I recently posted about this on my livejournal (if you are on there and want to add me my name is Jaie up there) So I'm going to simply post what I wrote up there as my response:
I've got a couple of books I'm also keeping an eye on as well. Someone has an entire collection of the Waverly Novels<http://www.who2.com/sirwalterscott.html>for sale. I've always wanted a set. And this set has 26 of the books. If I recall there should be 48. These are the books I learned to read on. Our great grandmother had a set of these. She had a bookcase with books in the kitchen and along with her cookbooks she kept a lot of children's books. Anne of Green Gables in hardback all the way to the Rilla book, Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm in first edition, that had been hers. Also there were all of the books from my grandfather and his siblings the last of whom wasn't born until my grandfather was a man and married himself in the late 40's. The Waverly's however were kept in the attic. When I was about 5 or so my grandmother brought them down from the attic and gave them to me to read. I was already a heavy reader and had gone through all the ones in the kitchen. I was told to be very careful with them as they had belonged to her own father or grandfather. She came from a wealthier home than the one she went to in marriage so these versions of the Waverly set were leather bound with the owners initials on the binding. I believe my aunt has them now. The other set I am thinking about is a set of the Samantha books.And no, I don't mean the American Girl Samantha. I'm speaking of the Victorian Samantha. Another set of books my grandmother had. And before anyone thinks I'm trying to relive my childhood, don't. These are books that I learned to love with my Grandmother. That's all. The Samantha books were also written by a local woman. Marietta Holley<http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/holley.htm>who was from Pierrepont Manor in Jefferson County, NY. Pierrepont was another major scene in my childhood. Marietta was a suffragette in the early days and her Samantha books are about a girl who breaks all of society's more silly rules while staying a lady. You can read the series at Project Guttenberg. I used to have some of these books but when I moved here it was among the boxes of books that mysteriously came up missing. The only mystery of course being what dump did my ex husband toss them in because he felt I had "too many books. Get rid of them". So now I have to replace my set. Luckily he didn't toss my set of Paige Twins<http://unofficial.umkc.edu/crossonm/pagetwins.htm>books. Otherwise I may very well have killed him. As you can tell though, I like girl series books. I have Aunt Jane's Nieces as well. Which is if you aren't aware by Frank Baum under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. Grandmother also had the Brownie Books and the Curlytops. The Brownie Books I think were my aunt's the Curlytops my grandmother had gotten herself. I have the newly printed Elsie Dinsmore books. Five Little Peppers was also in grandmother's library. There was also the Betsey Tacy<http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Lights/4859/>books. They still print these so replacing them is not even an issue. They even have a society <http://www.betsy-tacysociety.org/>. Maud Hart Lovelace wrote them much later than the other books so I tend to think these may have belonged to one of my younger aunts along with the Nancy Drew books that I hated. But my most expensive books will be to work on getting hardcover and/or first editions of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books AND Lucy Maud Montgomery's sets. Whew. Obligatory costume content...I also enjoy recreating what I think the charachters would have worn and indeed am thinking of starting a "Rilla" dress for my next project. Bice On 10/17/05, Kathryn Parke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If you love good kids' lit -- as I do, passionately -- then you owe it to > yourself to find everything you can by Edith Nesbit, if you haven't > discovered her already (The Story of the Treasure Seekers, the New Treasure > Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, The Magic City, The Magic World, Wet Magic, The > Railroad Children, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The > Story of the Amulet, The Enchanted Castle, Melisande, The Book of Dragons, > The Book of Beasts, The House of Arden, Harding's Luck, Fairy Tales...). > She's usually published under "E. Nesbit." > > And the only (admittedly weak) way I can think of to make this clothing > related is that she was very atypical in the way she dressed for her time > (Victorian) -- loose gowns, no corset, short hair -- and she smoked like a > chimney! > > KP > Dianne & Greg Stucki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But children's lit is FUN! Think about it--Anne, The Phantom Tollbooth, > The > NeverEnding Story (another one where the movies truly STUNK), Narnia, > Grimm's Fairy Tales... > > I LOVE children's books! > > Dianne > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
