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In:Transnational Books for Children 1750-1900: Producers, consumers, encounters
Edited by Charlotte Appel, Nina Christensen and M.O. Grenby
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 15] 2023
► pp. 46–68

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Chapter 2
Almanacs for children

The transnational evolution of a classic of popular print

 | Università degli Studi di Milano
Published online: 8 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.15.02mar
Abstract
Almanacs are one of the most characteristic subgenres of early modern and modern popular print. One of the keys of their persistence was their ability to evolve over time, which led, among other things, to the publication of almanacs for children. The latter, randomly preserved in libraries and archives, are still largely unexplored by both book historians and scholars of children’s literature. After a brief introduction on the history of almanacs, the chapter describes the contents and materiality of selected examples of almanacs for children from a range of European countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain), printed between 1750 and 1900. By placing these items in the sociocultural context in which they were issued, the chapter attempts to understand the strategies put in place by international authors and publishers.
Article outline
  • Almanacs in early modern Europe
  • Testing new strategies: New Year’s gifts for English children
  • Early Dutch almanacs for children
  • From astrology to anthology
  • Fine almanacs for the nineteenth-century child
  • Almanacs or magazines?
  • Almanacs and schools in Mediterranean Europe
  • Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
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