New Issues
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Tristram Jones by Edmund GosseEdmund Gosse's "Tristram Jones", written on the brink of adulthood and previously unpublished, is an intriguing forerunner of his classic memoir, Father and Son, of 1907. Based on Gosse's experiences of starting a new life in London after a cloistered religious upbringing, and including striking parallels with the memoir of more than three decades later, this witty novella chronicles a young man's ambitions, illusions, and blunders. Edited by Kathy Rees and Christine Alexander |
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Sir Charles Grandison by Jane AustenStarting at sixteen and later collaborating with her little niece Anna, Jane Austen composed a dramatic version, playfully abbreviated, of Richardson’s long novel Sir Charles Grandison. Edited from the manuscript, this edition comes with full notes and suggestions on production. Edited by Lesley Peterson and Sylvia Hunt, with others |
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The Beautifull Cassandra by Jane Austen, with Illustrations and Afterwords by Juliet McMasterThe Beautifull Cassandra is a delightful story about a pleasure-loving young female who falls in love with a bonnet and braves the world. It will have a particular appeal for children in being written by one themselves. Jane Austen, on her way to becoming a great novelist, wrote it when she was probably only twelve, some 200 years ago. |
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Selected Early Poems by Felicia HemansThirteen-year-old Felicia Browne is acutely conscious of her "youthful vows to Poesy" and "the future path I tread". In her first publication Poems (1808), she grandly thanks her patroness who "with laurel crown'd my infant head" and "fann'd my rising flame". The precocious poet was to become the popular Felicia Hemans, and outsell both Wordsworth and Coleridge. This volume presents a selection from the first of three youthful volumes of lively poems–engaging family, nature, and war–that she managed to publish while still a teenager. Edited by Christine Alexander and Pamela Nutt, with others |
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Early Writings by Margaret AtwoodMargaret Atwood’s early works of fiction, drama and verse, with her colourful illustrations, are published here for the first time. They reflect her formative years in the woods of northern Ontario and Quebec, her engagement with animals, and the wide-ranging imagination and humour that also inform her novels. Edited by Nora Foster Stovel and Donna Couto. |
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The Diary Papers of Emily and Anne BrontëThe Diary Papers provide a rare insight into the early creativity, everyday affairs and anxieties about the future of two of the famous Brontë sisters. Written in minuscule script over a span of eleven years and illustrated by lively sketches, the fragments record details of Emily and Anne’s imaginative Gondal world amongst references to sewing, cooking, pets, servants, family travels, and future plans that reveal their personal differences despite their intimacy. Edited by Christine Alexander, with Mandy Swann |
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Mollie’s Bunyip and Other Tales by Annie and Ida RentoulThe early twentieth-century Australian teenagers, Annie and Ida Rentoul, collaborated as writer and illustrator on a series of tales. They chose to work in the fairy-tale genre at a time when there was a demand for such stories to have an Australian character. Ida’s career as writer, and particularly as illustrator, grew from these childhood publications, eventually leading to international acclaim. Edited by Pamela Nutt, with others |
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The Journals and Poems of Marjory FlemingA self-confessed "little young Devil" who could throw spectacular temper tantrums, Marjory Fleming was nevertheless sanctified as "Pet" by the Victorians for her brief life and winning writings. In her engaging verse and journals she shares her wide reading, her delight in "rurel filisity" and her devotion to Mary Queen of Scots and Scottish history. Edited by Leslie Robertson and Juliet McMaster, with others. |
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Branwell Brontë's The PirateWritten at the age of fifteen, The Pirate transports us into the dramatic imaginary world of the young Brontë's, tracing the early career of Branwell's favourite hero (and later alter-ego) 'Rouge' to aristocratic demagogue. The young author and his hero both played pivotal roles in the creation of the Glass Town and Angrian saga. Edited by Christine Alexander, with Joetta Harty and Benjamin Drexler. |
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Virginia Cary Hudson’s O Ye Jigs and JulepsBoth knowing and naïve, pious and feisty, 10-year-old Virginia Cary Hudson brings her sharp observation to bear on the adults and children, churches and institutions of her home town, early-1900s Versailles, Kentucky. Essays for a teacher have never been so revealing, or so entertaining. Edited by Jeffrey Bibbee, Lesley Peterson, and Leigh Thompson Stanfield, with Emily Cater, Danielle Holcombe, Catherine James, and Melissa Thornton. |
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Louisa May Alcott's Norna, or The Witch's CurseThis is the real play, written when Alcott was fifteen, of which she provides a farcical description in Little Women. Full of fierce posturing and melodramatic action, Norna shows young Louisa and her collaborating sister Anna stretching their creative wings in poetic drama. Edited by Juliet McMaster and Others |
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Sophia Elizabeth Burney's "Works" and "Novels, Plays, and Poems"Enlivened by gusts of boisterous and often violent humour, these novels, plays and poems by thirteen-year-old Sophia Burney raise many of the same gender and class issues that her famous aunt Frances Burney explored in Evelina. The collection reflects the creative culture of this talented and productive family. Edited by Lorna J. Clark with Sarah Rose Smith |
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Elizabeth Thompson (Butler), Waterloo Diary: Woman Battle Artist in TrainingNominated for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History 2015/16Inspired by a visit to the field of Waterloo, "that inexhaustible battle", and determined to become a painter of battle scenes, young Elizabeth Thompson (later Butler) records her training and the prejudices she faced as a woman painter: until she scores a huge success at the Royal Academy with what Ruskin called "the first fine Pre-Raphaelite picture of battle". Edited by Juliet McMaster and Others. |