Description
Pettijohn’s Breakfast Food gave out short serial versions of Baum’s Mother Goose in Prose, circa 1900, as a promotional item. Those booklets are extremely rare, as supposedly most were destroyed in a fire; one survivor sold for over $3,000! Here is a great lot of two original 1900 magazine advertisements for the booklets. Mother Goose in Prose is famous as L. Frank Baum’s first children’s book (published by Way and Williams in 1897), as well as the first book illustrated by famed illustrator Maxfield Parrish. Size on the smaller one is about 9″ by 6″, from different magazines of the period.
Unlike these from a short period, pre-1900 and post 1901 Pettijohn’s ads don’t seem to advertise the booklets, which were issued in “12 parts”. The booklets and these ads are, however, discussed in the Winter 1997 Baum Bugle article on Mother Goose in Prose. From that article: “A premium offer through the cereal company provided redeemers with sample installments from the book, circa 1900…A child could obtain a pamphlet by cutting pictures of three bears from the cereal box and sending them to the company with eight cents to cover postage”. The Mother Bear ad is especially interesting as it notes “we will send you free Vol. 1, containing History of Mother Goose and Little Boy Blue”. This gives some insight into how the premium booklets were laid out, since Little Boy Blue was actually the second nursery rhyme in the Baum/Parrish book.
Ads included here depict: Uncle Sam Bear
Mother Bear reading Mother Goose in Prose to Baby Bear
Very cute, historical ads and in nice condition, with minor edge wear.
