet to be accorded his proper estimate.

American history, American development being of a melodramatic character, it is natural that the opposite to Sunday-school literature should rapidly take root as soon as begun. A period of the ten-cent novel flourished about 1860, when the Beadle Brothers, who were finally to be merged intothe publishing house of George Munro, began the publication of their series of cheap volumes—the sensationalism of Cooper raised to thenth power. To-day there are men who glow with remembered enthusiasm over Colonel Prentiss Ingraham and the detective stories of A. W. Aiken—whose record was often one a week—as they do over the name of HemyngaliasJack Harkaway, or Mayne Reid, with his traditional profanity. Edward S. Ellis (b. 1840) was one of the young members of this group of writers. He became inoculated, but was forced, when the milder process came into vogue, to soften his high lights, and to accord with the times. What such early “wild cat” literature did, however, for present upholders of the “series” books, was to exemplify that, by a given pattern, a tale could be made to “go” to order. There was then, as there is now, a certain type of book, neither moral nor immoral, and not at all educational, but only momentarily diverting; written without motive, without definite object, but whose ground plan and mechanism were workable.

The increase of the public-school system was the chief opponent of the Sunday-school book, as it likewise, by its educational emphasis, fought against the dime-novel vogue. And with the inception of the public school on its present large scale we reach the immediate stage, the era of over-productivity, with its enormous average taste, with its publicregard for readers in the libraries, for scholars in the class-rooms, for the poor in settlements, and for the emigrant on the high seas.

After an experience of five years in reviewing juvenile books of the past and in estimating the varied stories of the present, I do not think it sweeping to assert that while education has snatched the child’s book from the moralist and taken away from writing a false standard of right doing, it has not, as yet, added any worthy attribute of itself. It has not taught the child to judge good literature from the bad; it has supplied, in a prescribed course, certain isolated books or stereotyped poems, with which the child is wearied in the class-room, and from which, once outside, the child turns with natural dread. I am judging solely from the standpoint of juvenile taste. And so, with the entrance of a new consideration—the children’s reading-rooms—it may well be queried at the outset: What will this institution add to the creative force? How far will it seek to improve conditions? Will there be an increased demand for the good and for the best books? Will there be a more careful art manifested in the writing of stories? Will the gaps in the field be filled up? For an examination of the past and of the present tells me that children’s literature, generally speaking, has yet to be conquered.

With these remarks in view, the table that follows may, on examination, bear some significance.

Noah Webster.Ct. 1758–1843. Cf. Mavor in England. Author: New England Spelling Book; American Dictionary. Reference: Memoir by Goodrich (in Dictionary); Life by H. E. Scudder; Appleton.[45]

Jedidiah Morse.Ct. 1761–1826. Congregational minister; wrote first school text-books of any importance in America. His son was S. F. B. Morse. Author: Geography Made Easy, etc. He is called the “Father of American Geography.” Reference: Life by Sprague; Appleton.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.Ct. 1787–1851. Minister. Educator of deaf mutes; in this work assisted by wife, Sophia Fowler (1798–1877), and two sons. Author: The Child’s Book of the Soul; The Youth’s Book of Natural Theology; Bible Stories for the Young. Reference: Life by Humphrey; Tribute to T. H. G. by Henry Barnard (Hartford, Conn., 1852); Appleton.

Eliza Leslie.Pa. 1787–1857. Wrote cook books, girls’ books, and juvenile tales forThe Pearl and The Violet, which she edited annually. She also editedThe Gift. One of her brothers, a well-known artist. Author: The Young Americans; Stories for Adelaide; Stories for Helen; The Behaviour Book. The Wonderful Traveller consisted of altered versions of tales from Münchausen, Gulliver, etc. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Sarah Josepha (Buell) Hale.N. H. 1788–1879. It was through her efforts that Thanksgiving became an American national observance. Her son, Horatio, was an author. Author: The famous “Mary had a little lamb.” EditedLady’s Bookfor forty years from 1837. Reference: Appleton.

Catherine Maria Sedgwick.Mass. 1789–1867. Author: The Boy of Mount Rhigi, a tale of inspired goodness; Beatitudes and Pleasant Sundays; The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man; A Love Token for Children; Morality of Manners; Lessons without Books. Reference: Hart’s Female Prose Writers of America; Life and Letters, ed. Mary E. Dewey; Appleton.

Mrs. Susan (Ridley) Sedgwick.Mass. 1789–1867. Author: Walter Thornley; Morals of Pleasure; The Young Emigrants. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Lydia Howard (Huntley) Sigourney.Ct. 1791–1865. Author: Letters to Young Ladies; Poetry for Children; Tales and Essays for Children. Reference: Griswold’s Female Poets; Hart’s Female Prose Writers; Life and Letters; Parton’s Eminent Women; Appleton.

Mrs. Caroline (Howard) Gilman.Mass. 1794–1888. Took great pride in her children’s books. Began writing inSouthern Rosebud(Charleston), afterward calledSouthern Rose(1832–1839). This magazine has been credited as the first juvenile weekly in the United States. Her daughter, Caroline H. (b. S. C. 1823), also wrote for the young. Author: Oracles for Youth; Mrs. Gilman’s Gift Book. Reference: Autobiographical sketch in Hart’s Female Prose Writers; Recollections; Appleton.

Mrs. Louisa C. (Huggins) Tuthill.Ct. 1798–1897. Wrote moral tales; with others prepared Juvenile Library for Boys and Girls; her daughter, Cornelia (T.) Pierson (1820–1870), wrote Our Little Comfort; When Are We Happiest? Author: I will be a Gentleman; I will be a Lady; I will be a Sailor; Onward, Right Onward. Edited the Young Ladies Reader (New Haven, 1840). Reference: Hart; Appleton.

John Todd.Vt. 1800–1873. Invented Index Rerum. Author: Religious works, mainly for young people; also educational works. Reference: Life;Harper’s Magazine, Feb., 1876.

Lydia Maria Child.Mass. 1802–1880. Foremost in the ranks of anti-slavery; influenced by Garrison. In 1826, founded theJuvenile Miscellany, forerunner of Harper’sYoung People. Author: Flowers for Children (graded). Reference: Hart; Nat. Cyclo. Am. Biog.

Maria J. McIntosh.Ga. 1803–1878. Quiet and domestic tone to her books. Author: Series known as the Aunt Kitty Tales, the first one being Blind Alice, published in 1841. Reference: Hart.

Dr. Harvey Newcomb.Mass. 1803–1866. Congregational clergyman. Wrote moral and religious books for young. Author: How to be a Man; How to be a Lady; Young Ladies’ Guide. Reference: Appleton.

Rev. Jacob Abbott.Me. 1803–1879. Divinity school; Professor at Amherst; Congregationalist. Travelled extensively. Author: Rollo books (28 vols.); Lucy books (6 vols.); Jonas books (6 vols.); Franconia books (10 vols.); histories with brother (videp. 160). Reference: A Neglected N. E. Author (N. E. Mag., n. s. 30:471);Writings (Lit. and Theol. R., 3:83); (Chr. Exam., 18:133; 21:306); Appleton.

Rev. Abijah Richardson Baker.Mass. 1805–1876. Congregationalist. Graduate of Amherst; a teacher. With his wife, Mrs. H. N. W. Baker, editedThe Mother’s AssistantandThe Happy Home. Author: School History of the U. S.; Westminster Shorter Catechism—Graduated Question Book. Reference: Appleton.

J. S. C. Abbott.Me. 1805–1877. Brother of Jacob Abbott. Congregational minister. Author: The Mother at Home; histories with brother. Reference:Cong. Q., 20:1; Appleton.

Sarah Towne (Smith) Martyn.1805–1879. Wife of a minister. Wrote Sunday-school books and semi-historical stories. Published through American Tract Society. EstablishedLadies’ Wreath, and edited it, 1846–1851. Author: Huguenots of France; Lady Alice Lisle. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith.Me. 1806–1893. One of the first women lecturers in America. Moved later to South Carolina. By her book, The Newsboy, public attention was drawn to that class of child. Supervised,circa1840, annual issuance of theMayflower(Boston). Author: The Sinless Child; Stories for Children; Hints on Dress and Beauty. Reference: Hart; Nat. Cyclo. Am. Biog.

Mary Stanley Bunce (Palmer) (Dana) Shindler.S. C. 1810–1883. Wife of a clergyman, Episcopal. Author: Charles Morton; or, The Young Patriot; The Young Sailor. Reference: Appleton.

Harriet Beecher Stowe.Ct. 1811–1896. Author: Dred; Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Reference: Life work of,—McCray; E. F. Parker in Parton’s Eminent Women; Life compiled from letters and journals by C. E. Stowe; Life and Letters, ed. Annie Fields.

Elijah Kellogg.Me. 1813-. Congregational minister. Famed for “The Address of Spartacus to the Gladiators.” Author: Elm Island series; Forest Glen series; Good Old Times series; Pleasant Cove series. Reference: Bibliog. Me.; Appleton.

Mary Elizabeth Lee.S. C. 1813–1849. Not a distinctive juvenile writer, but contributed many juvenile tales toThe Rosebud. (VideGilman.) Reference: Hart.

Rev. Zachariah Atwell Mudge.Mass. 1813–1888. Methodist-Episcopal minister; teacher. Fiction forSunday-schools. Author: Arctic Heroes; Fur Clad Adventurers. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Harriet V. Cheney.Mass.Circa1815. Daughter of Hannah Foster, an early American novelist. Her sister, Mrs. Cushing, wrote Esther, a dramatic poem, and “works” for the young. Author: A Peep at the Pilgrims; The Sunday-school; or, Village Sketches. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Harriette Newell (Woods) Baker.Mass. 1815–1893. Pseud. Madeline Leslie. Wife of Rev. A. R. B. Author: About two hundred moral tales, among them Tim, the Scissors Grinder. Reference: Appleton.

Lydia Ann Emerson (Porter).Mass. 1816-. Second cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Contributed mostly to the Sunday-school type of book. Author: Uncle Jerry’s Letters to Young Mothers; The Lost Will. Reference: Appleton.

Catherine Maria Trowbridge.Ct. 1818-. Author: Christian Heroism; Victory at Last; Will and Will Not; Snares and Safeguards.

Susan Warner.N. Y. 1818–1885. Pseud. Elizabeth Wetherell. Books noted for strained religious sentimentality. With her, the school of Hannah More came to an end. Author: The Wide, Wide World (1851); Queechy (1852); Say and Seal (in collaboration with her sister). Reference: Appleton.

Rev. William Makepeace Thayer.Mass. 1820–1898. Congregational minister; member of legislature. Author: Youth’s History of the Rebellion; The Bobbin Boy; The Pioneer Boy; The Printer Boy; Men Who Win; Women Who Win. EditedThe Home MonthlyandThe Mother’s Assistant. Reference: Appleton.

William Taylor Adams.Mass. 1822–1897. Pseud. Oliver Optic. In early life ed.Student and School-Mate. In 1881, ed.Our Little Ones. Then ed.Oliver Optic’s Magazine. Author: About one hundred volumes; first one published 1853, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave. Reference: Appleton.

Charles Carleton Coffin.N. H. 1823–1896. Self-educated. Varied career as a war correspondent during the Civil War. Author: The Boys of ’76. Reference: Life by Griffis; Appleton.

William Henry Thomas.1824–1895. Belonged to the school of dime novelists. Boys in the 60’s eagerly devoured the Beadle and (later) Munro books. Author:The Belle of Australia; Ocean Rover; A Whaleman’s Adventure. Reference: Appleton.

Mrs. Alice (Bradley) (Neal) Haven.N. Y. 1828–1863. Pseud. Alice G. Lee. Wrote for Sunday-schools. Author: No such Word as Fail; Contentment Better Than Wealth. Reference: Memoir inHarper’s Magazine, Oct., 1863; Appleton.

Jane Andrews.Mass. 1833–1887. Author: Seven Little Sisters who live on the Round Ball that Floats in the Air; The Stories Mother Nature Told.

Charles A. Fosdick.N. Y. 1842-. Pseud. Harry Castlemon. Went through the Civil War. Author: Gunboat series; Rocky Mountains series; Roughing It series; Frank series; Archie series.

Mrs. Annie M. Mitchell.Mass. 1847-. Religious books for children. Author: Martha’s Gift; Freed Boy in Alabama.

Mrs. Mary L. Clark.Fairford, Me. 1831-. Religious juveniles. Author: The Mayflower series; Daisy’s Mission.

Mrs. Caroline E. Davis.Northwood, N. H. 1831-. Sunday-school tales, about fifty or more. Author: No Cross, No Crown; Little Conqueror Series; Miss Wealthy’s Hope; That Boy; Child’s Bible Stories. Reference: Appleton.

Sara H. Browne.Author: Book for the Eldest Daughter (1849).

Maria J. Browne.Author: The Youth’s Sketch Book (1850). Reference for both: Hart (Bibl.).

The essential difference between the past and the present is not so much a difference, after all; in both instances the same mistaken emphasis is placed upon two separate phases of the child’s make-up. The moral tale took no cognisance of those spiritual laws which are above teaching, which act of themselves; it did not recognise the existence of the child’s personality.But when the impetus toward the study, scientific and intensive, of adolescence was begun, the teacher lost sight of the free will by which that growth advanced; anxious to prove the child’s development to be but a series of stages marked by educational gradings, he reserved no place for the self-development through which the personality finds expression. In both cases an unconscious injustice was done juvenile nature. The moral questioning warped the spirit, the educational questioning chokes the imagination and fancy, starving the spirit altogether. How many will agree with Emerson’s assertion that “what we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so”? The pessimist who challenges children’s books for children has reasons to doubt, after all.

Time changes not, ’tis we who change in time. Emerson speaks in terms of evolution; by this very change from generation to generation, the vitality of a book is tested. Again, in terms of our mentality, Emerson says that when a thought of Plato becomes a thought to us, Time is no more. Truth is thus an annihilator of the fleeting moment. The survival of the fittest means the falling away of the mediocre. The Sunday-school book was no permanent type; its content was no classic expression. It filled a timely demand—that was its excuse for being. Once this demand became modified, the book’s service was at an end; hence Mr. Welsh’s indicationof the decline of the Sunday-school story through secularisation,—from sectarianism to broad religious principles, thence to “example rather than direct teaching.”[46]

We still have the religious tract and the church story-paper; yet the books of advice deal with the social and ethical spirit, rather than with the denominational stricture. “The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him,” wrote Emerson, while Stevenson, in his “Lay Sermons,” placed the stress thus: “It is the business of life to make excuses for others but not for ourselves.”

To-morrow new topics may be introduced into our juvenile literature, but change takes longer than a day to become apparent. The student who attempts to reach any scientific estimate of the present trend will be disappointed; the mass is too conglomerate, and there are too many authors writing children’s books for money rather than for children. I have followed the course as carefully as I could, noting the slight alterations in concepts to accord with the varying conditions. But there is no principle that can be deduced, other than the educational one. The changes are confined to points of external interest, not of spiritual or mental significance. For instance, there was a time when girls’ literature and boys’ literature were moreclearly differentiated, one from the other; their near approach has been due to a common interest in outdoor exercises. Again, things practical, things literal have crowded out the benignant figure of Santa Claus; and in the stead, the comic supplement of the Sunday newspaper furnishes pictures that well-nigh stifle the true domain once occupied by “Mother Goose.”

What would a parent do, asked suddenly to deal with a promiscuous collection of juvenile books? Would she unerringly reach forth for the volume most likely to please her son’s or her daughter’s taste? If she were to claim little difference between the one college story she had read, and the several hundred she had not read, she would not be far from wrong. But we cannot tell how deep an impression the present activity among writers for children will have on the future. Our temptation is to make the general statement that the energy is a surface one, that no great writing is being done for children because it has become an accessory rather than an end in itself. Education saved us from the moral pose; it must not deny us the realm of imagination and fancy.

FOOTNOTES[41]In education, the influence of Froebel, in direct descent from Rousseau, is to be considered.[42]D. N. B.—Dictionary of National Biography.[43]The student who desires to investigate the history of American school-books will find much valuable material in the Watkinson Library of Hartford, Conn., to which institution Dr. Henry Barnard’s entire collection of school-books was left.VideBibliotheca Americana, Catalogue of American Publications, including reprints and original works, from 1820 to 1852, inclusive, together with a list of periodicals published in the United States, compiled and arranged by Orville A. Roorbach, N. Y., Oct., 1852. Includes Supplement to 1849 ed., published in 1850.Videalso Early English School-books. Educational Library, South Kensington Museum.[44]VideRecollections of a Life-time; or, Men and Things I have Seen: in a series of familiar Letters to a Friend. Historical, Biographical, Anecdotal, and Descriptive. S. G. Goodrich. (2 vols.) New York, 1857. [Contains a valuable list of the real Parley books; also the names of the spurious Parleys. The volumes describe many small characteristics of American life during the early years of the nineteenth century.][45]Cyclopædia.[46]Mr. Welsh states that between 1706–1718, 550 books were published in America, of which 84 werenotreligious, and of these 84, 49 were almanacs!

[41]In education, the influence of Froebel, in direct descent from Rousseau, is to be considered.

[42]D. N. B.—Dictionary of National Biography.

[43]The student who desires to investigate the history of American school-books will find much valuable material in the Watkinson Library of Hartford, Conn., to which institution Dr. Henry Barnard’s entire collection of school-books was left.VideBibliotheca Americana, Catalogue of American Publications, including reprints and original works, from 1820 to 1852, inclusive, together with a list of periodicals published in the United States, compiled and arranged by Orville A. Roorbach, N. Y., Oct., 1852. Includes Supplement to 1849 ed., published in 1850.Videalso Early English School-books. Educational Library, South Kensington Museum.

Videalso Early English School-books. Educational Library, South Kensington Museum.

[44]VideRecollections of a Life-time; or, Men and Things I have Seen: in a series of familiar Letters to a Friend. Historical, Biographical, Anecdotal, and Descriptive. S. G. Goodrich. (2 vols.) New York, 1857. [Contains a valuable list of the real Parley books; also the names of the spurious Parleys. The volumes describe many small characteristics of American life during the early years of the nineteenth century.]

[45]Cyclopædia.

[46]Mr. Welsh states that between 1706–1718, 550 books were published in America, of which 84 werenotreligious, and of these 84, 49 were almanacs!

Back to Index Next