Easy Steps in Sewing for Big and Little Girls, or Mary Frances Among the Thimble People

[Oakland, California:] Jane Eayre Fryer, 1913.] First edition. This edition, with no publisher named on the title-page, is scarce, with only five copies recorded on OCLC (only four in the United States). Later published by the John C. Winston Co. under the title The Mary Frances Sewing Book; or, Adventures Among the Thimble People. Publisher's pictorial mustard cloth with color-printed paper onlay of a girl sewing. Quarto. With color frontispiece and ten folding color plates, each preserving a paper pattern for an item of doll's clothing. Also, illustrated in color on every page with hundreds of text figures and many full-page illustrations. With ten additional patterns printed on glossy paper laid in. Slight soiling to cloth. Clean throughout aside from some minor toning. A very good copy. Jane Eayre Fryer (1876 - ?) was a prolific children's book author. Her Mary Frances series of books comprised over a dozen titles, including The Mary Frances Cook Book, or, Adventures Among the Kitchen People (1912) and The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book, or, Adventures Among the Knitting People (1918). Fryer also wrote entries in the Young American Readers series, including Our Home and Personal Duty (1918) and Community Interest and Public Spirit (1919), which aimed to inspire patriotism and civic duty in young people in the wake of World War I. The books encouraged volunteering with organizations like the Red Cross and other forms of civic engagement. Fryer's books for adults include Mrs. Fryer's Loose-Leaf Cook Book (1922).