The Guardian of Education
The Guardian of Education was the first successful periodical dedicated to reviewing children's literature in Britain.[1] It was edited by 18th-century educationalist, children's author, and Sunday school advocate Sarah Trimmer and was published from June 1802 until September 1806 by J. Hatchard and F. C. and J. Rivington.[2] The journal offered child-rearing advice and assessments of contemporary educational theories, and Trimmer even proffered her own educational theory after evaluating the major works of the day.
Fearing the influence of French Revolutionary ideals, particularly those of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Trimmer emphasized orthodox Anglicanism and encouraged the perpetuation of the contemporary social and political order. Despite her conservatism, however, she agreed with Rousseau and other progressive educational reformers on many issues, such as the damaging effects of rote learning and the irrationalism of fairy tales.
The Guardian of Education was the first periodical to review children's books seriously and with a distinctive set of criteria. Trimmer's reviews were carefully thought out; they influenced publishers and authors to alter the content of their books, helped to define the new genre of children's literature, and greatly affected the sales of children's books. The Guardian also offered the first history of children's literature; establishing a list of landmark books, which scholars still use today.[3]
Founding and structure
Sarah Trimmer was prompted to publish The Guardian of Education by the flood of new children's books on the market early in the nineteenth century and by her fear that those books might contain French Revolutionary values.[4] The 1790s had been one of the most tumultuous decades in Europe's history, with the French revolution, increased demands for reform in Britain, and the French Revolutionary Wars. Following this upsurge in radicalism, a conservative backlash erupted in Britain; the Guardian was, in many ways, a part of this movement. In its pages, Trimmer denounced the Revolution and the philosophers whose works she believed were responsible for it, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau. She argued that there existed a vast conspiracy, organized by the atheistic and democratic revolutionaries of France, to undermine and overthrow the legitimate governments of Europe. From her perspective, the conspirators were attempting to overturn traditional society by "endeavouring to infect the minds of the rising generation, through the medium of Books of Education and Children's Books" [emphasis Trimmer's].[5] She intended to combat this conspiracy by pointing parents towards properly Christian books.[6]
Each issue of Trimmer's Guardian was divided into three sections: 1) extracts from texts which Trimmer thought would edify her adult readers (grouped under "Memoirs" and "Extracts from Sermons"); 2) an essay by Trimmer commenting on educational issues (contained in sections such as "Original Essays" and "Systems of Education Examined"); 3) and reviews of children's books. Trimmer herself wrote all of the essays listed under her name and all of the reviews, but she was not the author of the texts she extracted. The issues did not always consist of the same sections; for example, beginning in 1804 Trimmer started including an "Essay on Christian Education" and in 1805 occasionally reviewed "School books". Beginning a tradition that persists to this day, she divided the books she reviewed by age group: "Examination of Books for Children" (for those under fourteen) and "Books for Young Persons" (for those between fourteen and twenty-one).[7]
Matthew Grenby, the foremost expert on Trimmer, estimates that the Guardian's circulation was between 1,500 and 3,500 copies per issue.
Trimmer undertook a challenging task in publishing her periodical. According to Grenby, she aimed "to assess the current state of educational policy and praxis in Britain and to shape its future direction".] In her "Essay on Christian Education", subsequently published separately as a pamphlet, she proposed her own comprehensive educational program.
Reviewing criteria and values
The Guardian of Education was the first periodical to take the reviewing of children's books seriously. Trimmer's over four hundred reviews constituted a set of distinct and identifiable criteria regarding what was valuable in this new genre.
Trimmer's fundamentalism, Grenby argues, does not necessarily mark her as a rigid thinker.
In his analysis of her reviews, Grenby comes to the conclusion "Trimmer was ... not nearly so vitriolic in her reviewing as her reputation suggests.... fewer than 50 [of the reviews] were chiefly negative, and of these only 18 were thoroughly excoriating. These were easily outweighed by the positive notices, although most of her reviews were mixed or – more surprisingly given her reputation for always impassioned appraisal – ambivalent."[20] She objected primarily to texts that altered the Bible, such as William Godwin's Bible Stories (1802),[14] and secondarily to books that promoted ideas she associated with the French Revolution. She also criticized the inclusion of scenes of death, characters who were insane, and representations of sexuality, as well as books that might frighten children.[21] She typically praises books that encourage intellectual instruction, such as Anna Barbauld's Lessons for Children (1778–79).
Fairy tales
Trimmer is perhaps most famous now for her condemnation of
Fairy tales were often found in chapbooks—cheap, disposable literature—which contained sensational stories such as Jack the Giant Killer along with lewder tales such as How to restore a lost Maidenhead, or solder a Crackt one. Chapbooks were the literature of the poor and Trimmer attempted to separate children's literature from texts she associated with the lower classes.[27] Trimmer criticized the values associated with fairy tales, accusing them of perpetuating irrationality, superstition, and unfavorable images of stepparents.[28] Rather than seeing Trimmer as a censor of fairy tales, therefore, children's literature scholar Nicholas Tucker has argued, "by considering fairy tales as fair game for criticism rather than unthinking worship, Mrs Trimmer is at one with scholars today who have also written critically about the ideologies found in some individual stories".[29]
French Revolution and religion
Trimmer's views of the French
Reception and legacy
Although one previous attempt had been made to regularly review British children's books[33] it was not as comprehensive, did not last as long, and was not nearly as influential as Trimmer's Guardian.[34] Grenby suggests, for example, that Godwin changed the name of his Bible Stories to Sacred Histories after Trimmer's attack on it and the publishers of John Newbery's Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls immediately removed the material Trimmer found offensive.[35] Other scholars have argued that authors wrote with Trimmer's reviewing criteria in mind, one going so far as to call it "a manual for prospective writers".[36] However, Trimmer's reviews were not always heeded; for example, her negative review of the sentimental works of Edward Augustus Kendall, such as Keeper's Travels in Search of His Master, did little to dampen the sales of his works.[37]
With its four hundred reviews, The Guardian of Education, as Grenby writes, "contributed to the establishment of children's literature as a secure, permanent and respectable literary genre".
It was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with the publication of the work of children's author and literary critic Charlotte Mary Yonge, that any sustained reviewing or historicizing of children's literature took place again.[39]
Notes
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xiv.
- Hatchard's of Piccadilly. For a history, see Arthur Lee Humphreys, Piccadilly Bookmen: Memorials of the House of Hatchard, London: Hatchards (1893). Retrieved 3 January 2009.
- ^ a b Grenby, "Introduction", xl.
- ^ a b c Grenby, "Introduction", x.
- ^ Trimmer, The Guardian of Education, 1:2, 10, 81, 145.
- ^ Darton, 96.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xv.
- ^ Andrews, Stuart. The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789–99. New York: Palgrave (2000), 139.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xii.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xvi; Darton, 324–25.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xvii–xviii; see also O'Malley, 17–18.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxi.
- ^ Trimmer, Some Account, 61.
- ^ a b Ruwe, 8.
- ^ See Summerfield, 188–205, for an example of this view.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxiv.
- ^ Grenby, "Conservative Woman", 148–49.
- ^ Grenby, "Conservative Woman", 150.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxvi–vii.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxviii; for examples of this view of Trimmer, see Jackson, 134 and Summerfield, 188–205.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxxv.
- ^ Grenby, "Conservative Woman", 152; see also O'Malley, 17–18.
- ^ Tucker, 104–06.
- ^ Rowe, 56–57.
- ^ Rowe, 58; see also Darton, 96–97.
- ^ Qtd. in Rowe, 60; see also Tucker, 111–12 and O'Malley, 18.
- ^ Tucker, 106–07; see also O'Malley, 124–25.
- ^ Tucker, 108–10; see also Darton, 96–97 and O'Malley, 124–25.
- ^ Tucker, 114.
- ^ Cutt, 8.
- ^ Cutt, 9.
- ^ Cutt, 17.
- ^ Immel, Andrea. "James Petit Andrews's 'Book' (1790): The First Critical Survey of English Children's Literature". Children's Literature 28 (2000): 147–63.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xiv; Darton, 325.
- ^ Secord, 145.
- ^ Qtd. in Grenby, "Introduction", xxxviii.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxxvii–viii.
- ^ Grenby, "Introduction", xxxviii.
- ^ Darton, 325.
Bibliography
- Cutt, Margaret Nancy. Ministering Angels: A Study of Nineteenth-century Evangelical Writing for Children. Wormley: Five Owls Press, 1979. ISBN 0-903838-02-8.
- ISBN 0-521-24020-4.
- Grenby, M.O. "'A Conservative Woman Doing Radical Things': Sarah Trimmer and The Guardian of Education". Culturing the Child, 1690–1914. Ed. Donelle Ruwe. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5182-2.
- Grenby, Matthew. "Introduction". The Guardian of Education. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002. ISBN 1-84371-011-0.
- Immel, Andrea. Revolutionary Reviewing: Sarah Trimmer's Guardian of Education and the Cultural Political of Juvenile Literature. An Index to The Guardian. Los Angeles: Dept. of Special Collections, UCLA, 1990. [ISBN unspecified].
- Jackson, Mary V. Engines of Instruction, Mischief, and Magic: Children's Literature in England from Its Beginnings to 1839. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8032-7570-6.
- O'Malley, Andrew. The Making of the Modern Child: Children's Literature and Childhood in the Late Eighteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94299-3.
- Rowe, Karen E. "Virtue in the Guise of Vice: The Making and Unmaking of Morality from Fairy Tale Fantasy". Culturing the Child, 1690–1914: Essays in Memory of Mitzi Myers. Ed. Donelle Ruwe. Lanham, MD: The Children's Literature Association and the Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5182-2.
- Ruwe, Donelle. "Guarding the British Bible from Rousseau: Sarah Trimmer, William Godwin, and the Pedagogical Periodical". Children's Literature 29 (2001): 1–17.
- Secord, James A. "Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls, 1761–1838". History of Science 23 (1985): 127–51.
- Summerfield, Geoffrey. Fantasy and Reason: Children's Literature in the Eighteenth Century. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1984. ISBN 0-416-35780-6.
- ISBN 1-84371-011-0.
- Trimmer, Sarah. Some Account of the Life and Writings of Mrs. Trimmer. [Ed. Henry Scott Trimmer.] 3rd ed. London: C. & J. Rivington, 1825. Google Books. Retrieved on 19 April 2007.
- ISBN 0-415-14898-7.