It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in bringing out the juvenile books in “the English method.” But Mr. Edwin Pearson, in his delightful discussion of “Banbury Chap-Books,” has also stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of “Goody Two-Shoes,” printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick engraving in Mr. Pearson’s book with the frontispiece in Thomas’s edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr. Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas’s letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of the figure of “Goody” indicates a copy of the English original. Also the expression of Thomas’s heroine, although slightly mincing, is less distressed than the British dame’s, to say nothing of the variation in the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem to confirm the impression that the drawing was made after, but not by Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable. Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers’ children to spell such words as “plumb-pudding” “(and who can suppose a better?),” presents her full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her American admirers.
These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he thought to better.
Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery’s juvenile histories, but he adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these tales. For example, in “The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself,” the little reader was told, “If you learn this Book well and are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe at your friend the Bookseller’s in Worcester near the Court House.” In “The Mother’s Gift,” there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, “a pretty large collection of books neatly bound and nicely kept,” all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again Mr. Careful, in “Virtue and Vice,” “presented at Christmas time to the sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as are sold at Mr. Thomas’ near the Court House in Worcester.”
Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of the nineteenth century.
[92-*] Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, vol. i, p. 485.
[94-*] Life of Josiah Quincy, p. 27. Boston, 1866.
[94-†] Earle, Child Life in Colonial Days, p. 171.
[98-*] Tyler, Literature of the American Revolution, vol. ii, p. 182.
[98-†] Ibid., p. 156.