The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books (review)

Assembled over a period of more than forty years by Harold and Mabel Osborne, and donated to the Toronto Public Library in 1949, the Osborne collection of early children's books is one of the great research collections available for study of the history of children's literature. The Osbornes sought to make their collection representative of the varied types of books published for children in England before 1910, and selective in ways that would reflect what children actually responded to: "The decision, right or wrong, was that a book that had been read and re-read by successive generations of children came within the range of our library." Occasionally the boundaries of the collection blur, however. Kingsley's Westward Ho! has a place in the collection, Judith St. John admits, "because children have read and enjoyed it," a criterion that could justify inclusion of any number of books that otherwise would not ordinarily be considered books for children; and some school books beyond the elementary level have been added because they were of interest to educationists using the collection. There is the odd book, now and then, that seems to fit none of the stated criteria: e.g. A Narrative of a Tour in the West of England . . . for the purpose of ascertaining the religious and moral state of the inhabitants, and hints on the formation and encouragement of Sabbath schools & village preaching . . . (1823).

In 1958, in accordance with the terms of the donation, the Toronto Public Library published Volume I of the Osborne Collection catalogue, listing and describing a representative selection of 3000 titles. The second volume of the Osborne Collection Catalogue, published last year, describes an additional 2600 titles, selected from accessions to the collection in the past twenty years. (Since its donation in 1949, the collection has grown five-fold.) Among the notable rarities that have been added and that are listed in Volume II, are a 1660 edition of Thomas White's Little Book for Little Children; six volumes in the "Gigantick Histories" series published by Thomas Boreman from 1740-43; a first edition of James Janeway's extraordinarily popular Token for Children; and, from Dr. Osborne , Hans Holbein's Images in the Old Testament (1549). A copy of Historia di Lionbruno (1476?), which gives the first known mention in print of the motif of seven-league boots, replaces an edition of Aesop's Fables published in 1566, as the oldest imprint in the collection. The bulk of the material added to the collection, however, is, as one would expect, of nineteenth century origin.

Volume II continues the cataloguing procedures, and retains features, that made its predecessor such a useful reference work. The form of the basic entry in the catalogue is a full transcription, with minor exceptions, of a book's title page: no attempt is made to indicate line-endings or to follow capitalization, for example; and quotation, specific addresses of publishers, and prices (alas) are omitted. Dates of prefaces, plates, inscriptions, and names and numbers of series, as these appear in the work, are included; and at the suggestion of booksellers, who commented on the omission from Volume I, the number of plates is noted, if that information does not appear on the title page. As in Volume I, there is an appendix, arranged in chronolgoical order, of editions of books published before 1800; and the general index lists authors, translators, and titles, as well as editors and series. A cumulative list of illustrators, publishers, printers, and book-sellers, a notable feature of the first volume, but omitted from this one, is promised for the projected third volume.

Books listed in the catalogue are classified in sixteen categories, and with a few exceptions are arranged alphabetically by author within each category: Aesop and other fabulists; Myths and legendary heroes; Nursery stories and fairy tales; Poetry, verses, and rhymes; Nursery rhymes and alphabets; Books of instruction...