Case 3: 1865-1877

Children's magazines and cheap "dime novels" originally intended for an adult audience were published after the war, as were reprints of books first issued during the war. Compared to other eras, few war-theme books were published during the last few years of this period into the early 1880s. War-weary readers turned to subject matter that allowed them to distance themselves from the recent conflict.

Sources:

Fahs, Alice. The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861 - 1865. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Murray, Gail Schmunk. American Children's Literature and the Construction of Childhood. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998.

Books:

1. Headley, P. C. Hero Boy. New York: W. H. Appleton, 1865. Williamson Collection E 672 H434 1865.

2. The Little Corporal. Chicago: Alfred L. Sewell, 1866. Williamson Collection AP 200 L58.

3. Optic, Oliver. Young Lieutenant; or, The Adventures of an Army Officer; a Story of the Great Rebellion. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1866. Williamson Collection PS 1006 A5 Y96.

4. Clack, Louise. General Lee and Santa Claus. New York: Bellock & Co., 1867. Williamson Collection
E 4671 L4 C54 1867. (Reissued in 1996–see Case 12).

5. Myriopticon 1868. Miniature theater operated by turning scroll with wooden paddles; features hand-tinted images from Harper's Weekly.