Cover to Cover celebrates Mother Goose Day. According to the Mother Goose Society the fictional character of Mother Goose was first associated with children’s stories in 1697 when Charles Perrault used the phrase in a published collection of eight fairy tales. Although the book was titled, (translated from French) Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old woman spinning and telling stories, with a placard on the page which bore the words Contes de la Mere l’Oye (Tales of My Mother the Goose). The single most important promoter of the designation of Mother Goose as writer of children’s rhymes was John Newbery with his adoption of her name for a collection of mostly traditional rhymes; Mother Goose’s Melody or Sonnets for the Cradle in Two Parts.This version was believed to have been first published as early as 1765. University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives holds a 1945 reprint of a 18th century U.S. edition.
In two parts, the first selections include what we recognize as traditional nursery rhymes while the second part contains writing of William Shakespeare.