{"id":8158,"date":"2014-12-12T16:35:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T21:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spec.lib.miamioh.edu\/home\/?p=8158"},"modified":"2014-12-16T14:12:19","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:12:19","slug":"heads-up-the-2-per-cent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spec.lib.miamioh.edu\/home\/heads-up-the-2-per-cent\/","title":{"rendered":"Head’s Up: The 2 Per Cent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grolier<\/a>The Grolier Club is a private and prominent club for book collectors and other bibliophiles that dates to the late 19th<\/sup> century when the collecting of fine books and the history of printing arts were\u00a0the hobbies\u00a0of wealthy men. Chartered by a group of eight interested collectors its membership now numbers 800. The Club occupies a building in midtown Manhattan and has grown far beyond its original private club purpose to serve the needs of scholars and the interest and education of the general public.<\/p>\n

One of the Grolier Club\u2019s more popular traditions is its series of exhibits and accompanying publications known as the Grolier 100. The current exhibit in that series, just opened this past week, is One Hundred Books Famous in Children\u2019s Literature<\/em>. It so happens that two of those one hundred books on exhibit at the Grolier Club are from the Walter Havighurst Special Collections \u2013 one from the Edgar W. and Faith King Collection of Juvenile Literature and the other from the McGuffey Reader Collection.<\/p>\n

Magasin des enfans, ou, Dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses \u00e9l\u00e8ves de la premi\u00e9re distinction : \"D97P9085<\/a>dans lesquels on fait penser, parler, agir les jeunes gens suivant le g\u00e9nie, le temp\u00e9rament, & les inclinations d’un chacun … par Made Le Prince de Beaumont. <\/em>A Londres : Se vend chez J. Haberkorn, dans Gerard-Street, Soho : & chez les Libraires de cette ville, 1756.<\/p>\n

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711-1780) was a teacher and writer who\u00a0participated in documenting the French fairy tale tradition. Among the many fairy tales she wrote is the best known version of Beauty and the Beast. In her Magasin<\/em>\u00a0she compiled a variety of stories, fairy tales and moral tales for young readers.<\/p>\n

The volume on exhibit\u00a0is the first edition of Magasin des enfans<\/em>, and Miami\u2019s copy retains its very rare frontispiece (shown below).<\/p>\n

The eclectic first reader for young children consisting of progressive lessons in reading and spelling mostly in easy words of one and two syllables<\/em>, by W.H. M’Guffey \u2026 Cincinnati, Pub. by Truman and Smith, 1838.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to talk about the history of American children\u2019s literature without referencing William Holmes McGuffey, who, during his brief tenure at Miami University, began the series of schoolbooks for which \"firstreadercovercrop<\/a>he became famous, if not rich. While teaching at a frontier schoolhouse in Kentucky before being hired at Miami, McGuffey realized that a lack of useful teaching resources was hampering the instruction of reading. The expansion of literacy was one of the major reforms of the early 19th<\/sup> century, and McGuffey discovered that there was little available outside of the New England Primer<\/em>. He exploited the educational theory of his time to develop readers that coupled simple texts taken from major cultural sources \u2013 the Bible, Shakespeare, American history \u2013 with woodcuts of objects familiar to western Americans living in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and the other frontier states. He, and other contributors, then created a progressive series of readers geared to developing literacy skills.<\/p>\n

The First Reader was originally published in 1836, shortly followed by the rest in the series. The publishers bought all the rights from McGuffey, and the McGuffey Readers\u00a0became a publishing goldmine\u00a0throughout the 19th<\/sup> century and into the 20th<\/sup>. In fact the Readers are still in print, for sale online, and used by home schoolers and church schools.<\/p>\n

The Grolier Club<\/a> exhibit will be open through February 7, 2015. If you are in New York City before then, stop by and enjoy this fabulous exhibit. Special Collections is honored to play a small part in it.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Brice<\/em>
\nAssistant Dean for Technical Services & Special Collections<\/p>\n

\"D97P9088<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grolier Club is a private and prominent club for book collectors and other bibliophiles that dates to the late 19th century when the collecting of fine books and the history of printing arts were\u00a0the hobbies\u00a0of wealthy men. Chartered by…<\/span><\/p>\n

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