Monday, October 11, 2010

10 Books A Day: #164





















All books are by Thornton W. Burgess and illustrated by Harrison Cady, unless otherwise noted.


The Dear Old Briar-Patch...Little, Brown

The Adventures of Peter Cottontail...Tempo Books

The Adventures of Reddy Fox...Tempo Books

The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel...Grosset & Dunlap

The Adventures of Bob White...Grosset & Dunlap

The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum...Grosset & Dunlap

Mother West Wind's Children...ill. by George Kerr...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's Animal Friends...ill. by George Kerr...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's Animal Friends...ill. by George Kerr...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's "Why" Stories...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's "How" Stories...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's "Why" Stories...Little, Brown and Co.

Mother West Wind's "Where" Stories...Little, Brown and Co.


Thornton W. Burgess's books were some of the first "chapter" books I read back in McQueeney Elementary back in the early Seventies. At the time a lot of their resources were a little elderly, recalling the Fifties and even the Forties (this goes for their teachers as well as their books), but provided an excellent grounding in the basics for all of that. Burgess's books with Cady's illustrations always strike that nostalgic note with me, and I was pleased to see them lovingly remembered and paid tribute to by John Crowley in his monumental Little, Big.


I have two copies of Mother West Wind's Animal Friends because one is an actual book from the old McQueeney library that I bought years later at a garage sale. I have Old Mother West Wind in a fancy new copy illustrated by Michael Hague. The other Mother West Wind books all seem to be first printings (1911-1918!) and are inscribed with the name "Hamilton Barton Jr." What a fine old-fashioned moniker! I couldn't have made up a more perfect period name if I had tried.


Book Count: 1964.

No comments: