HoB_ABCs

Title Rusher's Reading Made Most Easy

Brief description Continuation of title: consisting of a variety of useful lessons : proceeding from the alphabet to words of two letters only : and from thence to words of three, four, five letters, &c. &c. : so disposed, as to draw on learners with the greatest ease and pleasure : both to themselves and their teachers ... : recommended for the use of schools.

Approximate dates based on period when Howard & Evans conducted business at Long Lane address; cf. Brown, P. London publishers and printers c. 1800-1870, p. 94. (Price Sixpence.) Imprint on t.p. includes: Northampton : Turner ; Daventry : Robbins ; Slatter, and Co. ; Witney : Turner ; Reading : Rusher ; London : Gough, no. 6, Gracechurch-street. 71 pages. Woodcut illustrations.

Full description Rusher's primer, Reading Made Most Easy, was extremely popular; in fact, it went through hundreds of editions in England before making its American debut. As is typical of the primer form, the book's 71 pages consist almost entirely of text, and are set entirely in black ink.

While light on illustration, Reading Made Most Easy presents plenty of visual stimulation: the text itself is highly varied, making use of many fonts, sizes, styles--italics, drop caps, all caps, ligatures--and white space to stimulate the eye and to draw attention to the book's various parts. These include recommendations by schoolmasters, an introduction to the alphabet, and lessons progressing from two- to five-letter words, verse, and psalms. They also include, on the back cover, advertisements for Rusher's other titles, from songs and catechisms to books devoted to arithmetic, poetry, or making money.

In all, the book presents literacy as a realm of possibility that one attains progressively; children going through the lessons are to grasp not only the ways in which texts are built from their constituent parts (from letters and syllables to words, prose, and verse), but also how character is built through education.

Literacy Rusher's Reading Made Most Easy presents several types of literacy, all of which operate on multiple levels throughout the volume.

Immediately striking is the book's very text-heaviness: Not only is there only one image in "Reading," but also the medium of illustration forms no emphasis; instead, the book's seventy-one pages feature a cornucopia of textual forms and formats, from letters to syllables, words, verse, and prose depicted in a wide array of fonts and styles.

Text appears as a progression--from individual letters to syllables to words to poems and attestations--that leads the learner/reader from novice to practitioner. Text also appears as a means of understanding that guides the ignorant sinner to a responsible and beloved believer; and it appears as festival and feast, as its use of forms ranging from capital and lower case letters to italics, drop caps, and ligatures invites the learner/reader into an enticing, active world of imagination and of commerce (as exemplified in the many offerings from Rusher's publishing house presented on the back cover).

Translated into a message, this graphical parade suggests that untold treasures await those who reach for reading: along with salvation will come also respect, love, fantasy, fairy tales, games, and tools for making money. Beyond these graphical operations, the book also schools its readers in cultural literacies, including respect for authority (school, parents, and, above all, God); what we would today call "best practices" for approaching reading and books (such as washing hands and combing hair); and people and behaviors to avoid ("bad" boys and those incapable of distinguishing between play and responsibility).

Childhood Rusher's Reading Made Most Easy contains only one image, on its verso page: that of boys in an apple tree, tossing the fruit down to their companions waiting below, while a woman sits in the lower left corner of the frame, almost invisible as she watches over the scene while remaining outside of the center of attention.

This image encapsulates the highly gendered structure of the book, presenting the woman as an easily overlooked yet anchoring presence, removed from the action, which is all about boys. The notion of childhood conveyed by this book is developed almost solely through its verse text, which depicts the child as a creature tending towards sin--one whose natural inclination would be towards "vicious" ways (from a schoolmaster testimonial)--who can and must be shaped into an obedient, respectful, devout, and upstanding individual through education and example.

From its beginning, with its introductory testimonials by schoolmasters praising its text and methods, Rusher's book couches its messages in authority. But, as the title page itself states, the learning should be pleasurable, both for teachers and students. It should be neither punitive nor difficult, but instead should "draw on" learners, attracting them with the verse and the usefulness of its lessons for their improvement and developing sense of how best to be in the world.

From the start of the lessons featuring two-letter words through the adaptations of psalms and verses concerning duty in five-letter and two-syllable words, Rusher's book addresses a learner who tends toward, but must be taught to avoid, sin; who must be taught to eschew the use of rude language; to refuse to play with "bad" boys; and to always maintain awareness of the difference between play-time and learning time. As the text informs us, failure to adhere to these teachings will result in God's wrath, the withdrawal of love from one's parents and society, and an eternal afterlife spent in the pit of hell.

The child depicted in the text is teachable, not irredeemable, and not fundamentally of a different type of being than an adult. Instead, youth is part of a continuum, in the sense that adults are also depicted as flawed; what is special about youth is receptivity to learning in this brief period before bad habits have become entrenched. All that is needed is adherence to the rules and guidelines the verses provide, from dispositional aspects such as respect for peers and authority figures to specific practices, such as always approaching one's schoolwork having washed one's hands and combed one's hair, and with the idea that books are for learning and not for play.

Iconography This book's single image combines several key concepts: Knowledge as bountiful harvest, as seen in the tree loaded with apples; boys as the primary owners, movers, and recipients of that knowledge, as they climb the tree and harvest fruit; and woman as silent, if anchoring, muse, as she sits, almost invisible, overseeing the action.

The world of learning is a gendered space defined by ownership and use of bounty. It is also a space in which the religious and the secular come together, a claim fostered in both text and image, in which the words define the fruit of knowledge symbolized by the apple in terms of usefulness to learners, teachers, and ultimately to people's service to God.

As both image and text inform us, reading and learning are not only useful; these activities are also easy and pleasurable, a progression from alphabet to two-letter to five-letter words that is as natural and desirable as harvesting and enjoying apples.

Production As mentioned in the caption, this edition of Reading Made Most Easy is the 99th, printed and published in Banbury (England) by Rusher himself. Despite this high number, very few other editions appear to be readily available today; a search in a key library resource reveals only scattered copies of editions from the later 18th to mid-19th centuries.

Banbury was a major site of children's book publishing from the late 18th century on, and was particularly prominent in the production of chapbooks; this primer by Rusher was extremely popular in England, going through hundreds of editions there before making a splash in America in the 19th century.