[CHILDREN'S BOOKS]. A Collection of 11 Small Unpublished Children's Books (Typewritten Lyrical Poems and Prose)

Long Branch, New Jersey: The Author, 1929. Very good. A quantity of 11 typescript poems or prose, 3 or 4 leaves each (typed on rectos only). Seven of the typescripts have pencil markings to the text; one of the typescripts was retitled from "Toby and the Pup" (in pencil, erased) to "Just a Puppy." Several are typed in red and black. Original homemade bindings of (thicker) brown paper with 2 brad fasteners, titles inked in pen on upper covers (some foxing, creasing or small staining, typescript sheets very good), five typescripts are numbered in pencil (nos. 2, 4, 5, 10, 11). Onto the back wrapper of "The Monkey Shines" is a cut-out image of a caged baby chimpanzee. All typescripts signed by the author on the final page. Half-morocco clamshell box. ELEVEN UNPUBLISHED TYPESCRIPT POEMS AND PROSE FOR SMALL CHILDREN. OF THESE, FIVE SEEM UNSUITABLY DARK. WHILE WE APPRECIATE CHILDREN'S CAUTIONARY TALES FROM THE MEDIEVAL TO THE MODERN ERA, IN TERMS OF DIRE GRIMNESS SOME OF THE WRITINGS HEREIN MEET OR EXCEED THEIR ANCESTORS, FOR INSTANCE: "A SAD TALE" TELLS HOW A FROG AND A DOG ARE TRAPPED ON A LOG AND FLOAT OUT INTO THE OCEAN WHERE THEY SIMPLY DROWN (WHY?), OR THE GRUESOME RHYMING "PIGGIES" IN WHICH ALL ELEVEN PIGS PIGLETS DIE HORRIBLY ONE AFTER ANOTHER (WHY?)

"Eleven little PIGGIES
In a PIGGIE pen
One was stepped upon
Then there were TEN.

"TEN little PIGGIES
I wish they were mine
One had a sunstroke,
Then there were NINE.

[...]

"ONE little PIGGIE
Left to mourn alone.
He died of lonliness (sic)
Now there are NONE."

While little known today, Charlotte L. Cobb (1870-1964), a "famed" Long Branch, NJ lyricist, wrote over 100 songs during her lifetime. She was a published lyricist and composer (mainly of patriotic songs), most active after WWI, but we have found an entry for her as early as 1903 in Library of Congress Copyright Office Catalog ("A Blood Red Rose"). According to her obituary in the Long Branch Daily Record (Oct. 24, 1964) to which she contributed, "She was well known in this city for he habit of making frequent trips to the public library to read her poetry to children."

We suggest the date "ca. 1929" owning to a known event in Long Branch which is recounted here in "Billy the Monkey" (prose) and "Monkey Shines" (poem). In August, 1929 a rhesus monkey inexplicably entered a Long Branch hardware store and commenced to wreak havoc. The local pet store owner was called in to help trap the monkey, which he did with the aid of his own monkey Billy. Here Cobb misidentifies the mischievous monkey as "Billy," perhaps changing the name to protect the guilty!

HIGHLY CURIOUS COLLECTION OF UNPUBLISHED CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.