John Newbery - Publishing Career

Publishing Career

By 1740 Newbery had started his publishing business in Reading. His first two publications were an edition of Richard Allestree's The Whole Duty of Man and Miscellaneous Works Serious and Humerous In Verse and Prose. In 1743, Newbery left Reading, putting his stepson John Carnan in charge of his business there, and established a shop in London, first at the Bible and Crown near Devereux Court. He published several adult books, but became interested in expanding his business to children's books. His first children's book, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, appeared July 18, 1744. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book is the first in Newbery's successful line of children's books. The book cost six pence but for an extra two the purchaser received a red and black ball or pincushion . Newbery, like John Locke, believed that play was a better enticement to children's good behavior than physical discipline, and the child was to record their behavior by either sticking a pin in the red side for good behavior or the black side if they were bad. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, though it would seem didactic today, was well-received. Promising to "infallibly make Tommy a good boy and Polly a good girl", it had poems, proverbs and an alphabet song. The book was child sized with a brightly colored cover that appealed to children -- something new in the publishing industry. Known as gift books, these early books became the precursor to the toy books popular in the 19th century. In developing his particular brand of children's literature, Newbery borrowed techniques from other publishers, such as binding his books in Dutch floral paper and advertising his other products and books within the stories he wrote or commissioned. This improvement in the quality of books for children, as well as the diversity of topics he published, helped make Newbery the leading producer of children's books in his time.

In 1745 Newbery moved his firm to a more upscale address at 65 St. Paul's Churchyard and named it the Bible and Sun, continuing to publish a mix of adult and children's titles. This new shop did so well he eventually sold the Reading business. His success allowed his son Francis to attend both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Jan Susina, writing in The Lion and the Unicorn says "Newbery's genius was in developing the fairly new product category, children's books, through his frequent advertisements... and his clever ploy of introducing additional titles and products into the body of his children's books."

About one-fifth of the five hundred books Newbery produced were children's stories, including ABC books, children's novels and children's magazines. He published his own books as well as those by authors like Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith. Scholars have speculated that Goldsmith or Giles and Griffith Jones wrote The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, Newbery's most popular book. It had 29 editions between 1765 and 1800. Some sources credit Newbery with publishing the first edition of Mother Goose in England, but others now say the book may have been planned, but was never actually produced. Newbery also published a series of books written by "Tom Telescope" that were wildly popular, going through seven editions between 1761 and 1787 alone. These were based on the emerging science of the day and consisted of a series of lectures given by a boy, Tom Telescope. The most famous is The Newtonian System of Philosophy Adapted to the Capacities of Young Gentlemen and Ladies.

Newbery's prosperity did not just come from publishing; he was one of the most successful merchants in England at the time. Some of his fortune came from the patent and sales of Dr. Robert James's Fever Powder, a medicine which claimed to cure the gout, rheumatism, scrofula, scurvy, leprosy, and distemper in cattle. This product became successful due in part to Newbery's advertisements for it in his literature. In Goody Two-Shoes, the heroine's father dies because he was "seized with a violent fever in a place where Dr. James Fever Powder was not to be had." Newbery used his fortune to help writers through financial difficulties. Those he is known to have assisted include Johnson, who called him "Jack Whirler" for his constant activity and inability to sit still; and Goldsmith, who portrayed Newbery in The Vicar of Wakefield as Mr. Primrose, "the friend of all mankind."

John Newbery died December 22, 1767, in Islington. He is buried in Waltham Saint Lawrence.