Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book by Rosalie Vrylina Halsey
page 67 of 259 (25%)
page 67 of 259 (25%)
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The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at _Two
Shillings_, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn'd with Cuts. [Symbol: hand]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 |
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