Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 81

Price Realized: $ 438
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
(CHILDREN'S BOOKS.) Chambers' Primer, or First Book for Children; in which Every Word has a Direct Signification. 32 pages. Large 16mo, publisher's pictorial wrappers; minor foxing, closed tear on title page. Bethania, PA: Reuben Chambers, 1840 (wrapper reads 1838)
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Chambers made an effort to rethink the primer from scratch. His refreshingly cranky preface explains that "I have long been disgusted with the quantity of trash and nonsense . . . in books designed for the instruction of young children. . . . Such a mangling and murdering of syllables and words . . . tend to smother their ideas and dim their intellects." Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. WorldCat lists an undated edition and an 1852 edition, suggesting that this may be the first.