The Details:
Tom Thumb’s Play-Book; to Teach Children Their Letters as Soon as They Can Speak. Boston: Printed by Isaiah Thomas and sold by A. Barclay, 1764. [catalog record]
The Story:
Isaiah Thomas’s manuscript notation—“Printed by I. Thomas, when a ‘prentice in 1764, for A. Barclay”—shows that this miniature chapbook, which he printed at age 15, was among the earliest pieces that he created. The alphabet letters in Tom Thumb’s Play-Book allude to earthy, even humorous scenes such as, “A was an archer and shot at a frog,” and “D was a drunkard and had a red face.”
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