Publisher: Benjamin Tabart or Sir Richard Phillips?

 

The Story of Little Mary And Her Cat. In Words Not Exceeding Two Syllables was published twice, the first had no author listed in 1804, and the second published in 1808 named the author to be Eliza Fanwick.  

 

The publisher of The Story of Little Mary and her cat. In Words Not Exceeding Two Syllables was B. Tabart & C: Juvenile Library located at 157 New Bond- Street, London. This was one of the more successful publication companies in the 18th century, According to Publications of Benjamin Tabart’s Juvenile Library By Kane “Between 1801 and 1818, the imprint of Tabart & Company at The Juvenile and School Library is known to have published at least one hundred and seventy-four books. That is an average of a little over ten books per year.” Their success was achieved from modifying and printing “well-known” children's fairy tales, some of which are even popular to this day, including Jack the giant killer, Red Riding Hood, Robin Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Puss in boots. Kane Notes, “some scholars of children's literature feel that Tabart’s effort to bring these traditional stories back to children, in the face of disapproval of many educational reformers, was a brave effort." Some believed that the publishing company was rewriting some of those stories to maybe gain financial opportunities. As reported by Tabart's Collection of Popular Stories for the Nursery .” Whatever his motives, Tabart's Popular Stories did much to rehabilitate these traditional tales and to make them available and acceptable to readers”

Tabart’s Collection of Popular Stories for the Nursery notes that the identity of Benjamin Tabart was rumored to be Sir Richard Phillips,”writer, publisher and political radical.” Anonymity, therefore, was not only for authors of written works, but for publication elements as well.  “There were certainly very close links between Tabart and Phillips. They advertised one another's works, published re-editions of each other's titles, and many of Tabart's titles are recorded as having been registered at Stationers' Hall by Phillips.”