In 1876, the centennial of the birth of the United States of America, Louisa M. Alcott issued a short story collection entitled Silver Pitchers, and Independence: a Centennial Love Story. The nine stories include “Transcendental Wild Oats,” a satirical portrayal of the unsuccessful utopian community Louisa’s father founded when she was a girl. The two …
The newest acquisition to BYU’s Edwardian Literature Collection is a first edition of the famous children’s book The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. This purchase was made with the generous support of the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library. The first edition (1908) joins a copy of the famous 1940 edition illustrated …
Books were a common Christmas gift for 19th-century children, just as they are today. Authors and publishers in England and the United States marketed a variety of titles each Christmastime. For younger children there were picture books, ranging from cheap paperback editions of popular tales to deluxe books with color lithographs. For older children who …
The Rare Book and Victorian collections contain a wide variety of periodicals printed in the US and Great Britain for children and young adults. They offer an intriguing glimpse into the experiences of juvenile readers on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as how adult authors socialized …