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IN JUVENILE LITERATURE continued ... |
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The David McKay Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1882, issued Dashing Paul Jones, the Hero of the Colonial Navy as part of its Boys of Liberty Library. Begun in the 1890s, this clothbound series was one of the firm’s better-known juvenile sets. McKay’s list of titles reached 700 in 1905, including 160 children’s books. The company also published The Newbery Classics and the Golden Books for Children, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth and John Cameron. Several authors contributed to the Boys of Liberty Library, including Harrie Irving Hancock who wrote, for another publisher, the Dave Darrin Series, four of which follow the fictional character’s years at the Naval Academy. |
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The Navy Boys in the Track of the Enemy was part of New York publisher A.L. Burt’s Navy Boys series. Burt started his business in 1883 and, by 1933, the firm had become the second largest reprint house in the United States, after Grosset and Dunlap. Juvenile fiction was one of the first areas in which Burt began publishing. He was the first to offer Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books in popularly priced editions. There were eventually twelve titles in Burt’s Navy Boys series. |
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William Pendleton Chipman (1854-1937), the author of The Navy Boys in the Track of the Enemy, was a Baptist minister who wrote a number of “boys’ books,” including another Navy Boys’ tale, Two Yankee Middies, a Story of the First Cruise of an American Squadron in 1775. Illustrator John Watson Davis was born in New York in 1870 and died in California in 1959. His art appeared in magazines and books, including the novels of Zane Grey and Horatio Alger. The figures in his drawing are wearing uniforms of a later date than the action of the story. |
These two books are part of the collection of juvenile literature that Rear Admiral James Winnefeld, USN (Ret.) gave to the Special Collections & Archives Division in 2002. |
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Molly Elliot Seawell (1860-1916) was a popular author at the turn of the nineteenth-century. She wrote short stories, historical romances, and juvenile literature. In 1890, her short story “Little Jarvis,” about a patriotic midshipman, was selected out of 2,000 entries to win the prize of $500 in a contest sponsored by the Youth’s Companion. She wrote several naval tales, a number of which were titles in the Young Heroes of Our Navy series. |
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In Paul Jones, Seawell created two characters to accompany the naval hero. According to the January 8, 1894 review of the book in the New York Times, “the author’s style is fascinating because it is admirably adapted to the understanding of the little ones whom she particularly addresses. They will not find elsewhere a history of Paul Jones which unites as happily enthusiasm and realization, adequate praise of the officer, and familiar descriptions of the man.” |
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The New York publishing house D. Appleton and Company, in business since 1831, issued the Young Heroes of Our Navy series. Two artists provided the illustrations for Paul Jones. Marine artist Julian Oliver Davidson (1853-1894) illustrated the battle scenes. During the Civil War, Davidson depicted many naval actions for The Century magazine. Over his career, he produced commissioned paintings, authored and illustrated children’s books, and supplied illustrations to popular magazines. Massachusetts native Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945) was best known for his landscapes and still lifes. Like so many artists in the late nineteenth century, he provided illustrations for newspapers, magazines, and books during the 1880s and 1890s. |
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John Paul Jones in Juvenile Literature Home -- Virtual Exhibits
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Last updated: 14 December 2005 |
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