Editing Children's literature (section)

== History ==
<!--Note to future editors: This should not be a list of books published but an encyclopedic summary of significant advances and changes around the world. Please keep this from becoming a mere list. See note on talk page for order of information for this section-->
Early children's literature consisted of spoken stories, songs, and poems, used to educate, instruct, and entertain children.<ref name="random">{{cite web|url=http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/024children.html|title=To Instruct and Delight A History of Children's Literature|publisher=Random History|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715095313/http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/024children.html|archive-date=July 15, 2012|access-date=July 16, 2012}}</ref>
It was only in the eighteenth century, with the development of the concept of [[childhood]], that a separate genre of children's literature began to emerge, with its own divisions, expectations, and [[Western canon|canon]].<ref name=nikola>{{cite book |editor-last=Nikolajeva |editor-first=María |editor-link=Maria Nikolajeva |title=Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature |year=1995 |publisher=Greenwood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubZL9V1L9fEC&pg=PR9 |isbn= 978-0-313-29614-7}}</ref>{{rp|x-xi}} The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct, and simple ABCs—often decorated with animals, plants, and anthropomorphic letters.<ref>•Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.</ref>

In 1962, French historian [[Philippe Ariès]] argues in his book ''[[Centuries of Childhood]]'' that the modern concept of childhood only emerged in recent times. He explains that children were in the past not considered as greatly different from adults and were not given significantly different treatment.<ref name=shav>{{cite book |last=Shavit |first=Zohar |author-link=Zohar Shavit |title=Poetics of Children's Literature |year=2009 |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |isbn=978-0-8203-3481-3| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NerYSgnlnaIC&pg=PP10}}</ref>{{rp|5}} As evidence for this position, he notes that, apart from instructional and didactic texts for children written by [[cleric]]s like [[Bede|the Venerable Bede]] and [[Ælfric of Eynsham]], there was a lack of any genuine literature aimed specifically at children before the 18th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McMunn |first=Meradith Tilbury |author2=William Robert McMunn |title=Children's Literature in the Middle Ages |journal=[[Children's Literature (journal)|Children's Literature]] |year=1972| volume=1 |pages=21–29 |doi=10.1353/chl.0.0064|s2cid=146379422 }}</ref><ref name=brad>{{cite book |last=Bradley |first=Johanna |title=From Chapbooks to Plum Cake: The History of Children's Literature |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-549-34070-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65KJo_XpLoYC&pg=PA1 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{rp|11}}

Other scholars have qualified this viewpoint by noting that there was a literature designed to convey the values, attitudes, and information necessary for children within their cultures,<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Wilye |editor-first=Andrea Schwenke |title=Considering Children's Literature: A Reader |year=2008 |publisher=Broadview |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWTY0BK5jbIC&pg=PA43 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> such as the ''[[Play of Daniel]]'' from the twelfth century.<ref name=lerer />{{rp|46}}<ref name=kline>{{cite book |last=Kline |first=Daniel T. |title= Medieval Literature for Children |year=2003 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn= 978-0-8153-3312-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcxBsWXg9mYC&pg=PR4}}</ref>{{rp|4}} Pre-modern children's literature, therefore, tended to be of a [[didactic]] and [[Morality|moralistic]] nature, with the purpose of conveying [[Conduct book|conduct]]-related, educational and [[Religious book|religious]] lessons.<ref name=kline />{{rp|6–8}}

===Early-modern Europe===
[[File:Hornbook Mexican.png|left|thumb|An early Mexican [[hornbook]] pictured in Tuer's ''History of the Horn-Book'', 1896.]]
During the seventeenth century, the concept of childhood began to emerge in Europe. Adults saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection and training by the adults around them.<ref name=shav />{{rp|6–7}}<ref name=reynolds>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first= Kimberley |title=Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction |year=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref>{{rp|9}} The English philosopher [[John Locke]] developed his theory of the [[tabula rasa]] in his 1690 ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]''. In Locke's philosophy, ''tabula rasa'' was the theory that the (human) mind is at birth a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's [[sense|sensory]] experiences. A corollary of this doctrine was that the mind of the child was born blank and that it was the duty of the parents to imbue the child with correct notions. Locke himself emphasized the importance of providing children with "easy pleasant books" to develop their minds rather than using force to compel them: "Children may be cozen'd into a knowledge of the letters; be taught to read, without perceiving it to be anything but a sport, and play themselves into that which others are whipp'd for." He also suggested that picture books be created for children.

In the nineteenth century, a few children's titles became famous as classroom reading texts. Among these were the fables of Aesop and Jean de la Fontaine and Charles Perraults's 1697 ''Tales of Mother Goose''.<ref name="Lyons, Martyn 2011">Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.</ref> The popularity of these texts led to the creation of a number of nineteenth-century fantasy and fairy tales for children which featured magic objects and talking animals.<ref name="Lyons, Martyn 2011"/>

Another influence on this shift in attitudes came from [[Puritanism]], which stressed the importance of individual salvation. Puritans were concerned with the spiritual welfare of their children, and there was a large growth in the publication of "good godly books" aimed squarely at children.<ref name=random /> Some of the most popular works were by [[James Janeway]], but the most enduring book from this movement, still read today, especially in modernised versions, is ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' (1678) by [[John Bunyan]].<ref>e. g. ''The New Amplified Pilgrim's Progress'' (both book and dramatized audio) – as retold by James Pappas. Published by Orion's Gate (1999) and ''The Evergreen Wood: An Adaptation of the "Pilgrim's Progress" for Children'' written by Linda Perry, illustrated by Alan Perry. Published by Hunt & Thorpe, 1997. [[The Pilgrim's Progress#Retellings]].</ref>

[[Chapbook]]s, pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched,<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|32}} were published in Britain; illustrated by [[Woodcut|woodblock printing]], these inexpensive booklets reprinted popular [[ballads]], historical re-tellings, and folk tales. Though not specifically published for children at this time, young people enjoyed the booklets as well.<ref name=reynolds />{{rp|8}} Johanna Bradley says, in ''From Chapbooks to Plum Cake'', that chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strict [[Puritan]] influence of the time.<ref name=brad />{{rp|17}}
[[File:Aforadam.png|thumb|The New England Primer]]
[[Hornbook]]s also appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic information such as the alphabet and the [[Lord's Prayer]].<ref name=questia>{{cite book |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia: Children's Literature |year=2009 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=117011194 |access-date=2017-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422190423/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=117011194 |archive-date=2012-04-22 |url-status=dead |isbn= }}{{ISBN?}}</ref> These were brought from England to the [[British America|American colonies]] in the mid-seventeenth century.

The first such book was a [[catechism]] for children, written in verse by the Puritan [[John Cotton (Puritan)|John Cotton]]. Known as ''[[Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes]]'', it was published in 1646, appearing both in England and [[Boston]]. Another early book, ''[[The New England Primer]]'', was in print by 1691 and used in schools for 100 years. The [[Primer (textbook)|primer]] begins with "The young Infant's or Child's morning Prayer" and evening prayer. It then shows the alphabet, vowels, consonants, double letters, and syllables before providing a religious rhyme of the alphabet, beginning "In Adam's fall We sinned all...", and continues through the alphabet.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The New-England primer, improved; : for the more easy attaining the true reading of English. : To which is added the Assembly of Divines' Catechism |last=Tracy & Bliss, printer |date=1822 |publisher=Printed by Tracy & Bliss |oclc=191256117}}</ref> It also contained religious maxims, [[Acronym and initialism|acronyms]], spelling help and other educational items, all decorated by [[woodcut]]s.<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|35}}

In 1634, the ''[[Pentamerone]]'' from Italy became the first major published collection of European folk tales. [[Charles Perrault]] began recording [[fairy tale]]s in France, publishing his first collection in 1697. They were not well received among the French literary society, who saw them as only fit for old people and children. In 1658, [[John Amos Comenius]] in [[Bohemia]] published the informative illustrated ''[[Orbis Pictus]]'', for children under six learning to read. It is considered to be the first picture book produced specifically for children.<ref name=reynolds />{{rp|7}}

The first [[Denmark|Danish]] children's book was ''The Child's Mirror'' by [[Niels Bredal]] in 1568, an adaptation of a [[courtesy book]] by the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] priest [[Desiderius Erasmus|Erasmus]]. ''A Pretty and Splendid Maiden's Mirror'', an adaptation of a [[Germany|German]] book for young women, became the first [[Sweden|Swedish]] children's book upon its 1591 publication.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|700, 706}} Sweden published fables and a children's magazine by 1766.

In [[Italy]], [[Giovanni Francesco Straparola]] released ''[[The Facetious Nights of Straparola]]'' in the 1550s. Called the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales, it eventually had 75 separate stories and written for an adult audience.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Opie |first=Iona |author2=Peter Opie |author-link=Iona Opie |title=The Classic Fairy Tales |page=[https://archive.org/details/classicfairytale00opie_0/page/20 20] |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-19-211559-1 |author2-link=Peter Opie |url=https://archive.org/details/classicfairytale00opie_0/page/20}}</ref> [[Giulio Cesare Croce]] also borrowed from some stories children enjoyed for his books.<ref name=Silvey />{{rp|757}}

[[Russia]]'s earliest children's books, [[Primer (textbook)|primers]], appeared in the late sixteenth century. An early example is ''ABC-Book'', an [[alphabet book]] published by [[Ivan Fyodorov (printer)|Ivan Fyodorov]] in 1571.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|765}} The first [[picture book]] published in Russia, [[Karion Istomin]]'s ''The Illustrated Primer'', appeared in 1694.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|765}} [[Peter the Great]]'s interest in [[Modernization|modernizing]] his country through [[Westernization]] helped Western children's literature dominate the field through the eighteenth century.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|765}} [[Catherine the Great]] wrote [[Allegory|allegories]] for children, and during her reign, [[Nikolai Novikov]] started the first juvenile magazine in Russia.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|765}}

===Origins of the modern genre===

[[File:NewberyPocketBook.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|[[John Newbery]]'s ''[[A Little Pretty Pocket-Book]]'', originally published in 1744]]
The modern children's book emerged in mid-18th-century England.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/07/how-the-newbery-award-got-its-name/|title = How the Newbery Award Got Its Name|date = 2013-07-19|website = Today I Found Out|first = Emily|last = Upton|access-date = 2013-10-14|archive-date = 2019-04-05|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190405202512/http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/07/how-the-newbery-award-got-its-name/|url-status = live}}</ref> A growing [[politeness|polite]] middle-class and the influence of [[John Locke|Lockean]] theories of childhood innocence combined to create the beginnings of childhood as a concept. In an article for the [[British Library]], professor MO Grenby writes, "in the 1740s, a cluster of London publishers began to produce new books designed to instruct and delight young readers. [[Thomas Boreman]] was one. Another was [[Mary Cooper (publisher)|Mary Cooper]], whose two-volume ''[[Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book]]'' (1744) is the first known [[nursery rhyme]] collection. But the most celebrated of these pioneers is [[John Newbery]], whose first book for the entertainment of children was ''[[A Little Pretty Pocket-Book]]''."<ref name="Grenby"/>

Widely considered the first modern children's book, ''A Little Pretty Pocket-Book'' was the first children's publication aimed at giving enjoyment to children,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kodomo.go.jp/ingram/e/section1/index.html |title=Early Children's Literature: From moralistic stories to narratives of everyday life |access-date=2013-10-14 |archive-date=2013-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601231713/http://www.kodomo.go.jp/ingram/e/section1/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> containing a mixture of rhymes, picture stories and games for pleasure.<ref name=marks>{{cite book |last=Marks |first=Diana F. |title= Children's Book Award Handbook |year=2006 |publisher=[[Libraries Unlimited]] |location=Westport, Conn |page=201}}</ref> Newbery believed that play was a better enticement to children's good behavior than physical discipline,<ref>Townsend, John Rowe. ''Written for Children''. (1990). New York: HarperCollins. {{ISBN|0-06-446125-4}}, pp. 15–16.</ref> and the child was to record his or her behaviour daily. The book was child–sized with a brightly colored cover that appealed to children—something new in the publishing industry. Known as gift books, these early books became the precursors to the [[toy book]]s popular in the nineteenth century.<ref name="Lundin">{{cite journal |author=Lundin, Anne H. |year=1994 |title=Victorian Horizons: The Reception of Children's Books in England and America, 1880–1900 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=64 |pages=30–59 |doi=10.1086/602651|s2cid=143693178 }}</ref> Newbery was also adept at marketing this new genre. According to the journal ''[[The Lion and the Unicorn (journal)|The Lion and the Unicorn]]'', "Newbery's genius was in developing the fairly new product category, children's books, through his frequent advertisements... and his clever ploy of introducing additional titles and products into the body of his children's books."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Susina |first=Jan |title=Editor's Note: Kiddie Lit(e): The Dumbing Down of Children's Literature |journal=The Lion and the Unicorn |date=June 1993 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=v–vi |doi=10.1353/uni.0.0256|s2cid=144833564 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Rose|1984|p=218}}</ref> Professor Grenby writes, "Newbery has become known as the 'father of children's literature' chiefly because he was able to show that publishing children's books could be a commercial success."<ref name="Grenby">{{cite news |last1=Grenby |first1=M O |title=The origins of children's literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |access-date=18 January 2020 |agency=British Library |date=15 May 2014 |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301053319/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Image:GTShoesWoodcut.jpg|thumb|right|A [[woodcut]] of the eponymous Goody Two-Shoes from the 1768 edition of ''[[The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes]]''. It was first published in London in 1765.]]
The improvement in the quality of books for children and the diversity of topics he published helped make Newbery the leading producer of children's books in his time. He published his own books as well as those by authors such as [[Samuel Johnson]] and [[Oliver Goldsmith]];<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|36}}<ref name="Rose, 219">{{harvnb|Rose|1984|p=219}}</ref> the latter may have written ''[[The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes]]'', Newbery's most popular book.

Another philosopher who influenced the development of children's literature was [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], who argued that children should be allowed to develop naturally and joyously. His idea of appealing to a children's natural interests took hold among writers for children.<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|41}} Popular examples included [[Thomas Day (writer)|Thomas Day]]'s ''[[The History of Sandford and Merton]]'', four volumes that embody Rousseau's theories. Furthermore, [[Maria Edgeworth|Maria]] and [[Richard Lovell Edgeworth]]'s ''[[Practical Education]]: The History of Harry and Lucy'' (1780) urged children to teach themselves.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leader|first= Zachary|title = Reading Blake's Songs|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Gu5WCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |page = 3|publisher = Routledge|date = 2015|isbn = 9781317381235}}</ref>

Rousseau's ideas also had great influence in Germany, especially on [[Philanthropinum|German Philanthropism]], a movement concerned with reforming both education and literature for children. Its founder, [[Johann Bernhard Basedow]], authored ''Elementarwerk'' as a popular textbook for children that included many illustrations by [[Daniel Chodowiecki]]. Another follower, [[Joachim Heinrich Campe]], created an adaptation of ''Robinson Crusoe'' that went into over 100 printings. He became Germany's "outstanding and most modern"<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|736}} writer for children. According to Hans-Heino Ewers in ''The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature'', "It can be argued that from this time, the history of European children's literature was largely written in Germany."<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|737}}

[[File:Kinder title page.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Pages from the 1819 edition of ''[[Grimms' Fairy Tales|Kinder- und Haus-Märchen]]'' by the Brothers Grimm]]
The [[Brothers Grimm]] preserved and published [[Grimms' Fairy Tales|the traditional tales]] told in [[Germany]].<ref name=Silvey>{{cite book |editor-last=Silvey |editor-first=Anita |title=The Essential Guide to Children's Books and their Creators |url=https://archive.org/details/essentialguideto00silv |url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-618-19082-9}}</ref>{{rp|184}} They were so popular in their home country that modern, realistic children's literature began to be looked down on there. This dislike of non-traditional stories continued there until the beginning of the next century.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|739–740}} In addition to their collection of stories, the Grimm brothers also contributed to children's literature through their academic pursuits. As professors, they had a scholarly interest in the stories, striving to preserve them and their variations accurately, recording their sources.<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|259}}

A similar project was carried out by the [[Norway|Norwegian]] scholars [[Peter Christen Asbjørnsen]] and [[Jørgen Moe]], who collected Norwegian fairy tales and published them as ''[[Norwegian Folktales]]'', often referred to as ''Asbjørnsen and Moe''. By compiling these stories, they preserved Norway's literary heritage and helped create the Norwegian written language.<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|260}}

Danish author and poet [[Hans Christian Andersen]] traveled through Europe and gathered many well-known fairy tales and created new stories in the fairy tale genre.<ref name=EB>Elias Bredsdorff, ''Hans Christian Andersen: the story of his life and work 1805–75'', Phaidon (1975) {{ISBN|0-7148-1636-1}}</ref>

In [[Switzerland]], [[Johann David Wyss]] published ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]'' in 1812, with the aim of teaching children about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. The book became popular across Europe after it was translated into French by [[Isabelle de Montolieu]].

[[E. T. A. Hoffmann]]'s tale "[[The Nutcracker and the Mouse King]]" was published in 1816 in a German collection of stories for children, ''Kinder-Märchen''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Nutcracker |last1=Hoffmann |first1=E. T. A. |last2=Sendak (illustrator) |first2=Maurice |publisher=Crown Publishers |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-385-34864-5 |location=New York, N.Y., US }}</ref> It is the first modern short story to introduce bizarre, odd and grotesque elements in children's literature and thereby anticipates Lewis Carroll's tale, ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Kinder-Märchen von C. W. Contessa, F. de la Motte Fouqué, E. T. A. Hoffmann |editor-last=Ewers |editor-first=Hans-Heino |publisher=Philipp Reclam Jr. |year=1987 |isbn=978-3-15-028377-6 |location=Stuttgart, Germany |pages=347 (afterword)}}</ref> There are not only parallels concerning the content (the weird adventures of a young girl in a fantasy land), but also the origin of the tales as both are dedicated and given to a daughter of the author's friends.

===Golden age===
The shift to a modern genre of children's literature occurred in the mid-19th century; [[didacticism]] of a previous age began to make way for more humorous, child-oriented books, more attuned to the child's imagination. The availability of children's literature greatly increased as well, as paper and [[printing]] became widely available and affordable, the population grew and literacy rates improved.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|654–655}}

''[[Tom Brown's School Days]]'' by [[Thomas Hughes]] appeared in 1857, and is considered to be the founding book in the [[school story]] tradition.<ref name=knowles>{{cite book |last=Knowles |first= Murray |title=Language and Control in Children's Literature |year=1996 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mh6pCDCZ5EC&pg=PP7|isbn= 978-0-203-41975-5}}</ref>{{rp|7–8}} However, it was [[Lewis Carroll]]'s fantasy, ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', published in 1865 in England, that signaled the change in writing style for children to an imaginative and empathetic one. Regarded as the first "English masterpiece written for children"<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|44}} and as a founding book in the development of fantasy literature, its publication opened the "First Golden Age" of children's literature in Britain and Europe that continued until the early 1900s. The fairy-tale absurdity of Wonderland has solid historical ground as a satire of the serious problems of the Victorian era. Lewis Carroll is ironic about the prim and all-out regulated life of the "golden" Victorian century.<ref name=knowles />{{rp|18}} One other noteworthy publication was [[Mark Twain]]'s book ''[[Tom Sawyer]]'' (1876), which was one of the first "boy books", intended for children but enjoyed by both children and adults alike. These were classified as such for the themes they contained, consisting of fighting and work.<ref>JulJulBulak, History of England in fifteenth century {{full citation needed|date=October 2019}}</ref> Another important book of that decade was ''[[The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby]]'', by Rev. [[Charles Kingsley]] (1862), which became extremely popular and remains a classic of British children's literature.

In 1883, [[Carlo Collodi]] wrote the first Italian fantasy novel, ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]'', which was translated many times. In that same year, [[Emilio Salgari]], the man who would become "the adventure writer par excellence for the young in Italy"<ref>Lawson Lucas, A. (1995) "The Archetypal Adventures of Emilio Salgari: A Panorama of his Universe and Cultural Connections New Comparison", ''A Journal of Comparative and General Literary Studies'', Number 20 Autumn</ref> first published his legendary character ''[[Sandokan]]''. In Britain, ''[[The Princess and the Goblin]]'' and its sequel ''[[The Princess and Curdie]]'', by [[George MacDonald]], appeared in 1872 and 1883, and the adventure stories ''[[Treasure Island]]'' and ''[[Kidnapped (novel)|Kidnapped]]'', both by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], were extremely popular in the 1880s. [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book]]'' was first published in 1894, and [[J. M. Barrie]] told the story of [[Peter Pan]] in the novel  ''[[Peter and Wendy]]'' in 1911. [[Johanna Spyri]]'s two-part novel ''[[Heidi]]'' was published in Switzerland in 1880 and 1881.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|749}}

In the US, children's publishing entered a period of growth after the [[American Civil War]] in 1865. Boys' book writer [[William Taylor Adams|Oliver Optic]] published over 100 books. In 1868, the "epoch-making"<ref name=Arbuth />{{rp|45}} ''[[Little Women]]'', the fictionalized autobiography of [[Louisa May Alcott]], was published. This "[[coming of age]]" story established the genre of realistic family books in the United States. [[Mark Twain]] released ''Tom Sawyer'' in 1876. In 1880 another bestseller, ''[[Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings]]'', a collection of [[African American]] folk tales adapted and compiled by [[Joel Chandler Harris]], appeared.<ref name="int.comp.ency" />{{rp|478}}

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a plethora of children's novels began featuring realistic, non-magical plotlines. Certain titles received international success such as Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Treasure Island'' (1883), L. M. Montgomery's ''Anne of Green Gables'' (1908), and Louisa May Alcott's ''Little Women'' (1869).<ref name="Lyons, Martyn 2011"/>