Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book: The First Collection of Nursery Rhymes. A Facsimile Edition with a History and Annotations by Andrea Immel, Brian Alderson (review)

In 1744 Volume Two of tommy thumb’s pretty song-book appeared, a 64-page 32 mo book of nursery rhymes printed in red and black, amply illustrated, and sold by M. Cooper. Extant in just two copies, in the British Library and in the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University, this engraved miniature book plays an important part in the history of oral culture and of children’s literature in compris ing part of the earliest collection of English nursery rhymes known today. Some, such as ‘Little Tom Tucker’, are still familiar (with verbal variation); others are now obscure. Volume One, known from advertisements to have been published shortly before Volume Two, has not survived, and a trailblazing element of Andrea Immel and Brian Alderson’s work has been to reconstruct it: a task they describe modestly as speculative (p. 2), but which they ground thoroughly in all the available evidence. They and Cotsen Occasional Press furthermore supply this evidence in the form of the facsimile reproduction of three related works, discussed in the commentary: Volume Two of Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book (ESTC T81480); The Pretty-Book (ESTC N63519; neither, being engraved, is available digitally from Eighteenth-Century Collections online); and Tommy Thumb’s Song-Book for all Little Masters and Misses (Worcester, MA, 1788; ESTC W28330). The two latter derive from Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book; indeed, previous scholars had suggested that the American book was an exact reprint, something the present authors disprove.

Immel and Alderson further state as their aims: ‘to shed light on the obscure history of this little book which has rarely been closely examined in the context of its time, either as product of the evolving market for children’s books or as a reflection of contemporary literary trends (p. xiv) and: ‘for the first time to pursue the book’s chequered history through eighteenth-century trade channels’ (p. 2). They do this very fully, looking at previous children’s literature and its marketing, the role of the bookseller Thomas Boreman (fl. 1730–1743)—before the famed John Newbury—in making children’s books a distinctive product, involvement in the creation of Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book (whether Mary Cooper, in addition to selling the work, was involved in its publication; the role of the engraver George Bickham Junior), the method of printing, associated little books (the existence of some of which is known only from external evidence), the publishing history of Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book, allusions to it in contemporary adult literature, and Tom Thumb’s appearance in other publications.

The detailed reconstruction follows, including discussion of the literary portrayal of nurses (preservers of oral lore), Tom Thumb’s amorous adventures elsewhere, and a spirit of contemporary theatre evoked in the work. Immel and Alderson anchor the work’s position not merely within the history of nursery rhymes narrowly and of children’s literature more broadly, but of oral and popular culture more widely still. Contextualisation ends with a look at Tom Thumb’s more respectable successors, especially Mother Goose’s Melody and Joseph Ritson’s Gammer Gurton’s Garland. The book closes with a commentary on the Pretty Song-Book from its preliminaries onwards, describing and interpreting the illustrations, explaining words, linking verses to the Opies’ Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes when they are noted there (several are not) and providing their publication history.

The authors’ long-established deep knowledge of their subject is evident, and the work is well referenced. How importantly one rates the book will inevitably depend on how importantly one rates the matter with which it engages. As a work on nursery rhymes it corrects some previous perceptions and breaks new ground...