The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at Two Shillings, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn’d with Cuts.
Those who buy Six, shall have a Seventh Gratis, and buying only Three, they shall have a present of a fine large Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [List of histories follows.]
The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being full of Pictures, are sold at Eighteen Pence each.
Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds & Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the Improvement of Old and Young, etc.
To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen. The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books, coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered the children’s treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible for its production.
In Isaiah Thomas’s recollections of the early Boston printers, he described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and Samuel Draper, Fowle’s partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to Thomas, “they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an indifferent hand at the press, and much worse at the case.”
This description of the printer’s ability is borne out by the “New-Gift for Children,” printed by this firm. It is probably the oldest story-book bearing an American imprint now in existence, and for this reason merits description, although its contents can be seen in the picture of the title-page. Brown with age and like all chap-books without a cover—for it was Newbery who introduced this more durable and attractive feature—all sizes in type were used to print its fifteen stories. The stories in themselves were not new, as it is called the “Fourth edition.” It is possible that they were taken from the Banbury chap-books, which also often copied Newbery’s juvenile library, as the list of his publications compiled by Mr. Charles Welsh does not contain this title.
The loyalty of the Boston printers found expression on the third page by a very black cut of King George the Third, who appears rather puzzled and not a little unhappy; but it found favor with customers, for as yet the colonials thought their king “no man of blood.” On turning the page Queen Charlotte looks out with goggle-eyes, curls, and a row of beads about the size of pebbles around her thick neck. The picture seems to be a copy from some miniature of the queen, as an oval frame with a crown surmounting it encircles the portrait. The stories are so much better than some that were written even after the nineteenth century, that extracts from them are worth reading. The third tale, called “The Generosity of Confessing a Fault,” begins as follows:
“Miss Fanny Goodwill was one of the prettiest children that ever was seen; her temper was as sweet as her looks, and her behavior so genteel and obliging that everybody admir’d her; for nobody can help loving good children, any more than they can help being angry with those that are naughty. It is no wonder then that her papa and mama lov’d her dearly, they took a great deal of pains to improve her mind so that before she was seven years old, she could read, and talk, and work like a little woman. One day as her papa was sitting by the fire, he set her upon his knees, kiss’d her, and told her how very much he lov’d her; and then smiling, and taking hold of her hand, My dear Fanny, said he, take care never to tell a lye, and then I shall always love you as well as I do now. You or I may be guilty of a fault; but there is something noble and generous in owning our errors, and striving to mend them; but a lye more than doubles the fault, and when it is found out, makes the lyar appear mean and contemptible.... Thus, my dear, the lyar is a wretch, whom nobody trusts, nobody regards, nobody pities. Indeed papa, said Miss Fanny, I would not be such a creature for all the world. You are very good, my little charmer, said her papa and kiss’d her again.”