Tommy Thumb's Song Book
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tommy Thumb's Song Book is the earliest known collection of British nursery rhymes, printed in 1744. No original copy has survived, but its content has been recovered from later reprints. It contained many rhymes that are still well known.
The book was advertised in the London Evening Post for 17–22 March 1744, with the full title: Tommy Thumb's Song Book for all little Masters and Misses; to be sung to them by their Nurses 'till they can sing themselves. By Nurse Lovechild. To which is added, a Letter from a Lady on Nursing; it was published by Mary Cooper of London.[1]
No copy has survived, but a book of exactly the same title was published in 1788 by Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, who normally reprinted English books in the form he found them.[1] A few weeks after the first publication, Cooper produced another work, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, of which copies are extant.[1]
