A Bibliography American Children's Books Printed Prior to 1821

A Bibliography of American Children's Books Printed Prior to 1821 BY D'ALTÉ A. WELCH Dedication To Clarence S. Brigham. A tribute to his remark- able genius for stimulating younger men to bibliographical endeavor, and also to having built the superb collection of early American Children's books of the American Antiquarian Society. Foreword OR nearly twenty years, we of the staff of the American F Antiquarian Society have watched with great interest the progress of this bibliography, and have enjoyed smoothing the way for the author. Of the importance of this work, there is no need to say anything; it is obviously one of the great bibliographical contributions of our time. Professional bibliographers may complain that the objectives of Dr. Welch's odd descriptive meth- ods could have been attained in a more orthodox system, but our experience proves that it works, and that it is not too hard to grasp. In spite of his frank statement in the last paragraph of the Introduction that he included a few selected books because they caught his fancy, his criteria of selection are reasonable; few similar bibliographies contain so few evidences of whim or pride of possession. Probably old schoolbooks will now be marked up in price because they are "not in Welch," but potential buyers can reasonably argue that anything omitted by Welch is not "Chil- dren's Literature." Because of the many years over which this bibliography has been preparing, and because of many revisions and changes in style, it will inevitably show more errors and inconsistencies than are to be expected in a work which could follow some more orthodox plan; but to withhold it longer for further polishing would be to do a wrong to the world of bookmen. Everyone who lives by books, who ever was a child, or had an ancestor, will find in the pages of this bibliography more new information about old friends than he is ever likely to encounter again. Of this printing of the Welch bibliography in serial form, only enough reprints will be made to provide working copies for correc- tion and revision. The entire work will eventually be reissued in hard covers. CLIFFORD K. SHIPTON Introduction and Acknowledgements HE hidden history of Mother Goose was my introduction, at T the age of sixteen, to the fascinating hobby of collecting early children's books. My father in 1924 returned from a business trip where he heard the story concerning the origin of Little Jack Horner. The story so interested me that I went down to the New York Public Library and did some research on the origin of nurs- ery rhymes and wrote a paper entitled "Old Mother Goose" which was published in the Browning School magazine. The Browning Buzzer. Miss Leonore St. John Powers, now Mrs. Morris Mendel- son of San Francisco, was then head of the Children's Room at the New York Public Library and introduced me to the charm of early children's books. During the summer of the same year I went to London with my mother and visited some book stores Miss Powers had told me about. The Banks sisters in Church Street, Kensington, had a delightful shop, which held forth so many tempting items that I left the store quite penniless after my first visit. My fate as a collector of children's books was sealed. When I returned in the early fall, I had bought over two hun- dred early English juveniles. Through Miss Powers I met Wilbur Macey Stone, who wrote me a most delightful letter condoning the dreadful disease that I had contracted, namely that of collecting early juveniles, and inviting me to dinner at his home in East Orange, New Jersey. My visit to his library was a rare experience. The walls were lined with especially constructed book shelves to take miniature children's books. The thumb Bibles were all together on one narrow shelf. Each book was housed in a charming paper covered box made by their owner. Ten and twelve centimeter books printed by John Newbery and other publishers were on another shelf. Each book had a cardboard cover with the name of the book on the white cloth back strip. Many were covered with various colored papers, which lent charm to the books. That library was certainly an exciting place in which to browse. Wilbury Macey Stone had a phenomenal knowledge of both English and American juveniles, which he generously shared and my many trips to his home are remembered with great pleasure. AMERICAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS 125 During successive years I collected more American juveniles, because of their availability, than English ones. One of my earliest trips was to Boston. I took the nightboat from New York and visited only two stores in Boston. One was Goodspeed's, the other that of P. K. Foley. One day in Boston was sufficient. I expended all my funds in short order. At P. K. Foley's I obtained a fragment of an edition of Mother Goose's Melody, which afterwards proved to be the third Worcester edition printed by Isaiah Thomas in 1799. Soon after entering the field I keenly felt the need for a guide to collecting children's books : what books were known and what were unique. I, therefore, at an early period, started a card catalogue of juveniles offered in booksellers' catalogues, a card file of miniature bibles in the Stone collection and the holdings of the New York Public Library. In time the Rosenbach catalogue was published, an important milestone in the bibliography of children's books. This catalogue was particularly provocative because it showed me that, although many titles were reprinted by the same publisher year after year, the famous Rosenbach Collection some- times had only a single imprint. One of the greatest libraries of children's books, therefore was far from complete and did not even scratch the surface of what had been published prior to 1821. At the American Antiquarian Society in 194S, I met Clarence S. Brigham who has been a constant source of help. Under his stimulus I began to compile the present work in earnest. The following summer and for many succeeding ones I visited libraries, microfilming their holdings. The title page and all pages following the title up to the first arabic numbered page were filmed, as well as the last two numbered pages and any following unnumbered pages. An inch scale and the name of the collector or institution were filmed at the same time. This way I could visit a library and in a few days obtain all the bibliographic knowledge about the collection on film and later transfer it to paper. A bibliography is not the work of a single person. Unless many people help the compiler, no work of any size can be produced. I have been very fortunate in having friends who have been un- 120 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY [April, stinting in their aid. Foremost among these is Clifford K. Shipton who has left no stone unturned to do all in his power to help me. He has also given me much good advice. When books were needed they were loaned to me or, when duplicates were available, they were given. This work would never have been brought to comple- tion if it had not been for his interest. The Very Reverend Hugh E. Dunn, S.J., president of John Carroll University, and the Reverend William H. Millor, S.J., executive dean of John Carroll University, have shown the greatest interest in this project. Without their help in innumerable ways I could not have carried it on. The Reverend Terence Ahearn, S.J., former chairman of the Biology Department of John Carroll University, made the work possible by lending to me the department's graflex microfilm recorder, which enabled me to get the basic data for most of the book. Dr. Philip Vogel, present head of the Biology Department, has done all in his power to further the undertaking. I wish to thank the American Council of Learned Societies for a grant in aid of $1,800.00 for the year i960. By means of the grant I was able to finish the research in checking the holdings of libraries on the Atlantic seaboard, obtain microfilms and photostats of needed material, and defray some of the cost of typing the manuscript. The major cost of typing the manuscript was borne by John Carroll University. Robert W. G. Vail, former director of the New-York Historical Society, is a life long friend who has been of aid in research and enabling me to obtain books. He was the first person to allow me to microfilm the holdings of an institutional library. Thompson R. Harlow, director of the Connecticut Historical Society, has been unstinting in his help. Through Frederick R. Goff, Chief of the Rare Book Room of the Library of Congress, photostats of the card catalogue of the children's book collection printed prior to 1821 were obtained, which formed one of the foundations of this bibliography. The entire collection was later studied. The late Frederick G. Melcher lent me books and helped me in any way possible. Jacob Blanck has been kind in showing his interest. 1963.] AMERICAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS 127 Harry B. Weiss has been generous with his papers on children's books. He has the rare ability of selecting the most interesting or important children's books on which to write. Peter Opie, Percy Muir and Roland Knaster in England have been most helpful in answering questions on English source books.

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