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- Works specifically written for children. The
- earliest known illustrated children's book in
- English is Goody Two Shoes 1765, possibly
- written by Oliver Goldsmith. Fairy tales were
- originally part of a vast range of oral
- literature, credited only to the writer who
- first recorded them, such as Charles
- Perrault. During the 19th century several
- writers, including Hans Christian Andersen,
- wrote original stories in the fairy tale
- genre; others, such as the Grimm brothers,
- collected (and sometimes adapted) existing
- stories. Early children's stories were
- written with a moral purpose; this was
- particularly true in the 19th century, apart
- from the unique case of Lewis Carroll's Alice
- books. The late 19th century was the great
- era of children's literature in the UK, with
- Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Charles
- Kingsley, and J M Barrie. It was also the
- golden age of illustrated children's books,
- with such artists as Kate Greenaway and
- Randolph Caldecott. In the USA, Louise May
- Alcott's Little Women 1868 and its sequels
- found a wide audience. Among the most popular
- 20th-century children's writers in English
- have been Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the
- Willows 1908) and A A Milne (Winnie the Pooh
- 1926) in the UK; and, in the USA, Laura
- Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie
- 1935), E B White (Stuart Little 1945,
- Charlotte's Web 1952), Dr Suess (Cat in the
- Hat 1957), and Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild
- Things Are 1963). Canadian Lucy Maud
- Montgomery's series that began with Anne of
- Green Gables 1908 was widely popular.
- examples include Robinson Crusoe by Daniel
- Defoe; the satirical Gulliver's Travels by
- Jonathan Swift, and Tom Sawyer 1876 and
- Huckleberry Finn 1884 by Mark Twain.
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