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A reader’s-eye view

By Maggie Masterson, Pollard Fellowship recipient

Without question, the highlight of my year in the M.Phil. in Children’s Literature has been time spent in the Early Printed Books reading room, researching the Pollard Collection of Children’s Books. The students on my course are lucky enough to have a tour arranged by our lecturer, but don’t let a lack of formal orientation stop you from finding your way up there. Marvelous things await your visit. Continue reading “A reader’s-eye view”

Miniature books and microchips

Miniature books, which typically measure less than 3 inches (76mm) in height, have been around since the written word was developed: first with cuneiform clay tablets, then hand-written manuscripts. The introduction of the printing press and moveable type printing in Europe, in middle of the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg, set the stage for the first early printed books known as incunabula. Surviving editions of miniature incunabules are very rare treasures with only a dozen still in existence today. The new printing process made the production of miniature volumes a challenge to all involved – not just the printers themselves, but also the paper makers and book binders. Readers were also confronted with issues in the reading and handling of these tiny tomes as the size of type and pages kept getting smaller. So why print them? Continue reading “Miniature books and microchips”

Animals in the Library

By Dr Jane Carroll

Once upon a time, someone nearly bought a stuffed tiger for the Early Printed Books Reading Room [when we were preparing a Long Room exhibition about India – Ed.]. Sadly, the tiger was never bought but, nevertheless, EPB is full of animals if you know where to look for them.

Last week, I brought a group of sophister students from the School of English to EPB to look at animal books, mainly from the Pollard Collection.

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Animals have been a part of children’s books since the very beginning. Among the first books printed for children – or at least one of the first books that we could expect child readers to enjoy – was William Caxton’s version of Aesop’s Fables printed in 1484.

Continue reading “Animals in the Library”

The tale of Mr Warne

Front cover of binding
Beatrix Potter: “The tale of two bad mice” (London and New York, 1904) Shelfmark: OLS POL 2971

This summer marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of Frederick Warne & Co., the well-known publisher of children’s books. Here in the Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections we hold several hundred of Warne’s publications with over a third of them belonging to the Pollard Collection, a collection of more than 10,000 children’s books.

The firm was established in late June 1865 at Bedford Street, Covent Garden by Frederick Warne (1825-1901). At a young age Warne had joined his elder brother in the bookselling business of their brother-in-law, George Routledge, and in 1851 became a partner in his publishing firm. Warne later set up his own company with partners Edward J. Dodd and A.W. Duret and the firm expanded to New York in the 1880s. The publishing house issued a number of popular series of reprints in both fiction and non-fiction. They also published editions of works by celebrated children’s authors and artists and utilised the skills of the leading London colour printer Edmund Evans.

Opening featuring two nursery rhymes with Greenaway's illustrations
Kate Greenaway: “Mother Goose or The old nursery rhymes” (London and New York, [ca 1887-1905?]) Shelfmark: OLS POL 1534
We have marked the anniversary with a small display of Warne’s publications which will be on view until mid-September 2015 in the exhibition case in the foyer of the Berkeley Library. Included are children’s books illustrated by Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott and by the author most associated with the firm, Beatrix Potter. Next year, in fact, will mark another significant anniversary, 150 years since the birth of Potter on 28 July 1866.

Potter's illustration of Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter: “The tale of Mr Tod” (London and New York, 1912) Shelfmark: OLS B-9-904

Potter first wrote the story of Peter Rabbit in 1893 in a picture letter to the child of a former governess. Following rejection by six publishers (including Warne), The tale of Peter Rabbit was issued privately by the author in December 1901. The following year Warne reconsidered and published the first commercial edition. Thus began a collaboration between author and publisher which saw the publication of twenty-three small format Peter Rabbit books.

Dating Warne’s children’s publications can often prove problematic. Toy book publishers at that time often collected together and reissued a group of works previously published separately, usually in time for Christmas and seldom dated. The copy of Caldecott’s picture book included in the display is a typical example. Library accession dates or provenance information can sometimes help to suggest a possible date. In the case of our copy from the Pollard Collection (at OLS POL 684) the clue comes from an inscription on the endpapers from a mother to her child, Rupert S. Thompson, from Surrey, dated Christmas 1899.

Front cover of binding
Angelica Selby: “In the sunlight: a tale of Mentone” (London and New York, 1892) Shelfmark: OLS B-14-303

Taking note of the changes over time in a publisher’s imprint can also narrow down a likely date and Chester W. Topp’s bibliography, Victorian yellowbacks & paperbacks, 1849-1905 (Denver, 1993-2006) is a useful resource. Warne was a prominent issuer of yellowbacks, paperbacks and cheap cloth issues of children’s literature and volume 4 of Topp’s work is indispensable in building a picture of his output in this area.

Frederick Warne retired in 1895 leaving the firm in the hands of his three sons, Harold, Fruing and Norman. Norman, the youngest, became Potter’s editor but died suddenly from leukaemia in 1905 only four weeks after he and Beatrix had become engaged to be married. Potter continued publishing her ‘little books’ with the firm and, having no children of her own, bequeathed the rights to her published works to Norman Warne’s nephew, Frederick Warne Stephens, after her death. In the 20th century the firm introduced its famous Observer’s books series of handy pocket reference guides (we hold several hundred of them here in the Library). The company was acquired by Penguin Books in 1983 and later this year the publisher is issuing a celebratory volume, Classic nursery tales: 150 years of Frederick Warne.

TAP Workshops Hosted by the Library

We are delighted to welcome children from three Dublin primary schools to the Library for a series of workshops on 13th January 2015. These workshops are the starting point of the annual Bookmarks Programme organised by staff from TAP (Trinity Access Programmes) in Trinity College. In one of these workshops the children — from Our Lady of Lourdes National School, Inchicore; Our Lady of Good Counsel Boys’ National School, Drimnagh; and St. Mary’s Boys’ National School, Haddington Road — will be shown books from the Pollard Collection, a collection of more than 10,000 children’s books bequeathed to the Library by Mary Pollard, former Keeper of Early Printed Books.

Miss Pollard’s collection of schoolbooks had been purchased by the Library thirty years earlier. Three needlework textbooks from that collection are currently on display in the exhibition case at the entrance to the Berkeley Library. The book on agriculture which accompanies them is one of many schoolbooks which have been acquired to supplement the Pollard Schoolbook Collection.

The books shown here were all issued by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, the publisher of the bulk of the textbooks used in Irish schools during the mid- to late 19th century. They are notable for their careful attention to detail and balanced approach, especially in potentially controversial subjects such as religious education.