Hymns in Prose for Children.

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A new and Improved Edition. In slightly soiled thick yellow paper printed wraps with titles and woodcut, no title to spine, adverts to lower cover. Internally, owners label to fep, frontis present, title page with woodcut, not dated but c1840?, [4], [1], (ii-iv), [1], 6-72 pp, 3 pls (B&W), 6 illustrations within text, ink note to ep. (Not in Osborne). Date conjectured by cataloguer based on dates of activity for H. Lacey at this address (1833-1845), and dates of W.J. Sears (1823-1838), printed by W. J. Sears, 44, Ivy lane, Paternoster Row". Title continues: And other Easy Tales for the Instruction of Young Children. With Fine Cuts. Barbauld [née Aikin], Anna Letitia [Anna Laetitia], poet and essayist, who upon marriage settled at Palgrave, Suffolk, where on 25 July 1774 they opened a school for boys. A great success, the school drew boys from as far as New York and the West Indies; during the Barbaulds' tenure an estimated 130 boys passed through it. Several achieved eminence in later years. The school also occasioned Barbauld's most influential books: Lessons for Children (4 vols., 1778-9), written to teach Charles to read, and Hymns in Prose for Children (1781), a primer in religion for her youngest pupils. Reprinted in England and America throughout the nineteenth century, and translated into other languages, they profoundly affected reading pedagogy among the middle classes. See ODNB.