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5 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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When did children's literature begin?
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Maj of scholars place the start line in the early 1740's, when Thomas Boreman began publishing tiny books describing the sights of London and Thomas and Mary Cooper issued a spelling book and nursery rhymes. Even more famous though is John Newbury's Little Pretty Pocket Book, 1744. The works were didactic but included pictures, rhymes, riddles, jokes and stories to amuse children.
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Newbury's works were mostly educational. There was a long tradition of publishing instructive material throughout the 17 and 18C. The argument that books designed to entertain children appeared only with Newbury and his competitors in the 18C is easy to undermine.
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Earlier literature included Puritanical children's books which migh have appealed to children and amused them. (books about kids living holy lives and having joyful deaths).
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Throughout the early modern period children were reading fables, courtesy books and the Gesta Romanorum (legends, lives of saints and hero's) that were not intended for readership by children.
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Nicolas Orme 'Children's literature in Eng in terms of both content and readership began in the middle ages' P42.
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There is no simple way to define children's lit. There is no discernable starting point. For as long as there have been manuscipts or clay tablets children have been reading.
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What Newbury did was to establish children's lit as a distinct branch of print culture and was the first to try to offer both amusement and instruction. The idea of children's lit was born.
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Publishing houses, specialist children's book shops and libraries of children's books began to appear. A number of authors of adult books started writing children's books to establish a more secure income.
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Books weren't available to all children, many were iliterate, more respectable books cost more and only the middle classes could afford them.
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The growth of children's lit was a symptom of wider social, economic and cultural changes. Lower mortality rates meant a larger market for children's books, more consumerism and also the possibility of economic advancement with an emphasis on the importance of education.
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There was an increase in the types of books that became available. cheaper books for the less affluent.
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The content of much children's lit was about the control of childhood.
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With the evangelical revival at the end of the 18C came more religious works. The Religious Tract Society made children's lit available to less affluent sections of society. The Puritan idea of children being born sinful and needing of discipline was apparent in the content.
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Around 1800 there was a fusion of the chap book and the moral tale.
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