luia llllllllllllllllllllll 10 g b 003$ I)ate 0-7 639 LIBRARY Michigan State University This is to certify that the thesis entitled Literacy in America 1900—1920: Portraits of Young Readers and Their Texts 0’ presented by Elaine Allen Karls has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for M.A. dPDTPP in Enol‘ich Major professor f MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution ,d‘.,——— . 4‘4 rl‘h" )V1531,} RETURNING MATERIALS: Place in book drop to anRARIEs remove this checkout from 4—3—IL your record. FINES will be charged if book is returned after the date stamped below. LITERACY IN AMERICA 1900-1920: PORTRAITS OF YOUNG READERS AND THEIR TEXTS by Elaine Allen Karla A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University_ in partial fulfillment of the requ1rement5 for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of English 1988 x 7' 51/0 ,/ /.. 2. ABSTRACT LITERACY IN AMERICA 1900—1920: PORTRAITS OF YOUNG READERS AND THEIR TEXTS by Elaine Allen Karls This historical study explores cultural and institutional contexts by which young Americans 1900~1920 acquired tastes and attitudes as readers. Research explored four areas to establish reading patterns in and out of school. A selective review of popular periodicals, juvenile books, and pertinent references, provided cultural insight about juvenile pleasure reading. Thirty-four secondary literature and three composition textbooks were analyzed for editorial/pedagogical focus. These were reviewed again for notations (marginalia) added by their young owners. oral histories detailing individual ”autobiographies of literacy“ were completed with eight people whose adolescence took place between 1900-1920. Findings suggested the culture promoted some selection as more suitable to young readers than others. Secondary English curriculum was dominated by College Entrance Examination literature. Cognitive “possession” of texts through memorization and detailed analyses may have encouraged readers' intense ties to favorite texts. Marginalia occurred in most preeowned texts. jar “ Copyright by ELAINE ALLEN KARLS 1988 DEDICATION For Ken, my dear companion. And for Matthew and Susannal-- Bright stars in our universe. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project represents the involvement and interest of many people. My sincere thanks goes to this unique group of colleagues, family, and friends for their contributions to this effort. Dr. Stephen N. Tchudi has been my advisor throughout this thesis, as well as a teacher and mentor throughout my graduate studies. His example as a prolific writer and inventive, thoughtful teacher are my standards as I enter a new phase of professional life. I have appreciated his careful readings of my work. His enthusiasm for this study was the encouragement I needed to begin. I would like to thank the Bridgeport Historical Society, Mrs. Lula Birdsall, Bob Budd, Rev. Ron and Jill Compton, and Karen Waite for the gift or loan of rare and unusual books. Access to them extended my basis of understanding of the range of literature produced early in this century. The oral histories presented in Chapter IV were mcde possible because eight people opened their homes and memories to me. I gratefully acknowledge the help of Mrs. Leone Berry, Mr. Loren and Mrs. Lula Birdsall, Mrs. Katherine Carroll, Mrs. Helen Compton, Mr. George and Mrs. Ruth Crocker, Mr. George Turner, and Mrs. Petronella Van Wormer. Michigan State University Library provided irreplaceable resources to me through the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection. The entire staff of Special Collections was unusually accommodating, particularly Anne Tracy, who took a special interest in this study from the start. Over th last months, she has directed me to one-of— (I) a~kind resources I often did not know existed. Many insights I share in this thesis began through conversations with Anne. To my father, Merlin Allen, heartfelt thanks for combing every flea market and rummage sale in mid—Michigan for specific texts I needed or hoped to find. Because this was a historical study, many books were not available through any means but this. He and my mother, Mary Allen, gave me the gift of time. So often they put aside their own schedules to accommodate mine so that I could negotiate the next phase of the project. along the way unlocked specific answers L] O 3 DJ 3 ‘< O i‘i‘ 3' (D LU or suggested valuable references, or were simply available and supportive at important times. I would like to mention Cam and Sharon Aulds, Alan and Carolyn Cook. Jerry and Connie Eaton, Dr. David and Alison Michelson, and my friend Anne Rau. My mother-in—law, Nancy Karls, assisted cheerfully through many last-minute emergencies. There were others. Each had a role in bringing this project to completion. This thesis has been a family project throughout this year. My husband Ken was typist, photographer, and performed other diverse and thankless chores (running to the library by dark of night, sorting index cards as the sun came up) with grace and love. This the_is is his accomplishment as well as mine. Our children, Matthew and Susannah, have supported and charmed me through the tedious as well as sublime moments of my research and writing. Most of all, I would like to say that this would not have been possible without these three. With thanks, with love, I acknowledge their months of daily kindness. TABLE OF CONTENTS "t of Figures U) iapter I. Cultural Contexts Influencing the YOung Reader in the New Twentieth Century Trends Affecting Variety and Availability of Children's Literature 1900-1920 The Romance and ReSponsibility of Being a Reader The Strata of Early Twentieth Century Literature for Young People Enduring Standards The Juvenile Series The Dime Novel Reading as a Window to Middle and Upper Middle Class American Experience The Heterogeneous Readership: The Broadened Choices for Readers and Writers Chapter I Notes iapter II Literature and Language Textbooks for the Secondary Pupil Editorship and Authorship of Literature Texts High School Study of American Literature Secondary Grammar and Composition Texts: American and British Literature in Language Exercises Chapter II Notes apter III Marginalia: Student Ownership of Textbooks Chapter III Notes apter Iv Chapter IV Notes pendix A. Annotation of Secondary Literature Textbooks ferences vi 15 20 23 '28 31 41 67 77 85 106 109 1A1 1AA 15h LIST OF FIGURES 1 A St. Nicholas cover, September. 1919 8 2 Young Wild West saves Alietta in a dime 21 novel western 3 The Lake Series of English Classics, as featuring the editor‘s name on the cover a Sample tests from the most popular series as of literature in the early twentieth century 5 Samples of the Riverside Literature Series h? 9 6 College Entrance S lections advertised in a #8 ”Gateway Series” text from American Book Co. 7 College Entrance canon titles reflected in as Ginn and Co.'s ”Standard English Classics” 8 Brainerd Kellogg L.L.D.'s analytical study 52 suggested in The Merchant of Venice 9 Announcement in The Riverside Literature 60 Series alerting teachers and pupils to the College Entrance Requirements of 1906—1911 College Entrance Requirements 1911-1915 as 61 detailed in The Riverside Literature Series, with references to works available through The Riverside Press Fanita Duncan's (a pupil at the First Mary 89 Preparatory Institute) drawing of fashionable clothes over the text of her Riverside Evangeline. Recording of “marriage“ written in the back 93 of The DeCoverly Papers from The Spectator Clark Hallam's caricature of “Professor 94 Frank T. Cole” and ”Fat Mueller” in a class copy of Bunyan‘s The Pilgrim's Progress Anonymous drawing in Julius Caesar which 95 appears beardless when viewed conventionally, or bearded when viewed upside—down Angelo DeRalo departing some of his person“ 96 ality to his copy of Tennyson's Idylls of the King Detailed sketch of_World War I dogfight in 99 The Century Word Book Detailed sketch of a lady in hat in text— 100 book copy of The Vision of Sir Launfal Sketch of lady with bobbed hair appearing 102 in 1909 Merchant of Venice The Comfort magazine cover for January, 119 1900, which brought serial Indian adven- tures into the home of Lula Woolston viii CHAPTER I CULTURAL CONTEXTS INFLUENCING THE YOUNG READER IN THE NEW TWENTIETH CENTURY ‘Ninetyeseven year old Katherine Cavanaugh Carroll spoke me this year about her childhood memories associated books, reading and writing (Chapter IV). The details Jrovided sketch a picture of the literary texts and *ary contexts present around her when both she and the :ieth century were young. The Delineator magazine on a >r table invited her mother to leaf through for advice rusehold concerns, beauty, and entertaining. The Ave Land The Michigan Catholic provided this devout rlic home some religious news and insights. The works ckens in handsome editions lined the bookshelves. A locks away was the public library, where Katherine choose a book which she hoped to enjoy as leisure ng. If the book was deemed “appropriate" reading after pection by her father, there was sufficient time in "ine‘s typical childhood day to sit for awhile and the reading of the adventure. And when Katherine ugh strolled cross—lots with her neighborhood friends. ometimes called out to each other using the names of favorite book characters. n this brief profile are imbedded many elements of the des and contexts in which some American children "red specific attitudes toward and associations with ng in the early 1900‘s. This story, while belonging ely to Katherine, contains some elements generalizable her American children of middle-class families. Most tant, it models a distinctive feature of the nature of acy; that literacy evolves through the influence of S, periodicals, family tendencies and aversions, and 1re through activites with associates. Katherine‘s love ading flowered not just from school instruction and , but also from other reading she sampled while growing the culture of the early 1900's. Talking with Katherine and others about the life of the ate child in the early twentieth century America red some questions I had about reading and writing in era, and posed others. What kinds of literature were ble to American children and adolescents of this time? here generalized societal feelings about what kinds of ry selections were suited to them as they grew up? 9 to Katherine and others, I observed that value 5 placed on language and reading had been significant hout their lives. This, I felt, made cultural aspects important feature of this study. eracy an v selectively surveying some of the popular periodical ture1, bestsellers, juvenile literature, and reference als on publishing in the early 1900's, I have ted to detect and share a hint of the flavor of the mes in which young people formed attitudes and habits in nguage usage and reading. Trends Affecting Variety and Availability of Children's Literature 1900-1920 In the time period 1900-1920, many complementary xements in technology, education, and society created a :ferent environment for the many young Americans whose ‘tiation into print literacy was just beginning. This time period marked the real beginning of the ation of a significant body of literature for juvenile ders. Children increasingly were viewed as a separate ding public, whose needs and interests were to be met h something other than a limited range of adult erature which was viewed as edifying or instructive to Child mind ~- The Bible, Homer, and a select list of er ”classics.” A perusal of Literary Digest or The look ~- two periodicals which monitored current lications -- weekly revealed new juvenile titles. The ic library system was well underway by 1900, and the t children's libraries were being established within its cture.2 The invention of the steam printing press made mass ication a more feasible venture than ever in our ory. By 1919, 12,000,000 books for children were ished annually. Of this figure, A33 of the titles were for young people that year.3 1919 was also a 'ficant year in children‘s book publishing, marking the lishment of the first children's book department in a shing house -_ Macmillan, under the editorship of Mary 2e. There was a ready market for all kinds of lren‘s and adolescents' books, and major publishing 5 r-sponded to the potential market by establishing ate children's divisions. It requires imagination to visualize a time when a c library was new to American's cities and towns, and a "en's section within it drew special notice from the 3. By 1895, free libraries ranged throughout our ‘y, and later libraries endowed by Andrew Carnegie help make libraries a fixture of American community i Paul Hazard's Books, Children, and Men included :ionate commentary on America’s new library system. 5 his analysis of America's idea of the children's y in the early twentieth century: hey are a home. And how many children, in these uge cities without tenderness, have no other but hat! Outside, the rhythm of life tells fever, a reat human stream roars by. Millions and illions of men, so crowded against each other hat space is lacking and houses fuse together oward the sky, keep in motion those gigantic actories called New York or Chicago ... eanwhile, it is a different leisure that delights he children in those peaceful libraries peopled ith books nerican youngsters of the new twentieth century could from more kinds of juvenile reading material than had fore been available in our history. Free libraries an expanding public school system increased the elihood that more children would gain access to books. se complementary forces created the potential for a wider 1g readership of a greater variety of texts than had viously occurred. The Romance and Responsibility of Being a Reader There was a comforting element of warmth and nurture in early 1900's comments on children in relationship with s and stories. The library was depicted as a womb-like n from corrupt outside influence. The union of child‘s ination and text were often discussed by contemporary entators on literary life in language imbued with a sort weetness and light. Author Nora Smith had this advice Barents regarding how to guide their children's reading ... open the library doors to the happy child and give him free entrance. Let him begin at the first book on the top shelf and read completely around the room, until, on the eve of his twenty— first birthday, he lays down the last volume on the lowest shelf of all. If you have selected your books wisely, nothing in the library will hurt him; if there are weeds here and there, a noxious growth, a reptile, or a slimy rock, he will swim down the pure current of literature as regardless of them all as the fish in the flowing stream. Attitudes in the age may have been more conducive to Pen's leisure reading, at least for the child who, like erine Cavanaugh, was not expected to contribute to the ly income.7 Progressive social trends had slowly begun rant recognition to childhood as a more protected and ured time in life. For children and adolescents able to nd school essentially free from the burden of labor -- by labor I mean the early 1900's realities of the ory, sweatshop, mine and farm ~- I believe the new asis on literacy, libraries, and publishing just for dren helped create our most romantic views of the :ialness” of what it is to be an American child. Kate Douglas Wiggin warned parents that “in every one 3 there dwells a poet whom the man has outlived.” To that poetic sensibility alive, Wiggin suggested it must >urished with children's books which were capable of: strengthening his insight, guarding the sensitiveness of his early impre551ons, and cherishing the fancies that are indeed ”the trailing clouds of glgry he brings with him from Goc” who is his home. The romantic notion of child and book were further ced and emphasized in subtle ways. Charming trations of curly—haired children in blissful repose, in hand, often decorated the borders of articles for ts about what their children should read. Dora V. , who has done extensive historical study of juvenile 09. notes that even school reading texts changed in during this time. Their titles tended to reflect a literary ~— and I think more romantic —— union of child ext. Titles like Story Hour Reader replaced the er and more practical titles such as McGuffey's Fifth :ic Reader.9 :ommentary on adolescents and reading also was ently tinged with romance. Sometimes the romance :ed notions consistent with growing into one's :tive sex role. Hamilton Wright Mabie, in a Ladies Iournal ”Mr. Mabie's Literary Talk to Girls” poetically ‘bed the benefits of a girl who by reading in youth “lay up a store of attractions against the time when with which she started [physical beauty] were lost." counseled older girls to know the heroines of good ture -— Homer's Helen, Scott's Rebecca, Thackeray's Sharp ~~ to understand the literary embodiment of ”the t qualities of womanhood.”10 aul Elmer More in The Nation called for more juvenile ture that would portray boys full of invention, "quick ie natural restiveness of youth” instead of stories ling vagabonds and sneaks. More's example of the kind of book was Tom Sawyer.11 this romantic culture, wherein at least a segment of was now more enabled to place a wider selection of 8 reading into the children's hands, the variety of e selections allowed for some attention to details of developmental appropria-eness. ' age's increased awareness of the child was fostered by the developmental philosophies of G. Stanley 4%,:— sea!" . g}. a ’a‘.’ ‘ J 1' Mia A St. Nicholas cover, September, 1919. ho urged teachers to rewrite material for reading t really and closely fitted the minds and hearts of ldren."12 y Mapes Dodge (editor of a highequality children's e St. Nicholas, and author of Hans Brinker or the Skates), made these observations about "best" book ons for children: . each child, during that early formative riod, virtually represents six individual ildren, so great is the change effected by each ssing year. Children outgrow pleasures and eds as they do their garments, and the fondled ture story-book is cast aside for stronger and e stimulating attractions the next. And so dividuality is developed by sure stages, year by ar, until the ‘big boy' of twelve looks back th surprise at the books that used to3interest n when he was ‘only a little chap'." jge's St. Nicholas magazine reflected her interest in ig varied reading material to match children's ages ities. One 1919 edition of St. Nicholas included "1!. 3r children “The Machinery of the Seas a llly illustrated narrative on waves and sea motion. included installments of ”The Slipper Point ”15 an adventure featuring girls, and “The Lone a Western featuring Andy Adams “a cow-boy ... in “16 A section ”For Very Young Folk“ f stolen cattle. engaging illustrations with whimsical verses for :hildren. St. Nicholas' demonstration of this range Iture is an indication of the age's increasing in fitting attractive, well-wrought stories to the ages of childhood. The closer fit of reading 10 ion to child I think helped extend the romance. More xer, books were not the tomes of adult classical ture, but tales of fantasy or adventure more often i vocabulary and illustrations suited to younger we famous author for children urged parents to select 3y thinking about the stage of development at which ild had presently attained: The child is your first point: do you know 'm? What you wish him to Iearn, think, feel and . . 1 15 the second p01nt ... ‘eedom and caution went hand in hand when allowing an to read. Parental responsibility for a child's 1 selection guarded the romance from the harm of selection. The Outlook, in a lengthy discussion on for children, urged that: . the mind of the child ought to have free case to the reading which it craves ... vertheless ... parents have no right to abdicate eir functigns ... as wise, judicious berators en Georgene Faulkner, the ”Story Lady“ of Ladies Home , be-an a regular feature ”Bedtime Stories for to Tell Their Children”19 her greeting to the carried strong reprimands for those who would bedtime reading. “Run away and read your own story” mother might say. Faulkner reacted to such a ”The old-fashioned mother had time for her child 11 'hrough nature stories she led him to an appreciation of ronderful world about him, and of God, the Creator of ife.“ Faulkner's column contained short tales readers to her, reproduced so that the uninventive mother (the ar who couldn't think up an original tale) could read es nightly to her smaller children. The message that a ‘ne of reading fine, uplifting stories to children was a srly responsibility was clear. Parental responsibility perhaps began, but certainly ot end, with provding a “children's hour" for the er tots. Contemporary literature abounded with advice arning to parents that a bad or degrading work of ature in the hands of a callow youth could warp his bilities or stir his basic urges away from the finest est. fihile there seems to have been cultural support for "an to enter into affectionate acquaintance with books, ‘omantic attachment most certainly was paired with a :or strong parental responsibility. Kate Douglas warned parents against allowing youngsters to read U) clusively from the popular juvenile serial , and was ement as to add that the boy whose parents allowed egrading attachment might someday discover that “He time become a tolerable husband and father, but his ill be deaf to the music of St. Paul's epistles and O nk of Job; he will never know the Faerie Qu-ene or the ”2 55 Knight, Don Quixote, Hector, or Ajax ... Tudor Jenks, author of Imaginotions warned parents: ieve the taste of the children should be guided. As we omnivorous physically so are we omnivorous mentally il good taste is cultivated.”21 As young readers grew, perhaps concerned adults hoped would take over responsibility for choosing their own ‘< iing selections with the same highminded sensibility as ir parents. Hamilton Wright Mabie warned the adolescent ence, ”One must ... read novels with discrimination and gement ... there are many bad novels which never ought to into the hands of decent men or women ...”22 In an 'cle "Should the Young Read Novels?“ he provided for them :3 of popular novels such as London's Call of the Wild Booth Tarkington's The Gentlemen from Indiana. Novels 1 as these, Mabie suggested, would help one ”interpret through the imagination” without resorting to some of novels of the day that were deemed ”trash“ by the uards of literary propriety. The Strata of Early Twentieth Century Literature for Young People Between 1900 and 1914 the student population of ican high schools increased by 150 percent.23 As, umably, a larger reading public was being created in the ols, a much wider range of reading material became lable. Popular periodical literature reflected a 13 ous awareness of this new and untrained reading public, he following insight from The Outlook (1901) suggested: The reading public in this country is practically unlimited. It is being fed every year by tens of thousands of graduates from the high schools, to say nothing of graduates from colleges and universities. What has happened, in other words, is an enormous enlargement of the circle of people who read; and that circle having once begg enlarged will never again be contracted. In the same issue of The Outlook, Hamilton Wright 4. D c, a frequent commentator on literary life—and-times mainstream American magazines, warned: To be a writing people does not necessarily involve being a literaturevproducing people; to be a reading people does not necessarily involve being a literature—loving people ... hundreds of books may be read without so much as casual contact between the mind of a rggder and the marvelous force We call genius. Again and again, there was evidence of a tension :ed by the addition of more readers and writers to the can literary ”melting pot.” On the one side: the ton Mabies of America —— the cl-ssically educcted ons of literary propriety. They, themselves, were y educated in an elite classical environment which sed Greek and Latin, the Bible, and a canon of select argely British literature. On the other side: the ure created by the great volume of new works-—— hing from novels, self~help books, and ephemeral -aways.“ There was a ready readership for everything ld standards and classics to the most seemingly ying rag. John Tebbel, in his History of Book 1h shing in the United States, detailed and analyzed the h of publishing and revealed: Zonservatives like the editors of Publisher's weekly found much of what was being published 'appalling.“ It was not at all like the good old iays of standard editions of standard works and the steady production of uplifting literature. 'he new century was beginagng to look like a clean >reakaway from the past.” he summary statement noted gloomily the ”salacious- and the general cultural sinking of literature in a, broken down by categories of fiction, biography, on, and philosophy. ow that a wider range of literature was specifically ed for the young, similar debates simmered about the ility of their reading material. The idea of creating g selections fitted to the age, interest, and reading y of a child reflected the progressive and pmental shifts in society's thinking. But much ture I surveyed indicated that this focus was paired ther powerful ideas about literacy and language which raight out of the past. These ideas —- that reading t only inform, but uplift and improve the reader —- have survived centuries of our history. I believe leas are intensified by the natural parental desire to d gifts ~— the loveliest, best-made, most enduring -- e children's hands. And the ”good gifts” philosophy tly with generations of American thinking about the ated quality of “The Word.” Thus, just as some adult ure published during this time was bemoaned for its 15 Jltural sinking," so was some of the literature for the Jng. luring Standards Though there was no real sustained body of criticism of. ,27 I have lenile literature until the early 1920's erved that juvenile selections seemed to be placed «— by ents, by teachers, by authors, and by the children mselves —- into categories or strata of acceptability and dness. When my interviews with older people regularly ned to topics of what kinds of reading were suitable or owable, almost all mentioned some kind of parental gate— ping in their homes, to filter out the ”trash.” In herine Cavanaugh's home, it seemed to be acknowledged t even the public library might carry juvenile selections :h were below the stratum her father could accept. Lula Birdsall, interviewed in the final chapter of this sis, was able to shut her eyes and visualize the books on bookshelf in her fourth grade classroom. The year would been about 1913. Among the titles were many books l in print for children; Toby Tyler, Black Beauty, The Little Peppers and How They Grew, and Little Women. e selections received frequent acclaim from parents, hers, and others in the juvenile publishing business. ly it was titles like these —— and others such as Alice onderland, the Andersen's and Grimm's Fairy Tales, nson Crusoe, and the Arabian Nights '~ to which a igan Standard Schools plan referred when it called for 18 good collection of juvenile books ..." in its rural one— am schools in order that each meet a minimum standard of :eptability.28 Famous children's authors asked to name a "best” selections in a significant Outlook compilation :urned again and again to such titles. The appeal of books I call “standards" seems to have an not just the originality and superior craft of the ting __ which I do think was often the case —— but also sir appeal to adults who may have shared them with their ldren. For some sensitive, literate families, parents t have enjoyed having the experience of knowing Little n or Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare in common with their ngster. Perhaps this is why the two women I have tioned in this chapter have special fondness for texts h as David Copperfield and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Katherine roll and Lula Birdsall enjoyed family traditions of iniscing with parents about texts, their tales, and their “acters. At the pinnacle of the strata were the selections that hers, librarians, and educated parents could agree esented lasting or classic value. Some of these, such esop's Fables and Alice in Wonderland have been ioned here. Below this stratum, some best selling nile books found their way into libraries and school shelves as standard reading. Toby Tyler, Seven ins, Freckles, and Black Beauty all fit into this 17 erials were the third layer down —— tolerated by most 5 and a few teachers, but not "literary“ or "enduring” h as expedient in meeting a youngster's desire for ate action. venile Serials Lhe serial adventure, featuring white, middle—class |onists, were published by the hundreds of thousands in rly twentieth century. The very features the critics ed most about them; their formula quality and same- their often insipid and stilted dialogue, the tched coincidences that occurred every other page, he very features which so endeared them to their 5. One writer of ”better“ books warned: "...if you twelve-year—old boy addicted to ‘juveniles' and to 3 else, you may as well give the poor little creature Clara Whitehall Hunt, in English Journal, was aghast penetration of such books into the literary market Jng people. .. one of the neighbors lends your lad the first the Motor Boys series and thereupon ~~ a friend mine wrote this of her son —— he reads nineteen >tor stories in nineteen daysgand is a long time :covering from the debauch.” ile parents and educators grumbled about these boys' ls' books, the books emphasized ”manliness,“ "pluck,” ”sunny disposition,“ and school spirit. If they re the product of assemblyeline writing than they rks of art, they still reflected cultural values and ed their readers' imaginations through their psuedo— ific, outdoor, athletic, and adventurous themes. he serials' sense of fun and adventure lured a genera- f readers between nine and nineteen. Whatever the ary” level of the serials, they provided a boy or girl mmediate access to a world of motorboats, airships, r exploring, mystery, and suspense. Russel B. Nye in embarrassed Muse devoted a wonderful chapter to the le serial, and described their popularity this way: n Tom Swift, Stratemeyer and Garis (creators and riters of the series) hit on a formula shrewdly signed to catch the interest of boys who were rowing up in the midst of the twentieth century's reat burst of invention and technology...Tom, the ost prolific and imaginative inventor of them ll, gave his readers one major invention and at east six minor ones in each book ... they took he adventure story of the Rovers, combined it ith Jules Verne, Thomas Edison, Ford, Marconi, nd all the others who contributed to the excite- ent of the machine age, and mixed into it tgg reatest assortment of gadgets known to man. n a typical Tom Swift adventure, Tom Swift and His ine Boat or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure ~~ f these adventures featured descriptive dual titles -— ‘thely traveled in a combination dirigible/balloon. the young reader, who in the opening few pages goes ift's father (always referred to as ”the aged r“), who in this scene is shaken out of a daydream tructural changes on the submarines he is designing noise of Tom's airship cruising in at ninety miles r.31 The quality of the narrative of these stories peaks directly and personally to the reader. In Tom 19 and His Air Glider, note the allure in this passage past adventures: hen Tom went among the diamond makers, at the "equest of Mr. Barco Jenks, and discerned the ecret of phantom mountain the lad fancied that ight be the end of his adventures, but there were ore to follow. Going to caves of ice, his irship was wrecked, but he and friends managed to et back home, and then it was that young inventor erfected his sky racer, in which he made the uickest flight on record. lost startling were his adventures in elephant and whither he went with his electric rifle, and e was the means of saving a missionary, Mr. 32 llingway and his wife, from the red pygmies.“ opular series for girls, while retaining their quality t-victorian decorum, were about ”modern“ girls who heir share of adventures, too. The ”Motor Girls” ‘ies, the ”Dorothy Dale"I series, and “Aunt Jane's s” (the latter written by “Edith Van Dyne”, a pseudonym Frank Baum) were about carefree but intelligent stially white upper—middle—class) American girls who ' mysteries while experiencing fun and adventure. moral tone was evident. In Margaret Penrose's Dorothy A Girl of To~Day (1908), Dorothy was charged with g the local newspaper while her editor-father was ill. Dorothy is described as an up—tORdate ”girl of ‘, she was shocked when a friend rubbed mullen leaves cheeks to redden them like rouge: “'Tavia', 16d Dorothy, dismay in her voice, 'I am so sorry —— k like ~- an actres§.'“33 20 me Novel here is at least one stratum of literary expression luth below that —— probably more. The ”dime novel" -- actually sold for about a nickel —— was a genre of le literary expression adults really loved to hate. cheaply-produced forerunners of our comic books led columns of squintingly tiny print. Despite the hat youngsters were often ordered to steer clear of ick Carters" and “Young Wild Wests,“ they were pro— and sold by the hundreds of thousands.3h he pulp novels featured detectives, wild west heroes lassortment of sidekicks and villains. Clara all Hunt, the teacher in English Journal who didn't we Motor Boys much, expressed glaring hatred for the )vel. She said: "In some parts of America, he (the :) may find in the public library fifteen stories ack Harkaway ... in which trickery and lawlessness to the child reader as scintillating cleverness, eachers and all others in authority are poor-spirited 35 iund Pearson in The Dime Novel or, Following an Old tempted to tally the brutal episodes of one such ld Cap Collier. Among the violent episodes, the g brutalities befall Old Cap:36 3 into a fight 5 times its four or five men at once 7 times 21 .7 L .‘p‘: . u Irlxn. Mu lull. m. ll NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 22, {918. 51 . the ”one med uuuu Artur n tool “on uuerrd I screw £6! 11.". 10:11:: but buncu. mi. 1119.; down may. (org: MJJ‘YMWUG West end In: pannen m then .5“? Mm cm rybyl lit-rd“: 1 1.. m, )anHthr ._.,, ',. .fu‘pq‘ >01 ' .l'lif" r . 1:: l 1‘; L4: —021 '3.- ~r3JAi ’ Figure 2 1g Wild West saves Arietta in this dime novel (1918). 22 Is blown up once Is buried alive once Is caught in a steel trap disguised as a chair once Number of men he beats ”to a jelly” 2 Pearson interviewed famous adults in 1929 to find out they remembered about reading the dime novels as dren. Booth Tarkington, author of Seventeen, was idden to read them. He hid them inside copies of Dyed books, such as Pilgrim's Progress. Tarkington must had ample childhood reading experience, for he was able arody the genre in his best-eller Penrod. The title acter attempted writing a dime novel, with part of the It reproduced below: Soon Harold got made at this and jumped up with blasing eyes throwin off his bonds like they were air ha ha sneered he I guiess you better not talk so much next time. Soon there flowed another awful struggle and siezin his ottomatick back from Mr. Wilson he shot two of the detetives through the heart Bing Bing went the ottomatick and two more went to meet their Maker only3two detectives left now and so he stabbed one ... Another reader said dime novels were “confiscated on ." Still, when boys were alone with each other, the s appeared out of coat pockets and from under shirts. 1e Turner, a man whom I interviewed as part of this , shared just such a memory of his own boyhood. George ially like the westerns. Possibly ”Young Wild West” magazine he traded with his newsboy friends. 23 Reading as a Window to Middle and Upper Middle Class American Experience Dne feature of the writing for and about young people ... : early 1900's became clear when I surveyed volumes of ial. The protagonists were virtually always white, e or upper middle class people. While the protagonists be engaged in kindly pursuits -- saving a poor family ruin, or taking in a good but penniless lad —- they, iose they “rescue” Were almost sure to be white. Wuch of the bestseller literature between 1900-1920 was ed by a joint audience of adolescents and adults. Of 3st popular novels of this time period, several dealt larying themes of middle class adolescence and/or ig ”rescue” of poverty~stricken children themes. . it is not common for adults and adolescents to iely enjoy the same bestsellers. In the early 1900's, er, bestselling novels about adolescence were the :9 choice for many adults and their older children. these were Eleanor Porter's Pollyanna Grows Up (1915) st David (1916), Gene Stratton-Porter's Michael Brag (1915), and Booth Tarkington's Seventeen. Points gruency between such popular novels were expressed by e Greene, who said: “Generally, each novel presents a world of good people ... The goals of good are ,38 ed.‘ Any reader of such novels, whatever his or her 2h experience, gained access to a picture of idealized lle and upper middle class adolescence. By and large, storylines were altruistic, sentimental, and tinged with nnocence many linked with youth. Gene Stratton-Porter, whose books (Girl of the erlost, Laddie, Freckles) were known by a wide reader- of adults and adolsecents, described her literary tions in distinctly middle-class language: Upon this plan of life and work I have written ten books, and please God I live so long, I shall write ten more. Possibly every one of them will be located in northern Igdiana ... seasoned with plenty of molasses. Ethnic diversity went unrecognized or misunderstood in emporary literature for children and adults -- both ls and periodical literature. Thus, the reader of a as Home Journal apparently did not detect the irony of aposition of a full-page ad for Korn-Kinks Malted Corn (1! as which ran alongside Mrs. Burton Kingsland's r gular iers and Form“ column; in which Kingsland answered sing questions about correct grammar in the written >tance of a party invitation. The Korn~Kinks *tisement featured its pickanninny spokesgirl shucking 'iving this affirmation to the reader: “It am suttenly erful how w’ite folks kin mek jes' co'n tas‘ so “no. Suzanne Greene in Books for Pleasure 1915-1945 has that bestselling books of this time period almost reflected America's ethnic and racial diversity. . ‘ ..."V.-v-r—~- -v —: ..__..._____.h._._~_. ---. -..-.. . .... A 25 eptions to this conservative and relatively affluent trayal of American life were notable for their reotypical quality. In a Harold Bell Wright novel, an ental servant spoke in dialect. In Somerset Maugham's 9: an Bondage (one of the four most popular books of 1915), claims that the (1! en (1) oriental seduced a German girl. Gr y reference to an eastern European in any popular novel this time was in Seventeen, to ”a Dago waiter who cut off "Q1 ady's head. The popular fiction of the day clearly ated an America which was overwhelmingly white, ile-class, and Anglo—Saxon. Even the popular 191a novel gan of the Apes ”proved” the innate superiority of a te man in treacherous territory. The racial stereotyping evident in other books existed zarly Tom Swifts, too. The Negro character, Eradicate >son, was so—named because he “eradicated' dirt (was a rn-up man). When Tom tried to use Eradicate as ballast :he first flight of an untried air glider, here is how icate responded: ”Now if you don't want to come, why say so, and I'll get Eradicate. I don't believe he’ll be afraid, even if he ~- "Hold on dar, now, Massa Tomi“, exclaimed an aged colored man, who was an all-around helper at the Swift homestead, ”was yo' referenci't me when you' spoke?" "Yes, Rad ...“ “Well, now, Massa Tom, I shorely would laik t' blige yo', I shore would. But de fack ob de mattah am dat I has a mos' particular job ... and the colored man shuffled off at a faster gait than he was in the habit of using.” 26 While I enjoyed browsing the “Children's Page“ of the lely~circulated Youth's Companion, as it abounded in sunny I high-quality illustrations, prose, and poems for and ut children -- about animal friends, birthday parties, es and fairies, and other pasttimes and interests of et [white] children. One story about American Indian ldren demonstrated a prevailing attitude about ethnic toms and language use. In the story "Peet," the author lained a Mohave Indian custom of waiting to name children il they are five years old. This is how the custom was cribed: Then (at age five) the boys and girls are big enough for names, but such funny names as Puck-ar— roo-too and Mus~to~rook and Mat—ham-oo. But little Mohave boys or girls have no kindergarten or school, and never have t83learn to write their names, so they do not care. It is not difficult to see how unfortunate American iitions of cultural bias were reinforced through readings oldest living generation was given as children. It is difficult to comprehend, let alone synthesize, a e of the contrasts in living situation children and h in America experienced in the early 1900's. What kind f hild did Annie Fellows Johnson address in her pr to HMare ~ The Little Colonel's Chumhh when she assured all (I? C (I) [1! “Boys and Girls who are friends of the Little Colonel” she was continuing the series based on the readers' (D asing demands for more? Was the child reader th ered white child of wealthy parents? The opening stration of Johnson's The Little Colonel's House Party 27 5 the caption: ”Down the long avenue that led from the a to the great entrance gate came the little Colonel on Tony.”5 How many American children could make 'ngful connection with such books, whose characters were leged white children who ate cake and went to boarding l]? I offer partial explanation of that child reader's ity based on the research and especially on information ied by actual readers (Chapter IV). She or he was a nt in some school ~— a one room rural school, or a ~story city school, or a Catholic school run by an of teaching nuns. The child may_have been ”rich,” but likely came from a working class, blue collar family. child probably had some access to a library. Reading, he fortunate American child who did not have to work living, provided a common denominator to the American e—class experience. One zealous Little Colonel fan ved her heroine through the series and right up to a Colonel's Knight Comes Riding, in which the Little zl finally meets a man whose qualifications are to to gh standards. The reader, herself single for a me, claimed she carried the Little Colonel's yardstick iasuring a suitable mate throughout life, and found no 0 could qualify.“6 I believe many American children this time found, in reading, views and visions of the a they hOPEd to be Part of in adult life. 28 The Heterogeneous Readership: The Broadened Choices for Readers and Writers The choices this new age brought young readers by Jre of the expansion of juvenile publishing and the :h of the public library systems represent an Jtionary stage in American attitudes about children and *acy. The decorum of an earlier time, when a few :ocratic scholars read and explicated classical and lary texts, can be observed in some adults reserve and in offering children only the ”best“ reading tions. The most genteel of the voices for refined reading and ined readership ~— the Hamilton Mabies and others ~— d to define the literary “trash“ and strata I have ibed. Their concerns in many ways reflect the time past, when struct of classical literacy was a powerful force in nining cultural values regarding reading. But their ities could not dictate the reading priorities of the se new American readership. The attitudes and warnings about juvenile reading which :0 reflect the classical and the well-intentioned ‘ing impulses of the commentators of course conflicted Iany literary choices in the range available. In an IlCh was progressive technically, socially, and 29 ucationally; a more progressive attitude about literacy olved from this narrow classical influence.47 In 1905, Dorothy Richardson in The Long Day, the Story a New York Working Girl appealed to philanthopists to put me reading material that was “wholesome, sweet, and same .” into the hands of young working girls in New York's rment district. She was appalled at the way they devoured lp romances. Richardson went on to say that ”degraded ste" could not be reformed, even with the likes of akespeare and Ruskin. In settling for something ”sweet d sane,“ Richardson seemed to be acknowledging a reader her than a scholarly reader. While Richardson obviously lieved reading had power to transform the reader, she nonstrates abandonment —- at least for working class girls of a classical ideal. As working class people and business people composed a eater segment of our society, literacy was needed on a Dader scale to perform the more literacy-oriented tasks. t taste in reading over such a heterogeneous culture was :h more broadly determined, and a “classically” literate oulation, if it ever did exist, could not exist amid arica's considerable variety of people. Particularly for America's immigrant people, some venile selections on the lower strata of conventional :-ptability must have seemed the fulfillment of their best aams about American and Americans. Any boy can invent a iseless motorboat and save the crew of an allied 3O )marine. Any girl can drive a motorcar and solve a stery. The serials, the westerns, the detective and nance stories all must have —- rightly or wrongly -- swered questions and planted hopes in the minds of their Jng readers. This range of reading choices for a diverse adership was a step away from the narrow range for the ivileged few. Chapter I Notes 1. 'In selecting contemporary periodicals, I made an :empt to survey titles which I could in some way thenticate as fairly “mainstream” and likely circulating a wide readership. Cecile McCroskey in "The ministration of English in the High School Curriculum," ;lish Journal, 7:1, 108-17., presented a survey which :luded the names of magazines circulating in American high 1001 libraries. Of thirty-three questionnaires returned, a libraries widely differed in titles to which they )scribed. The highest consensus on a single title were )ular Mechanics and Review of Reviews, each with eight lOOlS subscribing. Literary Digest circulated to seven, 1 The Outlook six, which in this study indicated lnificant representation. Both of the later two were lilable to me, and I felt were valid choices. I selected lies Home Journal as a mainstream choice of households e to afford some publication which would influence home itudes. 2. See The Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 22), :rican Writers for Children 1900—1960, Ed. John Cech, (A 8), (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1983), ix. 3. American Writers for Children ..., x. h. Dora V. Smith, "Children's Books -- Yesterday and ay,” Reading About Literature, Ed. Evelyn R. Robinson, : David McKay 1966), 1us. 5. Paul Hazard, translated to English by Marguerite chell, Books, Children, and Men, (Boston: The Horn k, Inc. - 5th Edition, 1983). 6. Nora Smith, “The Best Books for Children,” The look, 7 Dec. 1901, 88a. 7. Jacob Riis, The Children of the Poor, (NY: ivener, 1892). This classic provides an especially nching background for understanding tenement poverty and ld labor in large cities around the turn of this century. 8. Kate Douglas Wiggin, ”The Best Books for ldren,“ The Outlook, 7 Dec. 1901, 87A. 9. Dora v. Smith, ... 1u5. 10. Hamilton Wright Mabie, ”Mr. Mabie's Talk to IS.” Ladies Home Journal, June, 1903, 15. 11. Paul Elmer More in Clara Whitehall Hunt's “The d and the Book in War Times,” English Journal, 7, 3, h95. 31 32 12: G. Stanley Hall in Arthur Applebee's Tradition and >rm 1n the Teaching of English, (Urbana: NCTE, 197a), 13. Mary Mapes Dodge, ”The Best Books for Children,” )ec. 1901, 869. 1a. Arthur Hallam Hawksworth, ”The Machinery of the ” St. Nicholas, Sept. 1919, 963-9. 15. Augusta Huiell Seamon, ”The Slipper Point ery,” St. Nicholas, Sept. 1919, 1009-13. 16. Joe Mills, “The Lone Track,“ St. Nicholas, Sept. , 970-77. 17. Kate Douglas Wiggin, ... 873. 18. ”Reading for Children,” The Outlook, 7, Dec. , 868. 19. Georgene Faulkner, “Bedtime Stories for Mothers to Their Children,” Ladies Home Journal, Oct. 191x, 36. 20. Kate Douglas Wiggin, ... 871. 21. Tudor Jenks, ”The Best Books for Children," The 30k, 7 Dec. 1901, 881. 22. Hamilton Wright Mabie, “Should the Young Read , The Ladies Home Journal, Sept. 1907, 28. 23. deCastell and Luke, Literacy, Schooling, and ity, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 2h. “The Greater Reading Public,” The OUthOks 69:7! 19, 1901, 403). 25. Hamilton Wright Mabie, “The Greater Reading 0" ... . 26. John Tebbel, A History of Book Publishing in the 'd States (vol II) The Expansion of an Industry 1919, (NY: R.R. Bowker Co. 1975), 30. 27. Dora V. Smith, ... 1h6-7. 28. Fred Keeler, ”The Eighty~First Annual Report of uperintendent of Public Instruction of the State of gan 1917-1918,” (Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne Printing) 29. Clara Whitehall Hunt, ”The Child and the Book in imes,” English Journal, VII:8, 490. 33 30. Russel B. Nye, The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular "ts in America, (NY: The Dial Press. 1970), 81—2. 31. Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure, (NY: Gosset and Inlap, 1910), 3-5. 32. Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and His Air Glider or :eking the Platinum Treasure, (NY: Grosset and Dunlap, 112), 17. 33. Margaret Penrose, Dorothy Dale A Girl of To—Day, 1v: Cupples and Leon Co., 1908), 29. 3h. Nye, ... 77. 35. Hunt, ... h90. 36. Edmund Pearson's Dime Novels or Following an Old ail is the best reference on the dime novel I have found. apter V. "Reader's Recollections” is especially helpful, it is Pearson's 1920's interviews with current authors out their reading of the dime novels in their childhoods. riginal copyright Little, Brown and Co.,1929—-reprinted by nnikat Press, Inc., Port Washington N.Y. 1968). 37. Pearson, ... 1&1. 38. Suzanne Ellery Green, in Books for Pleasure 1a—19a5 (Bowling Green: The Popular Press, 1974) provides Chapter 2 ”The Simple Life“ analysis of the fiction oduced in the years 191h-1916. She notes ”Anglo Saxon periority,“ "middle class boyhood" and “people rescuing yertyvstricken chilren” as common threads in themes of stselling novels of that era. 39. Gene Stratton-Porter, “They Write for Millions,” Ladies Home Journal, XXXII:6, June 1915, 2. b . Advertisement for ”Korn-Kinks“ Malted Corn Flakes” Ladies Home Journal, Jan. 1907, as. Q1. Greene, ... 1h—21. 42. Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and His Air Glider or aking the Platinum Treasure (NY: Grosset and Dunlap, 12) 3. h3. “Peet,“ The Youth's Companion, 76:18, May 1, )2, 229. an. Annie Fellows Johnson, Mary Ware The Little onel's Chum, (Boston: L.C. Page & Co. 1908), vii—viii. L— 34 as. Annie Fellows Johnson, The Little Colonel's Party, (Boston: L.C. Page & Co. 1909) II. 46. Dora V. Smith, Fifty Years of Chilren's Books 1910-1960: Trends, Backgrounds, and Influences, Champaign: NCTE 1963), 3. 47. Suzanne de Castell and Allan Luke provide an interesting analysis of three paradigms of American literacy n their "Models of Literacy in North American Schools“ in iteracy, Society, and Schooling, 87—109. They identify ifferences between classical, progressive, and technocratic iteracy which seem to describe our evolving attitudes and esponses to creating and reading and writing populace. b8. Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day. The Story of a ew York Working Girl, (NY: The Century Co. 1905) 300. CHAPTER II Literature and Language Textbooks for the Secondary Pupil “If people have their tastes set betimes to such authors as Spenser and Shakespeare, Addison, Scott, Wordsworth, and Charles Lamb, is it very likely they will stomach such foul stuff as the literary slums and grog—shops of the day are teeming with?” Henry L. Hudson “English in Schools” preface to 1880 edition of Twelfth Night1 ”... extravagant homage to examinations warps the ideals of teachers and vitiates their methods in many studies. In literature it has begotten the highly annotated text, which contemplates an emergency of hurry and is meant to preclude the necessity of stopping to think.” Samuel Thurber, Master Girls' High School Boston. Introduction to Riverside editioB, The Merchant of Venice “A frank recognition of our fundamental aim in teaching literature will reveal our methods. In the first place, our choice of books will be determined, not on a complete survey of the field of literature, but by the tastes and abilities of the boys and girls at a given stages of their progress. We shall not require them to amble along in Chaucer's palfrey, bored by the Clerk, the Squire, and the Nonne Preeste, when they are at home in the camps of outlaws and buccaneers. 36 ".. We shall ... seek the best that will appeal to the interests of the class.‘ We shall conform to the doctrine that education is the process of developing the child from what he is to what he ought to be rather than our recent practice of leading him from where he isn't to where he doesn't want to go.“ . W. D. Lewis - William Penn High School. "The Aim of the English Course“ English Journal, January, 1912 The studies of literature, grammar, composition, and hetoric ~- the vertebrae composing the backbone of the high :hool English curriculum when this century was new -— were argely derived from curricular movements in English in the id nineteenth century.“ Beginning in the 1870's, the arvard Entrance Examinations promoted mechanical and rammatical precision in compositions written by prospective "eshmen. The subject matter for these entrance compositions was owledge of ”masters” of British literature. The Harvard 'sts —- or lists modelled on them -- with works by akespeare, Milton, Burke, and a handful of others, minated the classroom reading of most high school pupils the time. Thus, many English teachers complained that e high school had become "a cramming place for the llege.” Geographically, the closer the school was to an amining college, the more technical and detailed the thods of literary study became.5 The high school student of the early twentieth century, en, most often studied a high school curriculum that was 37 1 preparatory“ in nature. This means that, regardless of the tudent's particular plans following graduation, it is ikely that he or she would read, study, and commit to emory selections of literature which reflected the current elections from the lists. In a summary of the Final Report on the Articulation of he Elementary-School Course in English with the High-School nurse in English of 1913, an NEA Committee voiced concerns elated to the fit of the curricula to the real needs of iese students: In the high-school courses the requirements are too ambitious, lack elasticity, and are often unrelated to the interests of the entering classes, to which there is little continuous effort to adapt the work. May not this tendency of the high schools to use in the first year books poorly adapted to the interests and tastes of the pupils be due to the igfluence of the College Entrance Requirements? ‘ With the establishment of the National Council of achers of English in 1912, the profession formally aveloped a forum for expressing concerns and interests of :s diverse membership. While the NCTE debated contents and lue of the standard college entrance ”lists,” most schools >pear to have waited eagerly for advance notice of the next ar's literary selections for testing. The Committee of n, a group of English educators appointed by the National ucation Association, met in 1892, and their sub-committee English affirmed that “... the reading of certain sterpieces of English literature, not fewer that those 38 presently assigned by the Commission of the New England Colleges, should be required”.7 However, the English sub-committee also voiced objection to the dominance of the college lists. Chester J. Clark was a senior at Saginaw East Side High School in 1916 when he described in detail his four—years' English course in an essay in his school yearbook, The Aurora. Though Saginaw, Michigan, is far from Boston —— the vicinity most in curricular harmony with ”lists“ —- the selections he and his classmates read were typical of contemporary high school curricula. In ninth grade, Clark's required reading included Silas Marner, The Iliad, and Treasure Island. Longfellow and Tennyson capped with Julius Caesar in tenth grade, and intensive grammar course linked to the orations and rhetorical styles of Washington, Webster, and Lincoln were Clark's required language studies. More works by Shakespeare -- along with intense memorization ~- comple_ed eleventh grade. In the senior year, Clark reports, he and his friends took up The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Milton's minor works, along with Macaulay and ”The eccentric Dr. Johnson.” Clark's description of his training to ”express our thoughts clearly and concisely, to express different shades of meaning, and to talk fluently in our own language” in the English class fit nicely with the wall—known aims of college entrance , -, 8 requirements. 39 Both literature and grammar/rhetoric/spelling texts were key in training students to read and then write about works of literature. The books are a reflection of the time in which they were written and used. They open a door to pedagogical concerns and methods of early twentieth century English teachers, to American attitudes about ”the Mother Tongue,“9 and to diverse attitudes about applications of langua_e learning to achieve ”discipline,“ ”morality,” "wholesomeness," and ”possession“ of the author's meaning __ to name a handful of typical aims of textbook English study. The sample studied here includes thirty-four literature books and three composition, rhetoric, grammar, and vocabulary texts intended for use in grades nine, ten, eleven, and twelve (see Appendix A for details of the literature texts). Some 1890's editions of texts remain in the study on the assumption that texts were sold, traded, and frequently reused well past date of publication. Dates and names pencilled in covers help to validate this assumption. A few other texts remain in the study because of the interesting margin notation by students, but were not intensively studied for content and are not included in Appendix A. I sorted and studied a much wider sampling of books. I “ejected many for one or more of the following reasons: iifficulty in authenticating intended grade level, iuplication of title, authorship OP publication in Canada, . l authorship by a religious order for parochial schools. (:0 All but one of the literature books represent the typical ”little“ series of that time period —— “little'l literally in size. These small texts (Figure 1 and Figure 2) are presently ccessible where used books are traded but long ago went out of fashion in textbook publishing, in favor of anthologized literature in larger texts. Incidentally, many of the texts were filled with advertising for other texts, and I have included some information acquired through advertising matter. One especially interesting purpose the ads served was to reinforce how pervasive the presence of the ”lists" really was. Virtually every time a student or teacher opened the cover of a book —— the advertisements presented the ”lists“ again. This study is then representative, but by its iistorical nature, and due to the rarity of other scholarly “esearch about early twentieth century texts, cannot claim to be exhaustive or absolute. ”Little“ literature books for secondary schools pcssed in and out of fashion rel‘tively quickly in America. The small, slim, single author books are a quaint remembrance of a time before the physically heavy but more practical inthologies came into use in America's English classrooms. 'he old literature books provide contrast in appearance and :extual content to current texts -' the hefty 1980's xnthology or grammar textbooks. They weighed only a few >unces each. The largest editions were only seven inches A1 igh and belonged to the Riverside Series11 and Lake English lassics12 series, each of which produced dozens of nasterpiece“-quality titles oriented to the college lists. ie smallest, the Maynard, Merrill,and Co. series13 (the ily untitled 1h 5 ries in this study) and the Macmillan U) (l) erie were each only about five inches tall. Macmillan atly named its series ”Pocket English and American lassics," for these volumes ~~ the slimmer ones —— would asily fit a pocket and comfortably fit a pair of hands for aading. The typefaces used in these literature books for igh schools are of sufficient size to be read without iuinting -- unlike tiny print typical of earlier nineteenth antury books. Millions of these small, usually one—work 15 )lumes, were sold in the early 1920's. Editorship and Authorship of Literature Texts Most school books were routinely purchased by students ther than provided to them by the schools of the early 00's. Part of the cause of the ”little" books' eventual mise was the advent of free public secondary education, ich included provision for books. It then became more actical for schools to provide longer~wearing hardcovered 16 thologies. The older books provoked my imagination as I amined them, as I realized that for between fifteen and Q2 forty cents each, an entire library of British and American classics, as well as a smattering of Homer, Plato, Plutarch, ' Dumas, and the Brothers Grimm, could be obtained by any youngster. The collection of personal bookplates and proudly-penned names I have discovered inside their covers suggests to me that frequently these books were treasured by their young owners. More than size and shape were immediately apparent. A distinctive feature of virtually every series book is the overwhelming editorial presence. The Lak (1) Series, by Scott Foresman, traditionally printed the editor's last name on the cover below the title, rather than the author's (Figure 3). Thus, a typical cover would appear as follows: Lake English Classics Three American Poems Greever17 and this title is rendered: Lake English Classics George Eliot Silas Marner Hancock18 The latter title, sandwiched between author's name and (D U] ditor' name, visually alludes to the proprietory nature d e itors frequently assumed with literary texts. While they often included long biographies detailing the birthplace, life events, and ample skills of each author, these volumes 1:3 "For School Use" and "With Additional Notes” or “With Introduction, Notes, and Examination Papers” became almost as much the invention of their editors as of their authors. A critical observation of literature text title pages revealed the subtle yet significant alteration a school editor's hand brings to the work. Julius Caesar becomes Julius Caesar "For Use in Schools and Classes with Notes Explanatory and Critical"19 and English Poems (featuring, among others, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Gray, and Coleridge) becomes English Poems From the College Entrance Requirements in English.20 The presence and pressure of the college test in the English classroom seems to have signalled the necessity of a fourth party in the reading experience in addition to the usual triad of student, teacher, and text. The fourth is the individual introduced for the purpose of piloting the student through the text: the text's editor. Editorial presence in a literature text was as individual and often as idiosyncratic as its editor. I have found some texts with fully as many pages devoted to “Introductory Notes,” “Study Sugrestions" -- and author's biographies, literary criticism and explanation ~~ as orginal text. While I did not analyze texts specifically for editorial changes or deletions, I suspect some editors expurgated them as well. The following excerpts of editorial comment provide a sense of how uniquely each entered into the textual material. Ah Samuel Thurber, in an Introduction to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: ' ”A bright youth furnished with the bare text of a play, and having access to but the scantiest literary helps, will, provided he has an inquisitive mind, read his Shakespeare to better issue than will the possessor of the fullest notes who has nothing to do but memorize printed matter placed under his eye in the shape of lessons." Robert Morss Lovett in "Suggestions for Teachers" in Scott's Marmion: ... there are three sets of interests in ”Marmion” ~~ the interest which it has for the interested reader of to-day, the interest for the period for which it was written, and the interest of the time which it portrays. The first is a matter of enjoyment and criticism. The second of literary history; the third of history. They are given above in what seems to me their relative importance. Inasmuch as the poem is one of the books prescribed in the college entrance lists for STUDY, the teacher will naturally feel that the last two are of most immediate importance, and the details which occur under the third head are the most daggerous boy—traps on the examination paper. Literature was a relatively new study in the high chool. The inexperienced or unconfident teacher could have elf-confident advice from distinguished professionals, both igh school and college level, in the field of English. ome of the editors —* such as Samuel Thurber23 and Fred ewton Scottzn -_ were leaders i establishing English as a rofession with specific goals and a framework for rofessional organization. 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