March Comes In

Around these parts, it's not really a lion's roar: it's Old Man Winter dumping more snow. But Childcraft represents the more usual idea of the season—

Illustration: [Mary] Latham

I do like those post-war fashions.

And unlike what happened to gents, the March wind of yesteryear never dared interfere with a lady's hat.

We Return You To Our Regular Programming

New Year's charming little girl was evidently young enough to be allowed the gift of "A whole New Year — for me!"...

Artist: M. Hauge

But that was it, for such tomboyish ways; elsewhere, Childcraft rhapsodizes on the theme of housewives in training.

Artist: Meg Wohlberg

Page Turner

Artist: M. Hauge

Divided Attention

Childcraft (v 2): Storytelling and Other Poems
1949 - Field Enterprises, Chicago

It seems this volume first appeared in 1923, as The Child's Treasury. The original publisher, W.F. Quarrie & Company, issued several editions into the 1930s; editions from 1939 to 1947 were published by the Quarrie Corporation.

Fields Enterprises (headed by an heir to Marshall Field) had moved into publishing by buying The Chicago Sun in 1944. From 1945 to 1978 the company owned the World Book encyclopedia. It seems the Childcraft series also was marketed by encyclopedia salesmen.

Other titles in series.

Endpapers—

The text has at least one illustration for page, with a single artist illustrating a 2-page spread. As a number of different artists are represented, the book is interesting for variations in period styles aimed at children.

Text is grouped in three sections: "Poems for Everyday," "Humorous Poems," "Storytelling Poems and Ballads."

Near the end is this colorful spread—

Patriotism here—

Followed by some broadening of the sales market—

I'll have to get to more illustrations in future, but another item of interest for now is an item left in the book. It would seem that around the 1980s, this copy was handed down to a child with more up-to-date daydreams than those the Fields Co. promoted—

Page from a tear-out sticker book (to scale)