Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1787. First Worcester edition (fourth American printing). 32mo. 158, (2, ads) pp. Illustrated with woodcut frontispiece and 35 in-text woodcuts. Original Dutch floral boards, rebacked to style, all edges trimmed; renewed endpapers; contemporary ownership signature at top of frontispiece; light dampstaining in gutter of most leaves; scattered minor spotting to text; in later matching dust-jacket and slip case. Welch 463.4; Evans 20412; Rosenbach 118; Stone, "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes" in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (October 1939), pp. 332-370

A lovely and scarce copy of Isaiah Thomas's edition of The History of Little Goody Twoshoes.

Little Goody Twoshoes was the first English book written for children and one of the most famous children's books of the eighteenth century. A groundbreaking and influential work, it helped define the genre, and was frequently republished throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. This Worcester edition is the fourth American edition, the first being published in 1775 by Hugh Gaine, in New York, and two others subsequently appearing in Boston and Philadelphia. The first overall edition was originally published in London by John Newbery in 1765, with his illustrations reused in this edition. Wildly popular on both sides of the Atlantic, this is practically the earliest available American edition, as the previous editions above are seldom found, and with only very few copies known to have survived.

This copy exceptionally well-preserved.