Peter Parley's annual for 1864
Subtitle: a Christmas and New Year's present for young people
By: edited by William Martin ...
Contributors: Martin, William, 1801-1867.; Doyle, Richard, 1824-1883.; Gilbert, John, Sir, 1817-1897.; Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.; Foster, Myles Birket, 1825-1899.; Meadows, Joseph Kenny, 1790-1874.; Whymper, Josiah Wood, 1813-1903.; Sears, Matthew Urlwin, b. ca. 1800.; Measom, William Frederick, fl. 1840s-1876.; Williams, Thomas, b. ca. 1800.; Measom, George S., fl. 1845-1862.; Smith, John Orrin, 1799-1843.; Evans, Edmund, 1826-1905.; Gilbert, John, Sir, 1817-1897.; Portch, Julian, d. 1865.; Lange, Janet, fl. 1855-1860.; Sargent, G. F., fl. 1840-1860.; Foster, Myles Birket, 1825-1899.; Goodrich, Samuel G. 1793-1860.; Pardon, Benjamin (printer); Leighton Brothers.; Dalziel Brothers.; Kerby & Son.
Publisher: William Kent & Co.
Published: 1864
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 303
Subjects: Gift books -- Specimens.; Children's literature -- Periodicals.; Boys -- Periodicals.
Genres: Specimens.; Periodicals.
Other titles: Peter Parley's annual :; Peter Parley's magazine
Notes: Added colour wood-engraved illustrated t.p.

Colour wood-engraved plates are with signature imprint: "Drawn by" Doyle, Gilbert, George Cruikshank, Birket Foster or Kenny Meadows. One plate is signed as engraved by T. Williams after George Cruikshank.  All are with title captions.  Plates are printed with wide beige decorative border.

According to Ruari McLean, colour plates were possibly printed by Leighton Brothers or Edmund Evans.  Cf. His notes at the Massey College Library.

Most wood-engraved illustrations within the text are unsigned.  Some are signed as engraved by Whymper [i.e. J. W. Whymper?], M. U. Sears, "[AO?]", W. Measom, T. Williams, George Measom, Orrin Smith [i.e. John Orrin Smith?], E. Evans and Dalziel.  Illustrators include John Gilbert, J. Portch [i.e. Julian Portch?], "MC", Brughot, Janet Lange, G. F. Sargent, "HW" and B. Foster.

Includes wood-engraved decorative and illustrated initials and decorative tail-pieces.

General and publishers' advertisements on p. [1-25] at end.

Part of a series published under various imprints from 1840-1892 that consisted of bound volumes of the monthly numbers of "Peter Parley's Magazine", which began publication in 1839 under the imprint of Darton and Clark.  William Martin edited several numbers of the "Magazine".  In the early years the "Annual" was published with the imprint of its distributors, Simpkin, Marshall and Co.  Cf. Darton, F. J. Harvey.  Children's books in England, 1982.

Believed to be the earliest boy's annual published in Britain.  Cf. McLean, Ruari.  Victorian book design and colour printing, 1972.

The American author S. C. Goodrich claimed exclusive rights to the pseudonym "Peter Parley" and quarreled with its use by both British and American publishers for works of which he denies authorship and for bogus re-workings of his writings under the Parley name.  He also objected to the use of the pseudonym for this Annual, the authorship of which he bears no responsibility.  Cf. Goodrich, S. G. Recollections of a lifetime, 1967.

Faxon, F. W. Literary annuals, p. 108.

St. John, Judith. Osborne collection of early children's books, Vol. 1, p. 406.

Cf. Darton, F. J. Harvey.  Children's books in England, p. 221-228.

McLean, Ruari.  Victorian book design and colour printing, p. 40, 42, 47-48, 58, 62, 192.

Goodrich, S. G. Recollections of a lifetime, v. 2, p. 296.

MASS copy: Bound in red pebble-grain cloth blocked in gold and blind; a.e.g.  Upper cover blocked in gold and lower cover in blind with title and elaborate illustrated and decorative border with central illustration.  Spine with imprint: "London.  W. Kent & Co.".   With red-brown painted endpapers.  With bookseller's label: "Kerby & Son,  190, Oxford Street.".
Table of contents: value: The New Year; value: Holiday children; value: A word for the Waits; value: Tales of the Crusades; value: Beavers and beaver-meadows in North America; value: A boy's adventures in the gold fields; value: Morris-dancing; value: Something about ghosts, and how to manufacture them; value: A flesh-and-blood ghost story; or, the Ghost of the "Grampus"; value: Bird study of a young ornithologist; value: Fairy revels; value: A sea-side quandary of the mid-summer holidays; value: Something about antelopes; value: Something about the Poles; value: Little Gordie; value: Choosing professions; value: The faithful negro; value: The scapegrace; value: Discovery of the sources of the Nile; value: A word about William Shakespeare; value: Desperate fight between a boa-constrictor and a crocodile; value: A spirt amoung the Indians; value: A story of three dogs; value: Bears and bear-hunting; value: Pig-sticking; a lion and tiger fight, and other Eastern sports; value: Wild sports of the western waters; value: Animals in armour; value: Ministering royalty; or, the greenwood shrift; value: The talisman of Oromanes; value: Something about the hippopotamus and other gigantics; value: The lost child; value: Covetousness reproved; value: Boy hardihood and endurance.