Gamble Gold Illustrated by Harry Furniss (Hutchinson & Co, 1907) Book Cover
Edward Abbott Parry's first work, a Life of Queen Elizabeth, was printed when he was nine years old.
Judge, playwright, author of children's books, legal essayist, novelist, biographer, the writer of short stories and articles, and editor of the letters of Dorothy Osborne, the works of Edward Abbott Parry have not received much of an airing recently.
Parry's most appealing books are his children's books, written in the 1890's and early 1900s initially for his own four children. The books are well illustrated, feature his own family and their jokes, and give something of the atmosphere of a Victorian family. After an illness in 1894 Parry went to Harrogate to recuperate. He was only there for a week or ten days but whilst there he wrote Katawampus for his children.
Katawampus" is a childish tantrum, of which the children are cured by Krab, the Cave-man (who also appears, along with the children Olga, Molly, Tomakin, and Kate) in Butterscotia (1896) and The First Book of Krab (1897). Katawampus Kanticles (1896) was set to music by Sir J. F. Bridge, and in 1901 a musical play Katawampus (by Parry and Louis Calvert) was published, and performed in London. Parry's other works for children are The Scarlet Herring and other stories (1899); Don Quixote of the Mancha (1900) - a version written for children, but the "peptonized preparation of the text suited [adult's] decrepit literary digestions"; Pater's Book of Rhymes (1902); and Gamble Gold (1907). After his own children grew up Parry wrote no more children's books.
Souce: Susan Atkins (amorgos.freeserve.co.uk)
|
