Lydia Louisa Anna Very (November 2, 1823 – September 10, 1901)[1] was an American writer, educator, and illustrator known for authoring the earliest shape books in America.
Biography[edit]
She was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the daughter of two first cousins, Lydia Very and Jones Very, a captain during the War of 1812.[2][3] Her brother Jones became a Transcendentalist poet and clergyman.[4]
She became a teacher at the age of 18 and spent most of her 34-year teaching career in the local public schools.[5] As an artist, she worked in oil and clay.[5]
In 1863 she wrote and designed Red Riding Hood, a verse version of the folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood" that was die-cut into the outline shape of the little girl with the wolf crouching by her feet.[3][5] Published by L. Prang & Co., it was the first book in the United States to be shaped like a person or an animal.[1][5][6][7] Prang followed up with more shaped books (also known as 'Doll books') written by Very, including Goody Two Shoes and a verse version of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.[6] Very claimed the shaped-book design was hers and tried but failed to get a patent; her claim was disputed by Prang, which countered that it had originated the shaped books.[5][6] In any case, the shaped books were quickly imitated by other publishers, and Very later wrote that she was paid very little for these books, which were quite successful.[5]
Very wrote a great deal of poetry, which she published in magazines and newspapers of the day as well as in two anthologies.[5] She also translated poems from French and German.[5] Her few novels include A Strange Recluse (1899).
The Very family papers, including five volumes of Very's poetry and other materials, were published by the American Antiquarian Society in 2009.[8]
Books[edit]
- Poems (1856)
- Red Riding Hood (1863)
- Robinson Crusoe (1864)
- Goody Two Shoes (1865)
- Poems and Prose Writings (1890)
- Sayings and Doings Among Insects and Flowers (1897)
- Sylph, Or the Organ-Grinder's Daughter (1898; with illustrations by Very)
- A Strange Disclosure: A Tale of New England Life (1898)
- A Strange Recluse (1899)
- An Old-Fashioned Garden, and Walks and Musings Therein (1900)
References[edit]
- ^ a b Colledge, William A., Nathan Haskell Dole, and George Jotham Hagar, eds. The New Standard Encyclopedia, vol. 12.
- ^ Gittleman, Edwin. Jones Very: The Effective Years: 1833-1840. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967, pp. 5–14.
- ^ a b Leonard, John William and Albert Nelson Marquis, eds. Who's who in America. Marquis Who's Who, 1910, vol. 2, p. 1174.
- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 6. New York: James T. White & Co., p. 276.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Willard, Frances E., and Mary A. Livermore, eds. A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Moulton, 1893, p. 733.
- ^ a b c McLinton, Katherine Morrison. The Chromolithographs of Louis Prang. C. N. Potter, 1973.
- ^ "The First Shape Book: Little Red Riding Hood (1863)". The Public Domain Review
- ^ American Antiquarian Society. Very Family Papers. Alexander Street Press, 2009.
External links[edit]
- Works by Lydia L.A. Very at Project Gutenberg
- Red Riding Hood at the Internet Archive
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