96 pp. Illustrated with wood engravings by Alexander Anderson, Abel Bowen, Nathaniel Dearborn, Alonzo Hartwell, and others. 5½x4½, original engraved pictorial wrappers.
Early and quite rare American edition of Mother Goose, with the provocative claim that the melodies had been found in the same stone box as the Golden Plates of the Book of Mormon, which had been published in 1830. Most of the melodies seem the standard ones, with some American usages. Among the more uncommon verses: "There was an old woman, and what do you think?/ She lived upon nothing, but victuals and drink:/ Victuals and drink were the chief of her diet,/ Yet this old lady scarce ever was quiet." "See Saw Margery Daw,/ Sold her bed, and lay upon straw./ Was not she a dirty slut,/ To sell her bed and lay in the dirt?" and "What care how black I be?/ Twenty pounds will marry me./ If twenty won't, forty shall,/ I'm my mother's bouncing girl." The illustrations, of which there are almost always one, and sometimes two, per page, are equally intriguing. The bibliography of this book is somewhat uncertain. There were a number of editions published by Monroe and Francis, and C.S. Francis, beginning around 1832, and some possibly as late as 1845. There are about a dozen copies of the various editions listed in the RLG Union Catalogue, with various differences. The present copy has an "alphabet rhyme" on pp. 93-4, which continued to page 95, with advertisement on page 96.
Condition:
Front wrapper creased and worn, corners torn off affecting imprint; lower corners of first three leaves torn off but affecting no text, about half of the remaining pages are dog-eared, top corner of second leaf torn off affecting a few letters and part of an illustration, top corner of rear wrapper missing; good to very good, a fragile and intriguing American imprint.