Fun and FrivolityIt might appear that an emphasis on earnest moral teaching and the influence of the
educational theorists had driven all that was frivolous from children’s reading.
Newbery’s greatest contribution to children’s publishing had been his introduction of
lighter-hearted literature. Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book Voll II had also stood as an
early example of sheer amusement for children, together with a few other items which
have survived. The Famous Tommy Thumb’s Little Story Book was issued by Stanley
Crowder and Benjamin Collins (c.1760), and, like The Top Book of All (c.1760), contained
verse and light material, including the game of ‘The wide mouth waddling frog’. Riddles
were especially popular with adults in the seventeenth century and owed their survival
to their continuation in innovative children’s books such as these.
Despite the prevalence of moral tales and didacticism, there were, therefore, items to
amuse and divert children towards the end of the century in addition to the chapbook
literature of the period. Mother Goose’s Melody was probably published c.1780: at about
the same time as Nancy Cock’s Pretty Song Book was published by John Marshall.
Mother Goose’s Melody, a 96-page Newbery book in two parts—with fifty-one songs and
lullabies in Part One—is particularly important because of the number of times it was to
be reprinted in Britain and America. (Opie and Opie, 1951/1980:33). Issued by John
Newbery’s successors (a 1791 edition was issued by Francis Power, John Newbery’s
grandson) this was, at 3d, a cheap little book by Newbery standards and hence likely to
be widely bought. Gammer Gurton’s Garland, published in Stockport in 1784, was a
further important example of an early published collection of nursery rhymes.
Books containing moral material in a light-hearted guise were also becoming
commonplace. For example, adaptations of the Goody Two-Shoes tale were published:
The Entertaining History of Little Goody Goosecap (1780) was John Marshall’s version,
with The Renowned History of Primrose Pretty Face (1785) following a similar theme—a
profitable marriage is the reward for virtue and probity. Children’s publishers also dealt
in the production of maps and games; books were not the only educational materials to
provide amusement. John Wallis was one of the most successful of these; his
Chronological Tables of English History for the Instruction of Youth (1788) and The New
Game of Life which he issued in collaboration with Elizabeth Newbery in 1790, were
instructional games with counters and dice—and a set of neatly printed instructions.
By the late eighteenth century publishing for children had become a sufficiently
profitable undertaking for several major London publishers and many provincial
chapbook publishers to be issuing a range of children’s items: for instruction and
amusement. The firm of William Darton began business in 1787, when William Darton
set up as an engraver and printer. The firm was to specialise in neatly engraved books
for children and to produce some of the finest coloured books in the early nineteenth
century. The Newbery tradition was carried on by Elizabeth Newbery, who took over one
arm of the business when her husband (nephew to John) died in 1780. She specialised
particularly in the education market, but also continued with many of the earlier
Newbery items, and also collaborated with other publishers. Her Catalogue of 1800
indicates the range that was now available to parents, schools—and children—by the
end of the eighteenth century. In addition to the 400 or so more substantial items,
including schoolbooks and moral tales, she offered thirteen one-penny and fourteen
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