II.

Early History

What counts as children’s literature depends upon what we think of as childhood, and how far we think that books must be entertaining rather than instructional. Oral tales, songs, poems, and drama were (and still are in many countries) shared with the whole community, regardless of age. Thus although the first English printer, William Caxton, issued versions of the beast fable Reynard the Fox (1481) and the Fables of Aesop, translated from the French (1484), and his successor, Wynkyn de Worde, issued the Geste of Robyn Hode (c. 1510), these books were not intended specifically for children. Stories of legendary heroes such as King Arthur and Guy of Warwick, and folk-heroes such as Dick Whittington were spread through Britain from the 16th century by chapmen (or pedlars), in the form of 16- or 24-page pamphlets. These were illustrated from wood blocks, and sold for a few pence. Although they were undoubtedly read by children, it was not until the 18th century that such chapbooks were produced specifically for them.

Among the oldest texts associated with children are lullabies and educational writings, surviving on clay tablets, from the Sumerian culture of Mesopotamia, c. 2000 bc. In general, the earliest written texts for children have been educational: Latin lesson-books for use in monastic schools of the 7th and 8th centuries were written by ecclesiastical scholars such as Aldhelm, Alcuin, and Bede. In 1391 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a scientific book for his son “Littell Lowis”, Tretis of the Astrolabie, and in 1477 Caxton printed the Book of Curtesye, a collection of rhymes that set forth rules of conduct for a “goodly chylde”. The hornbook, a printed page covered by a transparent sheet of horn and mounted on a flat piece of wood with a handle at one end for the child to hold, was used for elementary instruction from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The hornbooks showed such items as upper- and lower-case alphabets, vowels, syllables, and the Lord’s Prayer.