The illustrations of Thomas's toy reprints should not be overlooked. The
Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the "Introduction" to "Goody
Two-Shoes," and at the end he affixed a "Letter from the Printer which
he desires may be inserted.
SIR: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it
to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up
his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good
impression."
This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an
introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the
making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the
frontispiece in "Goody Two-Shoes."
[Illustration: _Goody Twoshoes._]
It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to
booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in
bringing out the juvenile books in "the English method." But Mr. Edwin
Pearson, in his delightful discussion of "Banbury Chap-Books," has also
stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of
"Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous
English illustrator.
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