[corlis-fraga Posts: 3 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Hello all!
I was wondering if anyone here knew of good academic resources that discuss the history of children's literature (and just how far back that literary tradition goes). I wanted to find some excellent sites to dive into, so I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you have!

Thank you!

[David Wright Posts: 1,014 Status: Offline Tell me that again.]

Toronto has the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. And I know you can get an old list of their found works in New York: http://link.livebrary.com/portal/The-Osborne-Collection-of-early-childrens-books/wf5d97JUgK8/

Or you could try and contact the library directly: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/osborne/#details

Dave

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,003 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

Leonard Marcus is a noted historian in the industry. You could search for his work.

And here's another collection: https://www.lib.umn.edu/clrc/kerlan-collection.

[marica-bernstein Posts: 52 Status: Offline WWW]

There is a wonderful old book, The Child and His Book: Some Account of the History and Progress of Children's Literature in England by Mrs. E.M. Field (Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., London, 1891). It's available to download in several formats at Archive.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924029552761

Another interesting older book is The History of Children's Literature: A Syllabus with Selected Bibliographies by Elva S. Smith (American Library Association, Chicago, 1937). As the subtitle says, it is a collection of syllabi (based on time period, e.g., Anglo-Saxon down through American children's literature to the mid-19th century). These syllabi were developed at the Carnegie Library School (I think).  Each chapter has an extensive bibliography.

It cannot be downloaded, but you can borrow it at Archive.

https://archive.org/details/elvassmithshisto00smit/page/n5/mode/2up

Finally, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature Carpenter and Prichard (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, 1984) is an excellent general reference work.