Reading
ADVENTURES
Reading adventures
1. Bret Harte, The queen of
the pirate isle, London:
Chatto & Windus, 1886, p.16
2. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s
travels into several remote
regions of the world, London:
Cassell, Petter & Galpin,
c. 1865, p. 48
1.
A tradition of adventure
Adventure stories have always been with
us, with tales of daring exploits dating
back to classical times. Children have
always had an appetite for adventure, but
stories aimed specifically at child readers
are a comparatively recent development.
The idea of childhood as we know it today
emerged with the onset of the industrial
revolution. The philosopher John Locke’s
Some thoughts concerning education
(1693) was a major influence in re-shaping
notions of childhood and paving the way
for what became a major industry—books
for children. Some regard A little pretty
pocket-book, published by John Newbery
in 1744 as the first children’s book in
English and, as M.O. Grenby has noted,
it sought to both entertain and instruct
its young readers, following Locke’s
educational model. There are other
contenders for the authorship of the first
book for children, but Newbery is regarded
as a significant figure, largely because of his
commercial acumen and his combination
of educational material with amusement,
not to mention his strategic inclusion of
gifts (in the form of balls for boys and
pincushions for girls) with the volume.
Industrialism led to the rise of both
cheap paper and more efficient printing
techniques. The emergence of an affluent
middle class enabled the idea of childhood
as we know it today to develop, with
a growing recognition that an infant’s
early years should be characterized by
learning through play. Works such as
Rousseau’s Émile (1762) emphasized
the key role of play in helping children to
think independently and to understand
the world around them. As a result,
privileged children were encouraged to
relish their early years, to draw upon their
imaginations, and to enter a world of the
fantastic.
2.
Early adventure stories
While the adventure story for children was
largely a nineteenth-century phenomenon,
a number of significant literary forebears
helped to shape the genre. Adventure
stories through the ages have been
abridged, adapted, or re-told for children,
but Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
(1719) and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s
travels (1726) are often regarded as
foundational works, in spite of the fact
that both were originally written for adult
readers. Robinson Crusoe was so popular
that no fewer then nine editions were
printed in its year of publication, and it
has remained in print ever since. Likewise,
Gulliver’s travels has also never gone
out or print and—while it was written as
a political satire—its first two sections,
charting Gulliver’s adventures with the tiny
Lilliputians and the giant Brobdingnagians
are often adapted for the young as exciting
adventures of exotic travel, rather than
political commentary. Robert Paltock’s
The life and adventures of Peter Wilkins
(1751) is another early example, although
it is clear that Paltock was influenced
by both Defoe and Swift, and some early
readers felt the work to be derivative.
Defoe, Swift and Paltock form the
starting point for the present exhibition,
reflecting both the scope of the University
Library’s holdings, and their importance
as early examples. The oldest work to be
represented is Francis Godwin’s The man
in the moone, a story of space travel,
which was posthumously published in
1638—although it is believed that Godwin
is likely to have written the piece in the
1620s. Godwin was bishop of Hereford from
1617 and it is thought that his descendant
Jonathan Swift drew inspiration from this
early adventure when he began to imagine
the exploits of his character, Gulliver. The
facsimile edition of The man in the moone
on display in the ‘Travel Adventures’ case
was republished by Frederick Morgan, the
librarian of the Hereford Cathedral Library,
a devoted collector of children’s books
whose cherished volumes form a key part
of the present exhibition.
3. Hazel Armitage, With Lucinda
in London, London:
Amalgamated Press, c. 1951
4. The Aldine adventure book,
London: Aldine, n.d.
5. Rudyard Kipling, The jungle
book, London: Macmillan & Co.,
1921, p. 113
6. Joyce Colmer, Rosemary to the
rescue, London: Jarrolds, 1925
7. W. E. Johns, Biggles in
Australia, London: Hodder and
Stoughton, 1955
8. Selectionn of books by
R. M. Ballantyne
3.
The collections
The books comprising the Reading
adventures exhibition offer a small
taster of the library’s treasure trove
of literature for children. There are
works from three major collections on
display. The Ian McLaren Collection
is an eclectic and large range of books
(approximately 34,000 volumes in total,
with a significant number of books of
Australian writing for children). McLaren,
a former member of state parliament,
became an honorary bibliographer to the
University, after generously donating the
bulk of his book collection to the Library
in 1976. The Public School Fiction
Collection is a rich and varied source of
school stories, brought together by the
English collector, bookseller and science
fiction author Timothy d’Arch Smith,
and acquired by the University in 1989.
The Frederick Morgan Collection,
however, offers the largest selection of
adventure stories, reflecting its donor’s
particular passion. Morgan and his
daughter Penelope preserved more than
one thousand rare children’s books (the
collection today stands at more than 4000
volumes, having been added to since its
arrival in 1954) at a time when works of
this kind were not considered worthy
of serious attention. Morgan wrote with
great animation and affection of tales of
derring-do by Ballantyne, Kingston and
Marryat in a memoir of his boyhood, in
4.
which he remarked, ‘What a great period
the 19th Century was for the publication
of exciting books…Has anything
approaching it happened since?’. Morgan
was astute in identifying the nineteenth
century as the golden age of the
adventure story, with tales of pioneers,
outdoor escapades, exploration (in the
heat and in the snow) and sea-faring
gaining popularity at this time.
The rise of the adventure tale
According to children’s literature
expert, Dennis Butts, the Napoleonic
wars fostered enthusiasm for naval and
military dramas at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, with writers like the
retired naval officer, Captain Frederick
Marryat, recognizing the attraction that
exotic overseas adventures could hold
for children. Historical, or chivalric
adventures were also popular at this
time, reflecting England’s sense of its
heritage and refinement. Technological
developments, including advances in
steam shipping and the development of
a railway network altered the pace of
life. Moreover, the growth of the British
empire—particularly after 1870—
broadened the horizons for adventure
writers in terms of their settings, while at
the same time offering new markets for
readers in settler colonies whose cultural
ties to the ‘mother country’ remained
important to them. Colonial life also led
to a local literary culture, with authors
like the prolific William Howitt penning
tales of adventures in the Australian
bush which, over time, eventuated in a
tradition of stories featuring children,
sometimes lost in the bush, at other times
grappling with its unique challenges.
The adventure story normalized the
idea of the empire both for young British
children and for overseas readers, while
at the same time instilling in them moral
values that were identified as uniquely
British. Rip-roaring adventures often
featured real-life imperial heroes, like
General Gordon, while at the same time
memorializing events in imperial history,
such as the Indian ‘Mutiny’ of 1857 or
the Siege of Khartoum (1884–5) These
works also offered a platform for notions
of British racial superiority, often casting
non-white characters in subordinate roles
and dismissing their cultures as ‘savage’
or ‘primitive’.
5.
8.
6.
A new mass readership
By the final decades of the nineteenth
century, reading was no longer the
preserve of the wealthy, and the adventure
story offered a highly successful response
to this shift in readerly demographics.
W.E. Forster’s Education Act of 1870
mandated primary education for all
children under the age of twelve in
England and Wales. Canny publishers were
keen to capitalize on the emerging wave of
working-class readers, and the adventure
story became one of the most popular
forms for children and adolescents. The
genre was so successful, at least partly
because of its cross-class appeal, and while
many of the stories were aimed at young
boys—disseminating values like honour
and ‘manliness’—increasing numbers
of adventures for girls also appeared,
particularly in colonial settings. Stories
of adventures on the high seas were highly
popular, sometimes celebrating real-life
heroism like that of Grace Darling, who
rescued shipwrecked survivors in 1838
and who became an iconic Victorian
heroine. Others took delight in the
swashbuckling exploits of imaginary
pirates, at a time when real-life piracy
seemed to be in decline.
Nineteenth-century adventure stories
were characterized by their vivid primarycoloured covers and brilliant gold lettering.
Developments in the mass production of
books at the end of the century meant
7.
that for the first time these beautifully
bound, exquisitely decorated volumes
were widely available, while the rise
of the free public library also made
the works accessible even to the most
disadvantaged readers. Additional factors
that shaped working-class engagement
included paper that was less expensive
than ever before, and the rise of serial
fiction that was aimed specifically at
young readers, with publications like the
Boy’s own (1879 to 1967) and Girl’s
own (1880 to 1956) papers inspiring
great loyalty and enthusiasm at an
affordable price.
A constantly evolving form
Moving into the twentieth century, the
adventure story developed in a number
of fascinating ways to reflect a range of
cultural changes. Female emancipation,
the First and Second World Wars, the
decline of Britain’s imperial power, and
a less structured, more unregulated
approach to children’s leisure time all
contributed to changes to what the
young might consider to be an adventure.
Certainly, publishers continued to
take the market of child readers very
seriously, so much so that publishers
like the Stratemeyer Syndicate came
to specialise only in thrilling adventure
books for children. Seeking to make the
most of children’s loyalty to particular
favourite authors, they employed stables
of writers, who wrote under a single
pseudonym, such as ‘Roy Rockwood’,
who is represented here through the
book Through the air to the North
Pole (1906). Adventures centred around
children by themselves grew in popularity,
departing from the Victorian model of
an orphan facing adventure alone. These
twentieth-century adventures—made
especially popular by authors like the
prolific Enid Blyton—were often focused
on groups of children, sometimes using
their imaginations to create fantasy
worlds, and on other occasions pitted
against evil adults. Girl readers were
also viewed as a major consumer group,
with authors like John W. Wheway
(pseudonymous author of With Lucinda
in London, c. 1951), adopting a range of
female noms-de-plume in order to
enhance their appeal to audiences of
young girls.
One of many possible adventures
Arranged thematically, the books on
display here offer a pathway through the
development of the adventure narrative
up until the 1970s. With an abundance
of exquisite works from which to choose
(reflecting the preferences of their original
collectors), inevitably some favourite
authors and forms of adventure will have
been omitted. This exhibition is, then, a
point of introduction to some of our Rare
Collections in the hope that you, too, may
embark upon your own reading adventure.
Grace Moore
English & Theatre Studies
The Centre for the History of Emotions
The University of Melbourne
List of works
9. Nan Chauncy, Tiger in
the bush, London: Oxford
University Press, 1958
10. G. A. Henty, The dragon and
the raven, or, the days of
King Alfred, London: Blackie
& Son Ltd., c. 1900s
11. Called to arms, National
Game Co., n.d.
9.
All works are from the collections of the
University of Melbourne.
BOOKS
Frederick Morgan Collection,
Rare Books Collection,
University Library
Robert Michael Ballantyne 1825–1894
The world of ice
London and Melbourne: Ward and Lock
James Matthew Barrie 1860–1937
Peter and Wendy
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911
Enid Blyton 1897–1968
The mystery of Holly Lane
London: Methuen, 1953
Lady Brassey 1839–1887
In the trades, the tropics and the
roaring forties
London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1886
Lewis Carroll 1832–1898
Alice’s adventures in wonderland
London: Bodley Head
Joyce Colmer
Rosemary to the rescue
London: Jarrolds, 1925
Daniel Defoe 1661(?)–1731
Robinson Crusoe
Washington: Library of Congress, 1985
Facsimile reprint, originally published
Boston: L. Prang and Co., 1864
Daniel Defoe 1661(?)–1731
The life and adventures of
Robinson Crusoe
London: Frederick Warne, 1869
Mary England (ed.)
Warne’s top-all book for girls
London: Frederick Warne, c. 1920s
Francis Godwin 1562–1633
The man in the moone
Hereford: Nagrom, 1959
Facsimile reprint, originally published
London: John Norton, 1638
Bret Harte
The queen of the pirate isle
London: Chatto and Windus, 1886
G.A. Henty 1832–1902
Both sides of the border: A tale
of Hotspur and Glendower
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., c. 1900s
G.A. Henty 1832–1902
The dragon and the raven, or, the
days of King Alfred
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., c. 1900s
G. A. Henty 1832–1902
Through Russian snows
London: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1896
G.A. Henty 1832–1902
Won by the sword
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., 1900
10.
William H.G. Kingston 1814–1880
Snow shoes and canoes
London: Sampson Low, Marston,
Searle & Rivington, 1877
Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936
The jungle book
London: Macmillan and Co., 1921
Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936
The two jungle books
London: Macmillan, 1926
Alexander Macdonald 1878–1939
The lost explorers
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., 1907
John Masefield 1878–1967
The box of delights
London and Toronto: William
Heinemann, 1935
G.A. Henty, A. Conan Doyle,
W.W. Jacobs, Tom Gallon,
Gordon Stables, G. Manville Fenn,
James Payn, F.T. Bullen,
D.L. Johnstone, David Ker
Venture and valour
London: Chambers, 1900
James Mason (ed.)
Ice world adventures
London: Ward, Lock and Co., c. 1870s
Eva Hope
Grace Darling
London: Walter Scott Publishing Co.,
c. 1870s
Robert Paltock 1697–1767
The life and adventures of Peter Wilkins
London: Printed for E. Newbery, 1788
William Howitt 1792–1879
A boy’s adventures in the wilds
of Australia
London: George Routledge and Sons,
c. 1872
Frank Mundell
Stories of balloon adventures
London: The Sunday School Union, 1897
Howard Pyle 1853–1911
The merry adventures of Robin Hood
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1883
Arthur Ransome 1884–1967
Swallows and amazons
London: Jonathan Cape, 1931
Barbara Hutton 1863–1892
Heroes of the crusades
London; Sydney: Griffith Farran
Okeden & Welsh, c. 1869
Roy Rockwood
Through the air to the North Pole
New York: Cupples & Leon Co., 1906
T.T. (Thomas Tendron) Jeans
On foreign service
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., 1911
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1547–1616
Don Quixote of the Mancha
London: Blackie, 1900
William H.G. Kingston 1814–1880
Adventures in India
London: G. Routledge, c. 1884
Gordon Stables 1840–1910
On war’s red tide: A tale of the Boer War
London: James Nisbet & Co. Ltd.,
c. 1900s
Herbert Strang (George Herbert
Ely 1866–1958 and Charles James
L’Estrange 1867–1947)
One of Clive’s heroes
Melbourne: Humphrey Milford, 1918
Jonathan Swift 1667–1745
Gulliver’s travels into several remote
regions of the world
London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin,
c. 1865
Jonathan Swift 1667–1745
Gulliver’s travels into several remote
regions of the world
London: T. Nelson, 1900
Unknown author
Robinson Crusoe, a coloured picture
book for the nursery
London: Thomas Nelson & Sons,
c. 1892
Unknown author
The pirate omnibus
London: Collins, 1952
Unknown author
Young England: An illustrated
annual, vol. 39
London: The Pilgrim Press, 1918
Percy F. (Francis) Westerman
1876–1959
A sub and a submarine
London: Blackie and Son Ltd., c. 1918
Percy F. (Francis) Westerman
1876–1959
To the fore with the tanks
London: S.W. Partridge and Co. Ltd.,
c. 1920s
Eric Wood
The boy’s book of the sea
London: Cassell and Co. Ltd., c. 1900s
Public School Fiction Collection,
Rare Books Collection,
University Library
Hazel Armitage
Jean and the island castaway
London: Amalgamated Press, c. 1951
11.
Hazel Armitage
With Lucinda in London
London: Amalgamated Press, c. 1951
W. E. Johns 1893–1968
Biggles on Mystery Island
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1958
Angela Brazil 1869–1947
The fortunes of Philippa
London: Blackie and Son Ltd, 1906
Leonard Lewis (ed.)
Epics of the empire
London: Dean, c. 1936
Ierne L. Plunkett
Princess Natalie’s adventures
London: Oxford University Press, 1933
Norman Lindsay 1879–1969
The magic pudding
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936
Unknown author
The Aldine adventure book
London: Aldine, n.d.
Ethel C. Pedley 1859–1898
Dot and the kangaroo
London: Thomas Burleigh, 1899
Unknown author
The Oxford annual for girls
London: Oxford University Press,
(1928)
Mary Weston
Christine, air hostess
London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., (1950)
Ian McLaren Collection,
Rare Books Collection,
University Library
Skipp Borlase (James S. Borlase)
1839–1902
Stirring tales of colonial adventure
London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1894
Ellen Bosworth
Shelly and the bushfire mystery
Sydney: Golden Press, 1972
Rare Books Collection,
University Library
Jonathan Swift 1667–1745
Gulliver’s travels into several remote
regions of the world
London: Printed for Charles Bathurst,
1747
ARTWORKS
Baillieu Library Print Collection
An exhibition held in the Noel Shaw
Gallery, Baillieu Library, University
of Melbourne, 16 July 2015 to
21 February 2016, curated by
Dr Grace Moore. Exhibition team:
Brian Allison, Exhibitions Coordinator,
Baillieu Library; Susie Shears,
Cultural Collections Coordinator;
and Anthony Tedeschi, Curator, Rare
Books Collection, University Library.
Brochure design: Boschen Design;
Photography: Lee McRae, University
of Melbourne.
NOEL SHAW GALLERY
Baillieu Library
The University of Melbourne
Front image: Robinson Crusoe, a
coloured picture book for the nursery,
London: Thomas Nelson and Sons,
c. 1892
See website for opening hours and
public programs http://library.
unimelb.edu.au/adventures
William Hogarth 1697–1764
Quixote being cared for by the
innkeeper’s wife and daughter (1790)
engraving; image 22.7 × 17.4 cm,
sheet 25.2 × 18.0 cm
William Hogarth 1697–1764
The freeing of the galley slaves (1790)
engraving; image 21.7 × 17.6 cm,
sheet 24.2 × 18.5 cm,
Thomas Kirk 1765–1797
Robinson Crusoe, the wife of Crusoe
expressing her disapprobation of his
second voyage 1797
etching; sheet 12.1 × 8.3 cm
T. Prattent
Frontispiece to Rusher’s edition of
Robin Hood n.d.
etching and engraving;
image 12.8 × 8.1 cm, sheet 18.0 × 10.6 cm
Thomas Stothard 1755–1834
Margaret of Anjou (c. 1784)
stipple engraving; image 30.6 cm diam.
Thomas Stothard 1755–1834
Title vignette for Robinson Crusoe (1790)
engraving; sheet 20.8 × 15.0 cm
Unknown
A rescue of a sailor 1835
steel engraving; plate 15.1 × 23.4 cm
Edwy Searles Brooks
The boy from the bush
The Monster Library of Complete
Stories
William H. Brown 1748–1825
This being resolved he spy’d by
chance, behind a door a wooden
lance 1803
etching; plate 15.5 × 9.9 cm
Nan Chauncy 1900–1970
They found a cave
London: Oxford University Press, 1948
Lucas Cranach 1472–1553
Youth on a horse 1506
woodcut; image 18.4 × 12.4 cm
Unknown
(Illustration to Gulliver’s travels) n.d.
watercolour; image 22.3 × 19.8 cm
Nan Chauncy 1900–1970
Tiger in the bush
London: Oxford University Press, 1958
Johann Ladenspelder 1521–1561,
after Albrecht Dürer 1471–1528
The small horse n.d.
engraving; image 16.1 × 12.2 cm,
sheet 32.9 × 24.0 cm
Thomas Uwins 1782–1857
Frontispiece and title page to
‘Robinson Crusoe’ 1818
etching; sheet 12.8 × 15.1 cm
E.W. Cole
Cole’s great girls’ book
Melbourne: Wilkie & Co., 1950
W. E. Johns 1893–1968
Biggles in Australia
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1955
Unknown
(A pirate ship sinking) 1835
steel engraving; plate 15.2 × 23.0 cm
University Art Collection
Charles Heath 1784–1848, after
Richard James Lane 1800–1872
A sleeping man being protected from
a dragonfly by a winged knight 1818
etching; plate 11.9 × 8.9 cm
Norman Lindsay 1879–1969
Mutiny on a convict ship 1796 1909
watercolour, gouache and pencil;
sight 30.0 × 23.8 cm
© 2015 The University of Melbourne
Norman Lindsay 1879–1969
Royal Charles n.d.
wood; 50.0 × 132.0 cm
Grainger Museum
Unknown
Tiger n.d.
watercolour; 13.5 × 19.7 cm
GAMES
Frederick Morgan Collection,
Rare Books Collection,
University Library
Called to arms n.d.
National Game Co.
31.1 × 48.5 cm
Geographical recreation, or, a
voyage round the habitable globe
London: J. Harris, facsimile of 1809
game
58.5 × 52.6 cm
Bett’s new portable terrestrial globe
London: George Philip & Son, c. 1866
42.5 cm circumference
Peacock’s double dissection
geography and history 1890
box 25.5 × 20.4 × 5.0 cm
Richter’s anchor stone building
blocks
16.9 × 12.2 × 3.0 cm
MAPS
Rare and Historical Maps
Collection
London Geographical Institute
Navy League map of the British
Empire
London: G. Philip & Son, c. 1924
FILM
Andrew Steane
They found a cave 1962
Visatone Island Pictures
61 min