MANUSCRIPTS: The Three Brothers and Bunny Cotton-Tail.
MIDDLE-SCHOOL FICTION
[Education] Ingwersen, Louise. [Manuscript Children’s Books]: The Three Brothers [and]
Bunny Cotton-Tail. 1917.
2 vols., 4to.; quarter-cloth and hand-painted illustrated paper-covered boards.
Two handmade volumes of manuscript illustrated children’s stories by a middle school student from Sioux City, Iowa in 1917.
The Three Brothers is dated in 1917 and Ingwersen is noted as a fifth grade student at Hunt School in the Sioux City Public Schools; Bunny Cotton-Tail is undated and as it seems a little more juvenile, may pre-date the other title. Each book is illustrated by the author, with handpainted images, both tipped-in and intext.
Bunny Cotton-Tail appears to cover a lot of territory content-wise, including dreams, death, escape, and betrayal; but, it ends (spoiler alert): “So off they went to the church and got maryed (sic). After a few years they got a child and lived happy ever after.” The second volume, The Three Brothers, includes a preface in which the author states her intentions were “to learn good English and for others to read.” It includes a proper title and copyright page, list of illustrations and page numbers, still all handwritten. The plot begins with chapter two and contains the following section headers: “I. A Stranger. 1. His Appearance. II. The Black Brothers. III. Wearyness.” The Three Brothers is illustrated with more in-text watercolors and initials (though there are still some full-page illustrations), and also includes some vaguely naval imagery and a classic castle on a hill. Arguably works of vernacular art, these volumes are delightful and unique.
(#4658317)
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