The History of Giles Gingerbread. TRIP (Tom) - pseud.

The History of Giles Gingerbread, A Little Boy, Who lived upon Learning. By Tom Trip. Decorated with Cuts.

12 woodcut vignettes.

32mo. [102 x 64 mm]. 32pp. Original blue wrappers printed on both covers.
York: printed and sold by J. Kendrew, [c.1820].

The first and last leaf are both laid down inside the wrapper, as issued. A fine copy.

An abridged chapbook version of The Renowned History of Giles Gingerbread which was published about 1765. According to Osborne (I, p.314) it is probably by John Newbery, who is described in Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield as "the philanthropic bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard who... was at the time actually compiling materials for the history of one Mr. Thomas Trip". It has also been ascribed to Goldsmith himself and to Giles Jones. The story concerns the teaching of reading: "See here little Giles. / With his Gingerbread book, / For which he doth long, / and at which he doth look; / Till by longing and looking, / He gets it by heart, / And then eats it up, / As we eat up a tart." Three sets of alphabets - Roman Capital Letters, Old English Capital and Small Letters, and Italic Capital and Small Letters - are printed on the verso of the title. Two poems, "The Boy Who Knew Nothing" and "Praise for the Gospel" are included at the end.

Stock no. ebc3629