An expanding market for children's books:

improvements in book printing and binding

improved transportation

cheaper household lighting

higher levels of literacy

family activities: reading aloud

Popularity of juvenile periodicals: Youth's Companion, Our Young Folks, Oliver Optic's Magazine, Riverside Magazine for Young People, St. Nicholas

Childhood in literature attains a more idealized and sanctified position: the child is elevated to a powerful symbolic stature within the culture

After 1850: two complementary literary genres provide texts for family and child audiences:

Adventure literature (written by male authors, focus on plot and setting)

Domestic (or family) fiction (written by women, focus on character development and moral suasion)

Domestic fiction

privileged the home and family as the best context for character building and moral reformation (as prerequisites for the improvement of the larger society)

women and girls served as the superior moral force, guiding others (usually male) to a reformation of their character through long-suffering devotion, acts of charity, prayer, and tears

embodies a worldview that took children seriously, not as passive characters but as "redeemers" who could transform and "save" their culture

represented by writers such as Susan Warner (1819-1885), Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), Sarah Chauncy Woolsey (1835-1905), Martha Finley (1828-1909), Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), and Hariet M. Lothrop (1844-1924)

importance of Susan Warner's Wide, Wide World, 1850 (enormous sales, 14 printings), created a paradigm

(female) orphan, alone in the world

illness becomes as catalyst for either religious conversion or moral reformation (very good persons often succumb to a fatal illness; inevitable death preceded by long confinement [allows other characters to recognize their own failings])

death of a moral innocent imitates the sanctification of Christ's crucifiction

moral lessons:

acceptance and self-sacrifice increase moral perfection (= goal of life)

goodness always endures and surmounts adversity

humility, selflessness as Christian duty

Values transmitted in children's literature remain basically unchanged: obedience, respect for elders, truthfulness, trust in God

Way of transmission changed: no overt doctrine, goodness is a matter of possessing or developing self-sacrificing behavior

Ideas of domesticity and separate-sphere ideology were not monolithic constructs: Lousia May Alcott's fiction (Little Women, 1868) deviated from Warner's pattern

not exclusively upright and well-mannered children as protagonists; even female characters misbehave, feel resentment and envy, and disobey authority

but the plot often turns on recognition of the implications of misbehavior; there is a price for selfishness, greed, jealousy

Alcott's teaching is not as didactic as earlier children's literature, but the moral lessons are just as clear

"Boy's Books"

William Taylor Adams ("Oliver Optic," 1822-1897)

The Boat Club (1854)

transitionary figure

religious doctrine entirely absent, but Protestant virtues like honesty, friendship, obedience, and trust remained characteristic for the protagonists

plots gradually emphasized adventure over moral instruction

adventures in the world provided self-taught lessons; no older moral guide needed; sometimes the hero did not improve his character at all

Horatio Alger (1832-1899)

Ragged Dick (1867); the Ragged Dick Series: Fame and Fortune (1868), Mark the Match Boy (1869), Rough and Ready (1869), Ben the Luggage Boy (1870), Rufus and Rose (1870)

protagonists with superficial faults but with humanitarian values

almost complete absence of parents; children are alone in the big city

character improvement not so much an issue as a movement toward an improved financial situation and the acquisition of respectability ("from rags to riches" theme)

protagonists strive for middle-class acceptance; they conform rather than rebel

achievement: "good boys in a bad environment"

introduced high adventure, suspense, urban settings

disposed of the sentimental, pious child

retained the existing moral configuration of the early nineteenth century

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), The Story of a Bad Boy (1870)

adventuresome, descriptive narrations of rural pleasures, boyhood escapades, interfering adults

autobiographical background

intended to break with the didacticism of earlier children's literature: misbehavior is a normal part of childhood; children do not have to be virtuous to become proper adults

Tendency in children's literature as the nineteenth century comes to an end: moral certainty comes under assault, bad boys evade moral choices and downplay their significance