Be Merry and Wise: Origins of Children's Book Publishing in England, 1650-1850

The book at hand is the result of another decade of research and compilation of the cultural record of early British children's book publishing, chiefly through the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The authors keep their focus on die magnitude of their mission to uncover me more elusive and ephemeral publications of the past, to reveal the behavior of publishers in exploiting the profitable children's market After a sixteen-chapter chronological development the book moves to a discussion of marketing, bindings, special markets, and marks of possession.