Every Child's Primer

Published by T. W. Strong, New York, 1850

About this Item

16 pp. 4" x 6". Illustrated throughout. Strong founded "Illustrated New York News" in June 1851, an 8-page journal of current events that also included fiction and humor. David Tatham describes Strong s important contributions to pictorial magazines in his book Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press. Tatham explains that Strong s first issue of "Illustrated New York News" featured a drawing of Turkish pantaloons to be worn under a calf-length skirt, a fashion popularized by Amelia Bloomer, whose name became attached to the fashion phenomenon. "Bloomers" became a symbol of the suffragist s movement. Strong was also known for his Dime Caricatures, a series of anti-secessionist prints published in early 1861 and Yankee Notions, or Whittlings of Jonathan's Jack Knife, which he started in 1852. Strong, whose reputation as an enterprising publisher of cheap paperbacks and penny valentines was well established, modeled it after the comic almanacs that had been popular with American audiences for a generation. Yankee Notions It became the longest running American satire magazine of the Civil War period and lasted until 1875. Though Strong preferred humor to politics, during the Civil War he made many political cartoons. Although he was a Union supporter, his heightened interest in current events seemed more to be due to his appreciation of Lincoln as America s leading comic. While many publications heaped scorn on Lincoln for his reliance on humor, Strong celebrated it. Yankee Notions regularly reprinted humorous stories attributed to the President, and even went so far as to announce in 1863 that "Honest Old Abe" had signed on as a contributor. Although Yankee Notions had its fun with candidate Lincoln, it always depicted President Lincoln sympathetically. In 1864, it portrayed Lincoln s second term as an inevitability which is certainly was not. After Lincoln s assassination, Strong was one of the first publishers to issue an anthology of Lincoln s anecdotes. Beige cotton paper wraps, sewn to cotton paper pages. a good to very good copy. The illustrations are hand-colored lightly, most likely by the child who owned it.

Seller Inventory # 404475

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Every Child's Primer
• Publisher: T. W. Strong, New York
• Publication Date: 1850
• Binding: softcover
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • kids fiction