"Children's literature, as we know it today, first came into existence in Britain in the eighteenth century. This is the first major study to consider who the first users of this new product were, which titles they owned, how they acquired and used their books, and what they thought of them. Evidence of these things is scarce. But by drawing on a diverse array of sources, including inscriptions and marginalia, letters and diaries, inventories and parish records, and portraits and pedagogical treatises, and by pioneering exciting new methodologies, it has been possible to reconstruct both sociological profiles of consumers and the often touching experiences of individual children. Grenby's discoveries about the owners of children's books, and their use, abuse and perception of this new product, will be key to understanding how children's literature was able to become established as a distinct and flourishing element of print culture"-- "Although approaching the subject from the point of view of the reader, this book is fundamentally about the origins of children's literature as a separate and secure branch of print culture, a development that took place in Britain over the course of the long eighteenth century. Deplorably little is known about precisely how and why this happened. The new commodity was the product of a number of interconnected factors. It was a development based on enterprising entrepreneurs, talented authors and illustrators, and technological innovations, but also shifting cultural constructions of childhood, demographic changes, and socio-economic transformations. Its consumers were absolutely central to its sudden take-off. Indeed, this book will be arguing that the very concept of children's literature was in large part the product of its purchasers and users"--