It wasn’t until the eighteenth century, as the concept of childhood began to be understood, that children’s literature became a genre of its own. Until that time, literature wasn’t written specifically for children, but for both children and adults alike. I can only imagine how dull it must have been for children of the time! Before the mid-eighteenth century, books published especially for children were of the educational variety, often with a religious or moral message.
It’s not entirely clear what caused the rise in children’s literature. Certainly, the growth of the middle classes, advances in book production and changes in attitudes to childhood resulted in an exponential increase in children’s literature throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. By the end of the eighteenth century into the early 1800’s, children’s books were now big business; a separate part of the publishing industry and booming, in Britain at least. Around fifty children’s books were being printed each year, mostly in London, but also in York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. Sounds small time to us doesn’t it! But this was the start of children’s literature as we know and love it today. It was now an intrinsic part of the literary scene.
It was possible, for the first time, for authors to earn a living out of writing just for children. And to become famous, to mention just two!
Born in 1866, Beatrix Potter’s renowned ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ was originally published in 1902. It was an immediate success. Popular today as ever, well over a hundred years on!
The story goes that six-year-old Roald Dahl very much wanted to meet his hero Beatrix Potter, and was indeed taken by his mother to do so. Ironically, Beatrix wasn’t very keen on children, and gave him short shrift apparently telling him to “buzz off!” The childhood experience clearly didn’t put Roald Dahl off, becoming one of the world’s best loved and best-selling authors writing for both children and adults.
We are so lucky in the twenty-first century to have such a wide choice of how we choose to read. Everyone has their favourite way. For me, the feel of a book in my hands is the best!
