John Newbery and his Successors 1740-1814. A Bibliography

Five Owls Press Ltd, Wormley, first edition, 1973. Cloth, 8vo,. xxxi, 461, + [32] pages of plates, 35 text ills, colour frontispiece. From the blurb: " John Newbery is famous among eighteenth-century publishers for the manner in which he exploited the new market for children's books. Both in the creation of a 'list' of successful titles and in his very individual approach to the designing, publicising and selling of his 'little books', he shows himself to be an important forerunner of the specialist children's book publisher. In this bibliographical study of the publishing activity of John Newbery and his successors, Sydney Roscoe has been at pains to supply as complete a record as possible of these children's books in their various editions, with notes on the location of copies known today. He has also provided a detailed Introduction, giving the background to the firm's work, together with three important appendices on special problems that have arisen in compiling the bibliography. A title checklist is included too of the many books for adults with whose publication the firm is known to have been associated. The volume is illustrated with 35 text figures and 32 pages of plates, many of which show Newbery's characteristic style of address in the composition of title pages. A colour frontispiece reproduces the ornamental Dutch paper with which so many of Newbery's children's books were 'prettily bound and gilt'. Top edge duststained, otherwise Near Very Good in a slightly used dustwrapper.