Monday, May 31, 2010

Raising the standards of children's books, in the 1940s

"A pictorial history of Puffin: black, white and read all over" (The Telegraph).

Excerpt:
"Seventy years ago, a publisher decided to distract children from the war with intelligent, affordable and beautiful books [....] Carrington had been nurturing an idea for a series of well-illustrated books that would explain things to children: books about the natural and man-made environments, about history, geography and recreational pursuits, and some stories. Books that were immediate and inexpensive. At the time, children’s books uniting all these features simply didn’t exist and Lane took little persuasion in agreeing to Carrington’s idea – his only stipulation was that the selling price must be sixpence"

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