Reading publics
All three London publishers, Darton and Harvey, E. Newbery and Vernor and Hood were known to as children's book publishers. My publishers were known for their children's books but even so their advertising below shows that they were willing to suggest an appeal to a broader readership.
The enthusiasm of collectors and bibliographers of Linnaean science, such as Soulsby, gives us some clue as to my reception, as they estimate how many later editions of Introduction to Botany... were produced. Collector Mr. Francis Druce was said to "have a great deal of entertainment in collecting the small chatty or instructive books about wildflowers...[s]uch works for example as 'Introduction to Botany in a Series of Familiar Letters' by Priscilla Wakefield...of which editions (each called the eleventh) appeared at least as late as 1841 and 1844"**. Children's book historian F.J Harvey Darton is one of the few commenting on what multiple reprints of the title meant in terms of reception, stating that "Introduction to Botany was long an acceptable text-book"***
It is impossible to say exactly how popular any of my edition were. Though Introduction to Botany... made it to over ten editions of printing, there are no records of quantities printed nor for the matter copies read, nor any information about how many times each of us was read.
In recent years, my text has again become of interest to writers of women's history looking to find out about these early intersections between women's writing, the narrative voice of the literate young lady, and science and nature. It's possible that I will be picked up and put down many more times by such scholars, but I tend to find that these ones are concerned more with the intangible text and they may save my hide by reading a digitised version of one my sister editions...
The enthusiasm of collectors and bibliographers of Linnaean science, such as Soulsby, gives us some clue as to my reception, as they estimate how many later editions of Introduction to Botany... were produced. Collector Mr. Francis Druce was said to "have a great deal of entertainment in collecting the small chatty or instructive books about wildflowers...[s]uch works for example as 'Introduction to Botany in a Series of Familiar Letters' by Priscilla Wakefield...of which editions (each called the eleventh) appeared at least as late as 1841 and 1844"**. Children's book historian F.J Harvey Darton is one of the few commenting on what multiple reprints of the title meant in terms of reception, stating that "Introduction to Botany was long an acceptable text-book"***
It is impossible to say exactly how popular any of my edition were. Though Introduction to Botany... made it to over ten editions of printing, there are no records of quantities printed nor for the matter copies read, nor any information about how many times each of us was read.
In recent years, my text has again become of interest to writers of women's history looking to find out about these early intersections between women's writing, the narrative voice of the literate young lady, and science and nature. It's possible that I will be picked up and put down many more times by such scholars, but I tend to find that these ones are concerned more with the intangible text and they may save my hide by reading a digitised version of one my sister editions...
"For the use of Schools and Young Students in this pleasing Science This day was published Price 3s, neat, in boards
AN INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY in a Series of Familiar Letters; with twelve plates illustrative of the work.
By Priscilla Wakefield...
These little Volumes direct the young mind, in a very pleasing manner, to a variety of useful and curious subjects, and the manner of dialogue has been very judiciously adopted, and although the work is professedly intended for young Persons, we are persuaded that there are many grown ones, who, by a perusal of it, would discover in themselves a degree of ignorance they little suspected"*
*From: Oracle and Public Advertiser (London, England), Friday, June 10, 1796; Issue 19 343. Retrieved from British Newspapers 1600-1900 database.
**From: A Botanical Collection (December 31, 1938) The Times Literary Supplement, 1926, 832. Retrieved from Times Literary Supplement database.
***From: Darton, F.J. (1982) Children's Books in England. Alderson, Brian (ed.) Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
**From: A Botanical Collection (December 31, 1938) The Times Literary Supplement, 1926, 832. Retrieved from Times Literary Supplement database.
***From: Darton, F.J. (1982) Children's Books in England. Alderson, Brian (ed.) Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.