THE DEVON COLLECTION OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS A CATALOGUE OF THE EARLY CHILDREN'S BOOKS 1692-1849 COMPILED BY MARJORIE MOON Devon Library and Information Services 1994

Copyright: Marjorie Moon, 1978
ISBN 1-85522-375-9
Originally printed in 1994 for limited distribution by Devon Library and Information Services

Preface
List of books referred to
1. The Puritan influence on children's books in the 17th century (items 1-6)
2. The Bible and books of religious instruction (7-35)
3. The fables of Aesop and others (36-43)
4. Animal stories: Mrs. Trimmer's Fabulous histories (44-49)
5. Islands of adventure: Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's travels (50-67)
6. Poetry and verse (68-111)
7. Nursery rhymes (112-155)
8. Facts and fairies: The triumph of imagination (156-212)
9. The governess by Sarah Fielding : school stories and the beginning of fiction for children (213-231)
10. Original fiction for children (232-439)
11. Books of instruction:
11a. Learning by rote and learning to think (440-474)
11b. Learning to read (475-499)
11c. History and biography (500-534)
11d. Geography and topography (535-543)
11e. Natural science (544-576)
12. Pastimes, improving games and incitements to learning (577-580)
Appendix 1: Mrs. Trimmer and the Guardian of Education
Appendix 2: Rousseau's Emile
Index to titles and authors

The collection of children's books which is now housed in the Devon County Library, Exeter, has not, in fact, been "collected" at all. Some of the books have been bequeathed, some donated, some still bear the signs of having once been in general circulation, but none have been specially purchased. As a result, there may be a number of books by one author who was a favourite with a family, while some famous books which would be very desirable in a representative collection are not there at all.

In the catalogue which follows I have only brought together those books which were printed before 1850, but I have given brief notes about such later editions of these early works as are to be found in the collection, which is much stronger in Victorian books. And in order to give as comprehensive a view as possible of the reading matter available to children in a given period I have listed a late edition if no early one is present.

As will at once be seen, I have diverged from the usual path of alphabetical order, which is generally followed in catalogues of this kind, and have divided the books first into subjects, and then in order of the date of the first printing of each title. Although I stepped forth lightheartedly on this route, I soon found it was fraught with hazards. In the first place, it was sometimes difficult to ascertain the date of the first edition; and again, if there were several books by the same author, I found that to list them individually in the various years in which each one was first published would scatter the author's output and make it more difficult to review it. I therefore decided to group together the several works by one author in order of the date of their first printing, placing them in the period of the earliest book in this catalogue, except when a considerable number of years elapsed between publications.

By arranging the entries in this way I hope I have been able to make this catalogue into a survey of the early history of books written for children in England, so far as this can be done with limited and miscellaneous resources. The notes heading each subject are intended only to introduce the books which follow them; they do not aim to be exhaustive treatises on aspects of children's literature in general - a field of research which has not yet been fully explored. But I hope they may help to show the significance of these unostentatious, well-worn, sometimes rather shabby books, so different from the glossy productions of today.

As a resident in Devon I am very grateful to all those generous and public-spirited people who have given their nursery treasures to this county - and rare treasures some of them certainly are. Sorting and cataloguing them has given me many happy discoveries.

Marjorie Moon

The text of every title-page is given in full, with the exceptions that only the extent of long quotations is indicated, with their source, e.g. '2 lines verse. Wordsworth.' and phrases have been omitted from very verbose titles, the omissions indicated by ellipsis: ... Where I have interpolated any words in the title, these are enclosed in square brackets.

The dimensions shown are of the title-page, vertical before horizontal. A plate containing more than one illustration is indicated thus: x 2, or x 3, as the case may be.

Entries marked * refer to books printed after 1849.

advt, advtd advertisement, advertisedc. circa, about
cm. centimetre(s)
Df b, D f p Dutch floral boards or paper
edn edition
e.g. for example
engvg, engvd engraving, engraved
FP, FPP frontispiece(s)
i.e. that is
p., pp. page(s)
pr printed
pseud. pseudonym
q.v. which see
r. recto (right-hand page)
sic in this way
TP, TPP title-page(s)
v. verso (reverse, or left-hand page)
vol. volume
wct woodcut

When reference is made to a book by its number and the number is followed by a dash (e.g. 167-), this shows that there are two or more books with the same title or subject heading.

COMPILER'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I should like to thank Mr. Brian Alderson for his very helpful comments and suggestions during the preparation of this catalogue.

This catalogue was compiled by Marjorie Moon in the late 1970s. For too many years it has languished as an internal guide to the collection at Exeter, although the compiler's extensive annotations set the works represented within the context of the development of children's literature as a whole and it deserved to be more generally available. Thanks to the arrival of new technology and the work of two very capable members of staff on employment training, Martyn Prowse and Michael Mills, it has been possible to convert Marjorie Moon's typescript into a form which is more suitable for wider dissemination. The author's text has been left unchanged, although underlinings have been converted into italics throughout and cross-references have been expanded. The conversion from one word-processing system to another half way through the project has meant that the compiler's original layout has been lost, although this does not affect the contents of the catalogue. No account has been taken of any additions to the collection in the years since compilation. It is hoped to work on listing the remainder of the collection - chiefly books published after 1850 - as time permits. The illustrations at the end of most sections were not chosen by Marjorie Moon and are not necessarily the best in the collection. Their choice depended on suitability for copying without damaging the item and whether they could be reproduced in-house without too great a loss of quality. The two sources used for the prelims and index are not included in the catalogue because they were probably published in the 1850s.

Thanks are due to Brian Alderson for encouraging us to make this work available in time for the conference "Childhood recollected", held in Oxford in September 1994, which celebrated the contribution of Marjorie Moon to the study of children's literature and also to Kati Vamos for her enthusiasm in searching out illustrations.

The collections are housed at Exeter Central Reference Library and those wishing to consult them should enquire in advance. Some items may be too fragile to produce at present. Proof of identity may also be required from those wishing to consult material in this or other special collections.

Ian Maxted

County Local Studies Librarian