John Rowe Townsend, ed. John Newbery and His Books: Trade and Plumb-Cake for Ever, Huzza! Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994. xv, [3], 173, [3] pp.;$25.00 U.S. (cloth). ISBN 0-8108-2950-9.
This book is a tribute to the accomplished eighteenth-century publisher, John Newbery (1713-1767), best known for his publication of children's literature -- A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744), the Lilliputian Magazine (1751-2), The Renowned History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), and other imprints. Newbery espoused John Locke's educational outlook that instruction should be combined with amusement in such a way that children could be `cozened into a knowledge of their letters, be taught to read, without perceiving it to be anything but a sport, and play themselves into that which others are whipped for' (Locke, quoted at p. 2). When one considers the drab works of moral exhortation that passed as children's books prior to Newbery's time, this was certainly a refreshing point of view.
John Rowe Townsend, an author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, has gathered together previously published material on Newbery: an edited version of the first six chapters from Charles Welsh's biography A Bookseller of the Last Century (1885); and essays by Samuel Johnson and George Coleman. In addition, Townsend has written a comprehensive introduction and a chapter entitled `Sidelights' (on Newbery's ancestors, the Reading Mercury, the publication of his books in America, and the inheritors of his bookselling and other business endeavours). Also included are a brief checklist of Newbery's children's books and a list of the John Newbery Medal winners (awarded by annually by the American Library Association) from 1922 to 1994.
Drawing upon sources such as Sydney Roscoe's John Newbery and His Successors, 1740-1814: A Bibliography (1973), Townsend ably comments on all aspects of Newbery's life such as his relationship with the various members of his family, his interaction with his contemporaries (e.g. the publication of Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield), his authorial role in the children's books issued under his own imprint, and his selling of Dr. James's Powder. Townsend suggests that a new critical biography of Newbery is called for, but in the meantime this composite study will be a valuable contribution to Newbery's life and times and the emergence of children's literature.