The Art of Book Design: The Latch Key of my Bookhouse


Olive Beaupre Miller, ed. Various authors and illustrators. The Latch key of My Bookhouse. Chicago, The Bookhouse for Children, 1922.

This is a curious book about the origin of shared stories and fairy tales. I found the most exciting part of the book to be its several indexes. Located at the end of the book, they are organized by author, character, historical era, geographical location and ethical themes, such as cleanliness, compassion, honesty, and faithfulness. Christian faithfulness that is. The book casually assumes a white, protestant readership, and the Values Index reads as a How-To book for raising quiet, compliant children who become hard-working, modest, reserved, compliant adults (living in a racist, xenophobic, patriarchal, misogynistic society) who don’t question authority. Bah! Teach your kids to question everything, to value learning new things and new perspectives, to seek equanimity and fairness, to speak with confidence, and to actively create a world that everyone wants to live in. A sampling of the illustrations is attached below the fold.

Frontispiece, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse. Chicago, The Bookhouse for Children, 1922.

Page 10, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 14, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 47, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 77, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 90, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 95, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 101, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 112, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 145, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 156, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 160, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 170, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 178, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

Page 281, The Latch Key of My Bookhouse.

via: The Internet Archive

 

 

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