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RICE UNIVERSITY Between Generations: Imagination, Collaboration, and the Nineteenth-Century Child by Victoria Ford Smith A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Philosophy APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE: Robert L. Patten, Lynette S. Autry Professor in the Humanities, English Helena Michie, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor in the Humanities, English Elizabeth Long, Professor, Sociology Martin J. Wiener, Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of History HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2010 UMI Number: 3421206 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3421206 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright Victoria Ford Smith 2010 Abstract Between Generations: Imagination, Collaboration, and the Nineteenth-Century Child Victoria Ford Smith Shifting ideas about the qualities of children's imaginations transformed relationships between adults and children in nineteenth-century Britain. This dissertation contends that these new paradigms of children's fancy led authors of children's literature to partner with the young as creative collaborators, which accounts for frequent representations of children as an adult author's auditor, coauthor, illustrator, or guiding genius. These intergenerational collaborations were new models of authorship and evidence of a growing cultural imperative to recognize the young as active agents shaping their own social worlds. Alert to the fact that depictions of children are historically variable, I situate children's literature with and against discourses from psychology to education reform, demonstrating how the perceived powers of fancy granted children agency in a variety of cultural arenas. My project, then, offers an alternative to critical accounts that represent children as ciphers fulfilling adults' psychological and sexual desires. My introduction examines children's literature of the early nineteenth century, which I contend was a collaboration between adults. Debates about the child's imagination, however, indicate a shift in expectations regarding adults' relationships to children. The remaining chapters detail the consequences of this shift, exploring four ways children were acknowledged as creative collaborators. Chapter one explores how many authors for children, inspired by fairy tale collections and cultural associations between children and preliterate cultures, structured their fictions according to models of oral narration. These authors defined children not as silent listeners but as participants in the narrative. Chapter two investigates coauthorship in the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, who understood composition as a collaboration between multiple familial, literary, and psychological personas. Partnering with his stepson, Stevenson developed a vocabulary of images that resurface throughout his works and express a social model of authorship. My third chapter explores the unruly child, examining children's literature that depicts collaborations between disobedient children and dim-witted adults in the context of education reforms that privileged imagination over adult authority. The figure of the disorderly child suggests anxieties about the imaginative power of those considered socially vulnerable. I conclude with a chapter on illustration, situating images by Edward Lear and Rudyard Kipling against ideas about children and art, arguing that these author- illustrators fuse childlike spontaneity and adult order, representing collaboration through playful images. Acknowledgments It is fitting that my work at Rice has led me to produce a dissertation exploring the powerful dynamics of collaboration. I am grateful to so many faculty members and friends who, through their input and support, helped me see this project through to completion. Bob Patten's energy and enthusiasm for my work kept me researching and writing when my own reserves were low. His notes on my drafts, suggesting that I consider everything from George Cruikshank's frontispieces to George W. Bush's nicknames, are a record of how he challenged me to make the unexpected connections that produce relevant and interesting scholarship. I am thankful for Helena Michie's attention to all aspects of my work, from the structure of my chapters to the smallest details of mechanics and style. Through her example and guidance, I was challenged to produce sophisticated work. She also instilled in me and my colleagues the usefulness of the always important mapping paragraph. Thad Logan taught me what it looks like to inspire critical thinking and enthusiasm in my students. When my own classrooms go quiet during discussions, I remember how useful and productive those silences were in her graduate seminars. I also would like to thank Martin Wiener and Elizabeth Long for their support. They have been extremely generous with their time. Thank you to my colleagues in the English department, especially Jill Delsigne, Pamela Francis, Kevin Morrison, and Molly Slattery. Heather Miner in particular kept me sane with coffee breaks and conversation. Surely this dissertation would still be a collection of frantic notes and half-finished sentences without the support and insight of Lilian Crutchfield, an amazing writer, teacher, and friend who was so patient when I needed to talk about Peter Pan. Again. And again. And just one more time. I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without the generous financial support of the English Department and the Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank my family. My husband, Danny Smith, knew just when to tell me to step away from the laptop, despite my protests. He asked me hard questions that helped me reconsider my work, stopped whatever he was doing to listen to me read aloud my thoughts on Edward Lear, and never doubted for a second that I could do this. My father, Michael Ford, has read my work, attended my conferences, and given me countless pep talks. He taught me—and still teaches me—how to work hard and with integrity. My life with books began when my mother, Susan Sornson Ford, read me Mouseskin 's Golden House. My mom taught me how to write, how to teach, how to laugh at myself, and how to make small differences in the lives of the people around me through love. I try to follow her example, and I dedicate this dissertation to her. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Between Grown-Ups: Early Victorian Children's Literature and Partnerships with Parents 1 Chapter One Active Listeners: Child Auditors As Creative Collaborators 68 Chapter Two Family Dynamics: The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne 138 Chapter Three Vice Versa: Writing Adults and Creative Children 216 Chapter Four Picturing Partnership: Illustrations as Invitations for Collaboration 297 Bibliography 373 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Oscar Chrisman, a child's cipher alphabet 96 Fig. 2: George Cruikshank, frontispiece to German Popular Stories, vol. 1 . 105 Fig. 3: George Cruikshank, frontispiece to German Popular Stories, vol. 2. 105 Fig. 4: Walter Crane, frontispiece to Tell Me a Story 118 Fig. 5: George Cruikshank, frontispiece to Kit Bam's Adventures 120 Fig. 6: Clara S. Lane, "Playing at Ladies" from Aunt Judy's Tales 132 Fig. 7: Clara S. Lane, frontispiece to Aunt Judy's Tales 132 Fig. 8: Golding & Company small press advertisement 145 Fig. 9: Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde 204 Fig. 10: James Sully, drawings by children and "savages" 314 Fig. 11: Edward Lear, "The Dark Blue Bird" 344 Fig. 12: Edward Lear, Hyacinthe Macaw 344 Fig. 13: Edward Lear, "The Scroobious Bird" 344 Fig. 14: Edward Lear, "The Runcible Bird" 344 Fig. 15: Edward Lear, The Spectacled Owl 346 Fig. 16: Edward Lear, illustration for "There was an Old Person of Crowle" . 346 Fig. 17: Edward Lear, illustration for "But ah! (the Landscape painter said)" . 347 Fig. 18: Edward Lear, illustration of Lear at the Royal Academy Schools . 349 viii Fig. 19: Edward Lear, illustration for "There was an Old Person of Hyde" . 349 Fig. 20: Edward Lear, Bottleforkia Spoonifola 353 Fig. 21: Edward Lear, The Fork Tree 353 Fig. 22: Edward Lear, The Biscuit Tree 354 Fig. 23: Edward Lear, Plum-Pudding Flea from "The History of the Seven Families" 357 Fig. 24: Edward Lear, pickled animals from "The History of the Seven Families" 358 Fig. 25: Rudyard Kipling, illustration for "How the Leopard Got His Spots" . 364 Fig. 26: Rudyard Kipling, illustration for "The Elephant's Child" 367 Fig. 27: Walter Crane, images from the Walter Crane Painting Book 370 1 INTRODUCTION: BETWEEN GROWN UPS: EARLY VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND PARTNERSHIPS WITH PARENTS Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Oxford mathematician better known as Lewis Carroll, is often described as a man with a collection of toys, puzzles, and games meant to delight and amuse young girls. "There was the 'orguinette'. which was played by turning a handle," remembers Evelyn M. Hatch, a child who once modeled for Dodgson's photographs, "and, best of all, some fourteen or more musical-boxes ... As time went on, and the children grew older, games such as Lanrick, which was played on a chess-board, or word-puzzles, such as Syzgies, Misch Masch, and Doublets, took the place of toys" (Hatch 4-5). The game Misch Masch took its name from a manuscript magazine Dodgson compiled in his twenties, a hodgepodge of previous Dodgson family domestic publications, and the word game surfaces now and then throughout Dodgson's history.1 For example, he included directions for Misch Masch in an 1884 letter to his young friends, the Lowrie children, writing, "I'm very fond of inventing games, and I enclose you the rules of one, 'Misch-Masch': see how you like it.