Readings in Fiction : History of Children's Literature to 1837 - ENG 360 Resource Guide

from The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Early publisher of children’s books whose work predates that of John Newbery. Boreman’s Description of Three Hundred Animals (1730) was in fact adapted by Newbery within his own publications.

from The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Pioneer publisher of books for children. The son of a Berkshire farmer, Newbery worked for a printer in Reading, married his employer’s widow, and took over the business. In 1744 he moved to London and published the Little Pretty Pocket-Book, a collection of rhymes and pictures which was the first of more than 20 pocket-sized books for ‘Little Masters and Misses’ or ‘Young Ladies and Gentlemen’. The best known is Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765). This is often attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, but from available indications it seems more likely that Newbery wrote it himself.

Printer, publisher, historian of printing, and philanthropist, Isaiah Thomas used his newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy, to support the cause of American liberty. In the years after the Revolutionary War, Thomas contributed to the democratic dissemination of learning by printing a wide variety of works, including schoolbooks, children's books, bibles, and almanacs.

Publishing for children in the United Kingdon seems to have had its beginning in chapbooks - the illustrated tales carried by travelling pedlars in the 17th and 18th centuries that were read for enjoyment by children as well as by their intended adult audience. Their publishers (who were also their printers) sold the books to chapmen on credit, payment to be made (with interest) when the pedlars returned from their summer journeys.