Gulliver's Travels
author
Jonathan Swift
(Dublin, 1667 - 1745, Dublin)
publisher
Cassell, Petter & Galpin
(British, 1858 - 1878)
Date1870
MediumInk on paper
ClassificationsBooks
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberv.2.b.6.5
eMuseum ID721587
EmbARK ObjectID25965
TMS Source ID9861
Last Updated8/9/24
Description1 vol., xliii [1] 352 p., illus., 4°Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIn the early 18th century, fiction for children that could be read for pure pleasure did not yet exist. Jonathan Swift’s adult satire, Gulliver’s Travels (1726), quickly attracted an audience of children.
Isabella Stewart Gardner was a voracious reader, and books were the first objects that she collected. About 120 of the 2700 books she acquired for her museum can be considered children's books.
Isabella and her husband Jack had three copies of Gulliver in their collection, including a first edition and one that belonged to Jack when he was a child. In this 19th-century version, "immodest and indecent" events from the original were left out, making the book safe for the perusal of children.
Isabella Stewart Gardner was a voracious reader, and books were the first objects that she collected. About 120 of the 2700 books she acquired for her museum can be considered children's books.
Isabella and her husband Jack had three copies of Gulliver in their collection, including a first edition and one that belonged to Jack when he was a child. In this 19th-century version, "immodest and indecent" events from the original were left out, making the book safe for the perusal of children.
BibliographyNotesSusan Sinclair and Philip B. Eppard. Catalogue of Children’s Books from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Collection and the Personal Libraries of John Lowell and Isabella Stewart Gardner (Boston, 1988), p. 12, no.2.
MarksNotesInscribed (on front pastedown): J. L. Gardner
ProvenanceNotesCollection of Isabella Stewart Gardner's husband, John L. Gardner (1837–1898).
Isabella Stewart Gardner by inheritance in 1898.
Isabella Stewart Gardner by inheritance in 1898.
