Connecting Collections – Ludford Books
Professor Matthew Grenby explores the mid-eighteenth-century “Ludford books” — two exceptionally rare children’s volumes that illuminate early methods of teaching reading and the growth of children’s literature in Britain.
In the world of rare books, few discoveries shine a light on the origins of children’s reading like the remarkable “Ludford books” — two unique mid-eighteenth-century volumes that reveal early approaches to childhood learning.
Professor Matthew Grenby, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, explores the Ludford books in a Newcastle University Connecting Collections video below:
These exceptionally rare works once belonged to the Ludford family, whose personal library has become central to understanding the development of children’s literature in Britain.
The Ludford family were members of the English landed gentry, based in Warwickshire. Their family library, associated particularly with John Ludford Esq., was large and well organised — as shown by armorial bookplates and shelf marks found in multiple volumes. While not a literary family themselves, their collection offers a rare glimpse into how the eighteenth-century gentry acquired and preserved children’s books. Their careful stewardship is one of the key reasons these fragile works have survived.
The story of these volumes begins with the so-called “Ludford Box”, held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This box contains eleven rare children’s books in twelve volumes, dating from 1746 to 1781. Some of these works bear John Ludford’s bookplate and library shelf marks, indicating that they once formed part of a much larger private collection.
In recent years, additional Ludford books have been identified in institutional collections in both the UK and USA. Two of these rare works — The First of All Books for Children… (Second Edition, London: J. Collier, 1757) and A Pretty Little Book of Pictures, Or a New Method of Teaching little Children to Read… (Second Edition, London: J. Collier, 1757) — were more recently owned by Brian Alderson, one of the world’s leading authorities on children’s literature, who published on the Ludford significance. Through Brian’s advocacy, these now belong to Newcastle University Special Collections & Archives. Their survival as a pair, linked by provenance, is remarkable and offers an unparalleled glimpse into eighteenth-century domestic reading and early childhood education.
These books were designed to be used together, with the text volume in the child’s hands and the woodcut picture book in the hands of the teacher. This innovative method encouraged memory, imagination, and engagement — well ahead of its time. The woodcut volume contains 177 illustrations, the largest known number in a children’s book of the period.
They are likely connected to Joseph Collier, a London bookseller and publisher known for producing pioneering early children’s books, and his wife Mary Collyer, an author of the first collection of moral tales for children. Together, their work helped shape the emerging field of children’s literature in eighteenth-century Britain.
As fragile classroom teaching tools, these books were never meant to last. Their survival and careful preservation in the Ludford household make them extraordinarily rare. Only one other copy of one title is known, and that may in fact be the same book reappearing on the market. Today, the Ludford books are valued not just for their rarity, but for the window they offer into eighteenth-century pedagogy, reading practices, and the history of children’s literature.
Presented alongside the Ludford books in the same box are two other scarce eighteenth-century children’s books:
The first is A Guide for the Child and Youth (London: Printed by J. Roberts for the Company of Stationers, 1753). It has two parts: one teaches children to read, pray, and learn basic manners; the other teaches older children writing and arithmetic. The only known copy of this 1753 edition in the UK and Ireland is at Newcastle University Library, according to JISC Library Hub Discover. The author is listed only as “T.H.,” a private school teacher whose identity remains uncertain.
An earlier edition, printed in 1667 by Thomas Johnson — a London printer and bookseller — for Dixy Page, a well-known bookseller and publisher of affordable popular works, shows that the book stayed in print for nearly a century, shaping early children’s education.
The second is The Prettiest Book for Children (London: Printed for F. Newbery, 1772). Set in the “Fortunate Isles,” it tells of a land ruled by Giant Instruction. Children meet Mr. Alphabet, practice reading, and view moral paintings shown by Mr. Interpreter. The author, using the pseudonym Don Stephano Bunyano, remains unknown. It was published by Francis Newbery, son of John Newbery, a major figure in children’s publishing who helped make such books both popular and profitable.
