John Newbery (1713 - 1767)

John Newbery (for whom the Newbery medal is named) is commonly believed to be the originator of books for children designed to give real pleasure as well as instruction, though Thomas Boreman issued his set of miniature books, the Gigantick Histories, more than two years earlier.  According to Darton, Newbery was enlightened in an aesthetic and literary sense - he knew good work - and improved the standard of cheap publication for children in every way. He got good writers, such as Oliver Goldsmith, to write for him, and he improved the format of cheap books by using covers of Dutch floral paper, and gilt edges.  He often employed original artists to illustrate his works. During his lifetime, he developed a large list of titles and he was succeeded in his publishing business by a variety of relatives who raised the list of juvenile books to approximately 400.  John Newbery's achievement was not to invent these juvenile books - according to Darton he used the accumulated materials of the previous two centuries -nor even start a fashion for them, but so to produce them as to make them a class of book to be taken seriously as a recognized and important part of the book-trade.  He was the "first publisher to conceive of the illustrated book for children as a specially produced article" (Darton, 138)

Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744) was an illustrated catalogue of children's amusements based on the alphabet.  In addition, the text includes several fables in verse, and some epistolary descriptions of the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice.  No copy of the first edition has been found.  The Dutch floral paper and gilt edges have long disappeared from this unique 11th edition. It was the first of his many children's book.  On the frontispiece was the Latin motto Delectando monemus -instruction with delight.

Newbery clearly carries out his intention of presenting "instruction with delight" in an alphabetic series of rhymes describing children's games.

Newbery's The Newtonian System of Philosophy (1761), also known as The Philosophy of Tops and Balls, was an introduction to natural philosophy covering basic physics, astronomy, geography, natural history and philosophy, all with his characteristic emphasis on fun. The slides show the frontispiece and title page from the fourth edition (1770).

This copperplate engraving is from Lecture II, which describes the known universe and the solar system. It shows eclipses of the sun and moon as well as a map of the moon as it appears through a telescope.  The facing text contains the scientific explanation, given by "the little philosopher," and purported "author" of the book, Tom Telescope.

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