History of Children's Literature to the 1900's

Introduction

Prior to the mid-18th century, children’s literature did not exist. While there were many stories popular amongst children, such as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, they were written for an adult audience. Around this time, John Locke popularized the idea of each child’s brain as tabula rasa, a “blank slate” that requires education to fully develop and shape the way he or she thinks. This theory paved the way for children’s literature because it put an emphasis on education designed for children.  

Influential People and their Ideas

The first book written specifically for children was John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744), which taught kids the alphabet using pictures and rhymes. Newbery’s book inspired a flurry of children’s publishing to follow. The Newbery Medal, which recognizes the best American literature for children each year, is named after this pioneer.

As children’s literature popularized, several camps developed that each took a different didactic stance on children’s literature. The intellectualist, following John Locke’s theory, supported the concept of children’s literature for the purpose of academic teaching. Jean Jacques Rousseau, meanwhile, lead the Rational Moralists, who believed children’s literature should instruct kids on how to lead good and simple lives. The Puritans, meanwhile, believed strongly in Biblical teachings, but this movement began to lose weight during the scientific revolution. As Puritanism became less prominent, the Sunday School Moralists, who labeled all other styles of children’s literature as pagan, took up the torch in their stead.

The Golden Age of Children's Literature

The Golden Age of children’s literature began around the middle of the 18th century. It is was brought about by the Industrial Revolution because of the way people’s ways of life and thinking were changing. There were several reasons why the Industrial Revolution had such an impact on children’s literature:

• Education became mandatory in many industrialized countries, meaning more children were literate
  
• The infant mortality rate declined, making family units more stable 
  
• The middle class was growing rapidly, broadening the audience base for children’s literature
  
• The rise of the status of women, who were the more prolific writers of children’s literature
  
• The ability, through emerging technology, to produce more book more quickly
  

Folk and Literary Tales

In the early 19th century, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began to collect oral folktales in Germany, publishing them in written form for the first time. This inspired others to follow suit, including Charles Perrault in France, Joseph Jacobs in the United Kingdom, and Hans Christian Anderson in Denmark, to name a few. This later lead to the development of literary folktales, which had the tone and style of folk literature, but they originated in written form rather than as an oral tale. Folk literature was very popular amongst children.

The Emergence of Aestheticism

It wasn’t until the late 18th century loomed that writers began to produce children’s literature that was not didactic in nature. This was partly due to the recent emergence of folk literature, which popularized the “noodlehead tale.” These stories, also called nonsense tales, were purely for entertainment. The first children’s novel recognized as being purely for aesthetic purposes was Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland (1865). This novel became influential in inspiring more nonsense literature, as well as helping to popularize fantasy literature in the 1900’s.