Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/439



AD we space—we have all the will—to be garrulous, we should infallibly have commenced this chapter by a long account of John Newberry, the celebrated publisher of children's literature. His books were distinguished by the originality and the homeliness of their style, and were wonderfully adapted to the capacities of the little readers to whom, in one instance, at all events, "The History of Little Goody Two Shoes," they were specially dedicated: "To all young gentlemen and ladies who are good, or intend to be good, this book is inscribed, by their old friend, Mr. John Newberry, in St. Paul's Churchyard." Mr. John Newberry was himself, in many cases, the author of these volumes, "price 2d., gilt," which he produced; but he was assisted by men who were distinguished in other walks of life, especially by Mr. Griffith Jones, editor of the London Chronicle, the Daily Advertiser, and the Public Ledger, and by Oliver Goldsmith, who makes Dr. Primrose, when sick and penniless at an