A Short History of Childrens Literature

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A Short History of Childrens Literature

• Or
• A Short History of the Child
• Or
• Is there a good reason to read or know about
  stories published so many years ago?

By D. C. Johnston
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Aesop Fables

• The earliest literature that has some connection
  to children.
• These fables were supposedly first ascribed in
  the 4th century bce (before common era), but it
  was Phaedrus, in the first century ce (common
  era) who wrote these fables in Latin verse.
• Of course at this time, children were not seen as
  a recognized audience.
• Their childhood was just a training ground for a
  harsh adulthood.

Ancient art piece showing Aesop and his infamous
Fox.
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Manuscript Book Production - 800- 1200s
(largely religious)

• St. Anselm- 1033-1109
• This Archbishop of Canterbury wrote instructions
  about how children should behave, along with
  concepts about natural science and religion.
• In print, he was a first to feel children needed
  spiritual guidance.

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Secular Book Production by Manuscript
1300-1400s

• The Canterbury Tales are those very naughty,
  bawdy stories by Geoffrey Chaucer. He was a
  master storyteller and set the stage for the
  power of an entertaining story. Albeit, not a
  childrens story. Geoffrey wrote by manuscript
  between 1387 and 1400 before the printing press
  was invented. There are many handwritten copies
  of the tales that exist today. The Canterbury
  Tales could be called adventure stories ala
  Desperate Housewives for the secular middle
  class. In 1476 the printer William Caxton
  returned to London from Germany, bringing with
  him the type and craftsmen needed to set up a
  printing press at Westminster, the first in
  England. The venture proved an instant success.
  Caxton published around 100 books. In 1476 he
  published Canterbury Tales in movable type book
  form.

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The Horn Book1440s

• Little Wooden Paddles with pasted lessons covered
  with soaked real cow horn.
• They were designed to teach children letters
• Religious instruction was also emphasized.
• These darlings even made it to the New World with
  Puritan Children

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The Printing Press Invented by Johann Gutenberg
in c1450, the printing press made the mass
publication and circulation of literature
possible. This was good for the world and good
for the beginning of childrens literature..

• William Caxton First English Printer
• He was the first to translate French stories into
  English.
• In the 1470s he printed Morte dArthur, Recuyell
  of the Historyes of Troye, Boke of Histories of
  Jason, Reynart the Foxe and Aesops Fables.
• He intended these for adults but they were
  stories that delighted children.

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Chapbooks

• Folded paper booklet sold by peddlers (chapmen)
  which appeared in the 1580s continuing through
  the 1800s.
• Some told stories such as Who Killed Cock Robin,
  and Jack the Giant Killer.
• Some of the later chapbooks were loved by the
  common folk and their children
• They were frowned upon by the upper classes and
  the Clergy.
• Chapbooks were timeless books of jest and tales
  that often sprang out of folklore.

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The First Picture Book?

• Orbis Sensualium Pictus
• 150 illustrated chapters on the teaching of Latin
  in a childs voice. It contained short sentences
  about many subjects of world.Come boy! Learn to
  be wise.What doth this mean, to be wise?To
  understand rightly, to do rightly,and to speak
  out rightly, all that are necessary.Before all
  things, thou oughtest to learn the plain sounds,
  of which mans speech consisteth which living
  creatures know how to make, and thy tongue
  knoweth how to imitate, and thy hand can picture
  out.Afterwards we will go into the world, and
  we will view all things.
• http//education.umn.edu/EdPA/iconics/Orbis/Defaul
  t.htm

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The Puritans, Perdition and Primers

• The New England Primer
• This was a textbook used by students in New
  England and in other English settlements in North
  America. It was first printed in Boston in 1690
  by Benjamin Harris who had published a similar
  volume in London. It was used by students into
  the 19th century. Over five million copies of the
  book were sold.
• Besides reading lessons, other lessons such as
  James Janeaway A Token for Children being the
  exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and
  Exemplary Lives and Joyful deaths of several
  young Children. To which is now added, Prayers
  and Graces, fitted for the use of little Children
  provided important religious instruction to
  children.
• In each of Janeways twenty stories, the youthful
  hero or heroine (aged 5 to approximately 15) dies
  after having led a short but admirable life.
  Aware of their approaching death and well-versed
  in Scripture, their final days are pious and
  eloquent. This makes the Lemony Snicket books
  downright cheerful.
• The complete text is something to behold. Check
  it out right here. http//my.voyager.net/jayjo/pr
  imer.htm

"Mr. John Rogers, minister of the gospel in
London, was the first martyr in Queen Marys
reign, and was burnt at Smithfield, February 14,
1554. His wife with nine small children and one
at her breast following him to the stake with
which sorrowful sight he was not in the least
daunted, but with wonderful patience died
courageously for the gospel of Jesus Christ."
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Fairytales Can Come True They Can Happen to You
Late 1600s 1700s

• Histoires ou contes du temps passé avec des
  moralitiés and Contes de ma Mére lOye.by Charles
  Perrault or his eldest son?
• Even though he title his book Tales of Mother
  Goose. There were no Mother Goose rhymes just
  eight very familiar fairy tales.
• Some of these earliest printed fairy tales were
  collected by Perrault -- including Cinderella,
  Sleeping Beauty, and Red Riding Hood.
• Perraults versions are a bit different than the
  retold tales of today.
• No hunter saves Little Red and War abounds in
  Sleeping Beauty.
• Check out some of these original stories
• http//www.angelfire.com/nb/classillus/images/perr
  ault/perra.html

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John Newbery - Why do we name a medal after him?

• Perraults Mother Goose (the fairy tale version)
  is translated by a R. Samber became a beloved
  Chapbook.
• The English publisher, John Newbery was delighted
  by it and improved the standard in publishing
  with children in mind.
• Newbery published his own Mother Goose book of
  Nursery rhyme.
• He may have been the first to discover the child
  as a consumer.
• Newbery employed many great original artists and
  he and his successors (relatives) had up to 400
  titles for children.

Before Madison Avenue ! Along with these books,
boys received a ball and girls, a pin cushion.
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More Newbery Imprints

• Newberys Tom Telescope
• The First Informational Book
• Little Goody Two Shoes with its lessons was fun
  and there are many references to its pleasure by
  the prominent English.
• More on Newbery

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Mother Goose Flies to the United States in 1785

• The Original Mother Goose Melody and other
  Newbery imprints are printed by Isaiah Thomas
  with delight, but perhaps not legally.
• He was called the Patriot Printer, but he could
  have been called the printer pirate.
• Thomas was known for using fine quality paper and
  doing fine quality printing.
• He printed the revolutionary newspaper The
  Massachusetts Spy 

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The Adventure Storywas born with Crusoe(not
intended for children but the theme was
commandeered by them)

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 1719
• The shipwrecked Alexander Selkirk was marooned on
  an island. He had to find food, shelter and
  fight off wild animals. With his found friend,
  Friday, he learns about nature, nurture and
  survival.
• Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift 1726
• Although a lampoon on British society, the child
  appeal comes from humor and the fantastic
  Lilliputians and the land of Giants, Brobdingnag.
  Swift complete with chip on shoulder wrote with
  magnificent skill.

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The Early Childrens Poets(a long way from Shel
Silverstein)

• William Blake 1789
• Songs of Innocence
• These poems gave a vehicle for his fantastic
  art.
• Ann and Jane Taylor 1804
• Original Poems for Infant Minds
• Twinkle Twinkle little star.. is an example of
  these fun loving poems.
• William Roscoe 1807
• The Butterflys Ball
• The story is minimal, but the pictures delight.

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Rousseau and Didacticism(or everything in life
is a lesson, a lesson, a lesson)

• In 1762 Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote a book for
  children called Emile.
• It told a story of a child living free learning
  from experiences and activities out of doors.
• It changed peoples attitude toward children.
• However, instead of writing about the magic of
  childhood, they wrote stories that instructed
  about nature, religion, and morality.
• This pedantic writing was carried through by many
  authors. (Finleys Elsie Dinsmore. Goodrichs
  Peter Parley geographies, histories, biographies)

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Folk, Fairytale and Myth(taking the old stories
and enchanting children)

• Hans Christian Anderson -Wrote fanciful tales he
  heard in his life and added his own imaginative
  story lines.
• The Brothers Grimm Collected and wrote down
  the folk stories the common German people.
• Joseph Jacobs - Collector of tales from English
  folk.
• Andrew Lang - Rewritten fairytales
• Nathanial Hawthorne Retold famous Greek Myths
  for children more in their voice in the Wonder
  Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales for
  Girls and Boys
• Charles Kingsley Retold the Greeks Myths closer
  in grandeur to the originals in The Heroes, or
  Greek Fairy Tales for My Children

An Arthur Rackham illustration of the Grimm tale,
Hansel and Gretal (circa 1900)
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Writers and Books of the 19th Century(moving
beyond Elsie and Peter to truely great books for
children)

• The Delightful Rhymes
• Clement Moore Night Before Christmas 1822
• Edward Lear Book of Nonsense -1846
• Lears absurd limericks and verses still delight
  children in the 21st Century
• Heinrich Hoffmann
• Struwwelpeter Slovenly Peter 1844
• Rhyming stories that are still in print.
• Robert Louis Stevenson Childs Garden of
  Verses- 1885
• Hillaire Belloc The Bad Childs Book of Beast -
  1896

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Writers and Books of the 19th and Early 20th
Century(The Birth of the Classics, part one )
Having this thought in mind, the story of "The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to
please children of today. It aspires to being a
modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment
and joy are retained and the heartaches and
nightmares are left out. - L. Frank Baum in 1900

• The Fantastics
• Charles Kingsley The Water-Babies -1863
• Charles Dickens The Magic Fishbone and A
  Christmas Carol 1843
• Charles Dodgson Alices Adventures in
  Wonderland Through the Looking Glass 1965
• Jules Verne -Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
  Sea 1869
• George McDonald The Light Princess 1867 At the
  Back of the North Wind 1871
• Joel Chandler Harris Nights with Uncle Remus
  1883
• Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Books 1894 Just So
  Stories 1902
• C. Collodi Pinocchio 1892
• Edith Nesbit The Story of the Treasure Seekers
  1899
• L. Frank Baum The Wizard of OZ - 1900
• Kenneth Graham The Wind in the Willows 1902
• James Barrie Peter Pan 1904 - At first a play
  and 1912 a book called Peter and Wendy

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Writers and Books of the 19th and Early 20th
Century(The Birth of the Classics, part two)

• The Realists
• Mary Mapes Dodge Hans Brinker 1865
• Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
  1867
• Louisa May Alcott Little Women 1868
• Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1876
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1884
• Anna Sewell Black Beauty 1877
• Lucretia Hale The Peterkin Papers 1880
• Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island 1883
• Howard Pyle The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
  1883
• The Wonder Clock -1897
• Men of Iron - 1887 Story of King Arthur1903
• Johanna Spyri Heidi 1884
• Frances Hodgson Burnett Little Lord Faunteroy
  1885
• Secret Garden 1888
• Jack London The Call of the Wild 1903

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The Early Illustrators or how the art of the
picture shaped the Childrens Literature

• Leslie Brooke (1862-1940)
• Randolph Caldecott (1846-1901)
• Walter Crane (1845-1915)
• George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
• Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)
• Kate Greenaway(1846-1901(Listed on the left)
• Kay Nielsen (1886-1957)
• Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
• Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)
• Howard Pyle (1853-1911)