Red Beard's Stories for Children, Translated from the German by Cousin Fannie

Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co, 1856. Small quarto. 67pp., printed one side only. A collection of verse, accompanied by lively silhouette engravings. This is one of several children's books published as a partnership between Phillips, Sampson & Co. and translator "Cousin Fannie" in the 1850s. In advertising Red Beard's Stories for Children, the publishers called it "novel and comic, and will set the little ones in a roar." Another review describes the book as "quite unique, with ebony engravings. Many a bright eye will sparkle, and many plump cheek dimple over these comicalities." This copy is inscribed: "Willie Bigelow from his friend Fanny Forbes. Christmas." The names on the inscription are especially apropos; Fanny Forbes, the giver, shares a name with the translator Cousin Fannie, and the recipient, Willie Bigelow, shares the name of the protagonist in one of the longest pieces in the book, "History of Willie and His Horse Robin." Illustrated yellow boards with brown cloth spine. Expected wear and soiling to covers, and foxing to interior. A very good copy. (The Lady's Home Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, February 1857; Western Literary Messenger, February 1857).