Search results for ""Author Hilary Emmett""

Author and activist Lydia Maria Child was a foundational figure in the development of American literature in the early nineteenth century. After her debut novel Hobomok (1824) challenged readers with its representation of interracial marriage, she continued to blaze literary trails for the rest of her life, developing a loyal readership as she confronted the most pressing issues in American life. She wrote novels, poems and short stories, composed housekeeping and parenting manuals, edited abolitionist newspapers and narratives -- most notably Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Less well-known is that she almost single-handedly invented a new American literature for children. For decades, and particularly during her time at the helm of ground-breaking children's magazine The Juvenile Miscellany (1826-1834), Child was a constant companion for young readers across the world. For the first time, this anthology brings together a career-spanning collection of Child's writing for children which demonstrates the extraordinary richness and range of her vital work in this field. As she shaped the idea of what children's literature could be and do, Child trusted her young readers to understand difficult questions of social and racial justice, explorations of natural and national history, sentimental domestic sketches, and much more besides. Contemporary readers can now rediscover the delight that the arrival of a new issue of The Juvenile Miscellany brought to the world while grappling critically with the ongoing resonance of these questions in the twenty-first century.

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Working hard to survive in a harsh world, the Peppers still find joy and love in their little brown house - until a chance encounter with a wealthy family changes their fortunes forever. When it was first published in 1881, Margaret Sidney’s Five Little Peppers was an immediate bestseller. Its account of the five Pepper siblings’ adventures in the American Gilded Age attracted an army of young readers who clamoured for sequels well into the twentieth century. Progressive for its time in its depictions of the children’s lives, this groundbreaking edition will strike a new chord with young readers in the twenty-first century: it is the first version of the book to give readers a full introduction to the text, providing an account of Sidney’s life and times, a full description of the book’s historical and literary context, and a sense of what insights the Pepper family’s extraordinary experiences might provide for our own moment of upheaval. A must-read for all fans of American classics such as Little Women and What Katy Did.

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Susan Coolidge’s What Katy Did has captured the imaginations of readers since its first publication in 1872. A classic of American children’s literature, it tells the story of Katy Carr - twelve years old, free-spirited, perennially untidy, endearingly awkward and irrepressibly imaginative. Accompanied by her many siblings, Katy embarks on a series of playful misadventures - when she can escape the watchful eye of her fussy Aunt Izzie - until disaster strikes, and Katy has to learn a series of important lessons about life, happiness and growing up. In time for the 150th anniversary of its first publication, this is the first edition of What Katy Did to provide readers with a full introduction to the text, one which describes a context for both the challenges Katy faces in meeting the expectations of nineteenth-century young womanhood, and a consideration of her ongoing significance in the twenty-first century. A must read for fans of Little Women, this unique edition has been carefully designed to introduce a new generation to Katy and her escapades. Edited by specialists in the genre, it combines aesthetics, accessibility and academic rigour. Hilary Emmett and Thomas Ruys Smith, both based in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia, are experts in nineteenth century children's literature and the authors and editors of a variety of books including, most recently, The Oxford Handbook of Charles Brockden Brown (Emmett) and Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain (Smith). Crucially, it has accessibility at its heart: the editors were passionate that this book should be approachable for those with visual impairments and dyslexia but without sacrificing the aesthetic beauty of the finished book for the general reader. This is a valuable edition to be treasured and handed on to future fans of Katy and her world.

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