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The Band of American Ladies: Children’s Librarians and the Creation of Children’s Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century

[...]in speaking on Thirty Years of Children’s Books, Frederic G. Melcher, editor of Publisher’s Weekly for some three decades, also praised early children’s librarians for establishing “new standards of book selection,” which “encouraged dealers to use the fine types of catalogs and book-lists” tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nineteenth-Century gender studies 2022-07, Vol.18 (2)
Main Author: Stauffer, Suzanne
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[...]in speaking on Thirty Years of Children’s Books, Frederic G. Melcher, editor of Publisher’s Weekly for some three decades, also praised early children’s librarians for establishing “new standards of book selection,” which “encouraged dealers to use the fine types of catalogs and book-lists” that “made it possible for them to carry a far more comprehensive book stock than they thought possible” (Melcher “Thirty Years” 7). [ 2 ] This essay will focus on early members of that “Band of American Ladies,” in particular Minerva Sanders and Caroline Hewins, and their impact and influence on the development of children’s literature, children’s librarianship, and the literary criticism of children’s books through the latter half of the long nineteenth century. Librarians and other critics of the genre argued that such books would lead young men into crime and young women into prostitution, which suggests that these library leaders were referring to young people in their teens rather than to children (Stauffer “The Dangers of Unlimited Access”, 157–159). [...]they transmitted the white, western European and American culture that was embodied in these books and stories to the next generation of Americans.
ISSN:1556-7524