Father Goose: His Book facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | L. Frank Baum |
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| Illustrator | W. W. Denslow |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature Humor, Fantasy |
| Publisher | George M. Hill Company |
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Publication date
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1899 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 106 pp. |
Father Goose: His Book is a collection of fun, silly poems for kids. It was written by L. Frank Baum and had amazing pictures by W. W. Denslow. The book first came out in 1899.
Even though many people don't know about it today, Father Goose was a huge hit when it was first published. It was one of the best-selling children's books in America! This success helped L. Frank Baum start his writing career, which later led to his famous book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Contents
How the Book Was Made
This book came from an earlier collection of poems Baum wrote called By the Candelabra's Glare. That book had a small section of poems just for children. Baum decided to make a whole new book of silly poems based on those. Father Goose has 72 poems, and two of them were from his earlier book.
Denslow had drawn a few pictures for Baum's first poem collection. He also worked on a magazine Baum published called The Show Window. But Father Goose was the first big project they worked on together.
A Team Effort
Baum and Denslow worked very closely on Father Goose. It was a true team effort! Sometimes, Denslow would draw pictures to go with Baum's poems. Other times, Baum would change his poems to fit Denslow's drawings.
Many people think Denslow's pictures in the book are even better than Baum's poems. His drawings for Father Goose are often called his best work. Denslow's pictures were stylish and funny. He didn't just draw; he made sure the pictures, colors, and words all worked together. This made each page look like a beautiful piece of art. Some even said the book looked like "a series of art posters bound together."
Finding a Publisher
When Baum and Denslow looked for someone to publish their book, they chose the George M. Hill Co. This meeting of Baum, Denslow, and Hill was important. It brought together the team that would create The Wonderful Wizard of Oz the very next year!
At first, the publisher, George M. Hill Co., wasn't sure about spending a lot of money on two new writers. So, Baum and Denslow had to pay for all the printing costs themselves. Later, Hill did invest some money. Baum and Denslow paid for all the art, including printing the color pictures and the cover. They even paid for the advertising! Hill then paid for the paper, binding, and getting the books out to stores.
To save money, Baum and Denslow had a friend, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, hand-letter all the poems. Another artist, Charles Michael Jerome Costello, helped Seymour. Both of these artists had also worked on Baum's earlier book, By the Candelabra's Glare. Seymour was paid $67.25 for his work, and Costello received $30.00.
A Big Success
Father Goose went on sale in September 1899, just in time for the Christmas shopping season. It was a huge hit! The book sold more than 75,000 copies. The pictures were much better than anything else in American children's books at that time.
Its success led to many other books trying to copy it the next year. There were books like Old Father Gander and Mother Wild Goose. One newspaper in Chicago even joked about these "Goose pimples in the book trade this year." Denslow's art style also influenced how other children's books were illustrated, usually making them better.
Praise for the Book
Most critics really liked Father Goose. Famous writers like Mark Twain and William Dean Howells also admired and enjoyed the book. L. Frank Baum used some of the money he earned from the book to buy a house by a lake in Macatawa, Michigan. He named his new home "The Sign of the Goose" and decorated it with goose designs.
Baum and Denslow followed up their success with The Songs of Father Goose in 1900. This book had music by Alberta Neiswanger Hall for 26 of the poems. It wasn't as popular as the first book, but it still sold well. Other ideas, like a Father Goose Calendar and a musical play, didn't happen. However, Baum did publish Father Goose's Year Book in 1907.
Some poems from Father Goose were also included in Baum's 1910 book, L. Frank Baum's Juvenile Speaker.
The Poems Inside
Baum explained what his book was about in the very first poem:
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- Old Mother Goose became quite new,
- And joined a Women's Club,
- She left poor Father Goose at home
- To care for Sis and Bub.
- They called for stories by the score,
- And laughed and cried to hear
- All of the queer and merry songs
- That in this book appear....
Even though it was very popular at first, Father Goose didn't become a classic like some other children's books. People don't usually say that Baum's silly poems are as good as those by Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll. His poems are clever, but sometimes simple, like this one:
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- Did you ever see a rabbit climb a tree?
- Did you ever see a lobster ride a flea?
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- Did you ever?
- No, you never!
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- For they simply couldn't do it, don't you see?
Baum wrote a few more children's poems, like his Army Alphabet and Navy Alphabet in 1900. After that, he mostly stopped writing poems and started writing stories, which led to the magical Land of Oz.
Understanding the Time Period
L. Frank Baum was quite open-minded for his time. However, he sometimes used common ways of showing different groups of people that we would now find unfair or stereotypical.
One expert, Michael Hearn, said that Father Goose was special because it tried to show what the United States was like back then. It was perhaps the first picture book to show the mix of cultures in American cities. Today, some of the ways Baum and Denslow showed people from different backgrounds, like African Americans, Irish, Italian, Chinese, and Native Americans, are not acceptable. These were common ways of showing people in popular entertainment like vaudeville shows and comic strips back then.
However, Father Goose was different from most children's books of its time. It did show that people of color and other cultures were a part of American life, even if they were shown in ways we now find offensive. This was a step toward recognizing the diversity of the country.
To learn more about how Baum dealt with showing different groups of people in his other works, you can look at books like Daughters of Destiny, Father Goose's Year Book, Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea, Sky Island, and The Woggle-Bug Book.
