100 Nineteenth-Century Rhyming Alphabets from the Library of Ruth M. Baldwin

The library of Ruth M. Baldwin contains, at the present time, about 35,000titles and editions of children’s books in English, all before 1900and mostly from the nineteenth century. Though a small part of the out­pouring of children’s books in English in the nineteenth century—estimated to be as much as a quarter of a million volumes—her library is probably unique in its equal representation of American and English children’s books. How many of the books published were rhyming alphabets is difficult to say. These hundred books presented here, certainly a small part of the whole, bear publication dates around the early part of the second half of the century, and represent the whole century well, for true children’s book publishing did not precede this by much.

Children and readers in general as well as students of children’s literature should find this book of books interesting. The alphabets repro­duced here are included in their entirety, many of them in color, and are grouped thematically under such topics as nature, animals, and farm life.

Ruth M. Baldwin is Professor of Library Science at Louisiana State University.