children’s literature Children’s Literature a reader’s history, from aesop to harry potter Seth Lerer The University of Chicago Press  Chicago and London seth lerer is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and professor of English  and comparative literature at Stanford University. His most recent books are Error and the Academic Self and Inventing English. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2008 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08      1 2 3 4 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-47300-0 (cloth) isbn-10: 0-226-47300-7 (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lerer, Seth, 1955–     Children’s literature : a reader’s history, from Aesop to Harry Potter / Seth Lerer.       p. cm.     Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-47300-0 (alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-47300-7 (alk. paper)   1. Children’s literature—History and criticism.  I. Title. pn1009.a1l44 2008     809'.89282—dc22 2007046708 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the  American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for  Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992. for my mother Contents List of Illustrations  ix introduction 1 Toward a New History of Children’s Literature 1 • speak, child 17 Children’s Literature in Classical Antiquity 2 • ingenuity and authority 35 Aesop’s Fables and Their Afterlives 3 • court, commerce, and cloister 57 The Literatures of Medieval Childhood 4 • from alphabet to elegy  81 The Puritan Impact on Children’s Literature 5 • playthings of the mind  104 John Locke and Children’s Literature 6 • canoes and cannibals  129 Robinson Crusoe and Its Legacies 7 • from islands to empires  151 Storytelling for a Boy’s World 8 • on beyond darwin  172 From Kingsley to Seuss • vii • 9 • ill-tempered and queer  190 Sense and Nonsense, from Victorian to Modern 10 • straw into gold  209 Fairy-Tale Philology 11 • theaters of girlhood  228 Domesticity, Desire, and Performance in Female Fiction 12 •  pan in the garden  252 The Edwardian Turn in Children’s Literature 13 • good feeling 274 Prizes, Libraries, and the Institutions of American Children’s Literature 14 • keeping things straight  288 Style and the Child 15 • tap your pencil on the paper 305 Children’s Literature in an Ironic Age epilogue  320 Children’s Literature and the History of the Book Acknowledgments  333 Notes 337  Index 377 • viii • Illustrations 1.  Papyrus text of the labors of Hercules (3rd c. ad)  22 2.  Nature on the margins (13th c.)  73 3.  Letters and animals (1703)  112 4.  Frontispiece to Robinson Crusoe (1719)  143 5.  Front page of The Boy’s Own Paper (1879)  158 6.  Front page of The Union Jack (1880)  159 7.  Types of faces (1908)  187 8.  Faces in the crowd (1950)  187 9.  “Nonsense Botany” (c. 1860s)  198 10.  The philologist as wizard (c. 1910)  219 11.  Rumpelstiltskin (1889)  221 12.   The world ash tree and the cosmography of Norse mythology  (1924)  226 13.  John Millais, Ophelia (1851)  235 14. “They looked at her.” (1908)  237 15. “She balanced herself uprightly.” (1908)  238 16.  John Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott (1888)  240 17. “He pulled close to the pile.” (1908)  240 18.  Children’s tea party (c. 1900)  252 19.  Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban (1904)  256 20.  Frontispiece to The Story of Mankind (1921)  280 21.  Struwwelpeter (1845)  291 22.  The Frog Prince (1874)  324 23. “uvwxyz” (1886)  325 • ix •