A while ago I put up on Front Free Endpaper a selection of illustrations from
the covers of catalogues by Robert Kirkpatrick, the doyen of all things 'boys fiction'. All of the experience and knowledge of years of specialist bookselling went into two books,
The Encyclopedia of Boys' School Stories (2000) and
Bullies, Beaks and Flanneled Fools. An Annotated Bibliography of Boys' School Fiction 1741-2000 (2001) both of which I have known about and admired for a long time, both of which are regarded as 'standard works': there is something almost noble about the work undertaken to produce a good bibliography.
But it wasn't until very recently that I came across the above as Robert's latest massive piece of field-defining, standard-workery!
From the Penny Dreadful to the Ha'Penny Dreadfuller. A Bibliographical History of the British Boys' Periodical 1762-1950. It seems I am a year or so late to the party and at the moment the British Library website says it has no copies ("other bookselling websites are available") but the recommendation from the judge of the Henry Darton Award printed at the bottom of the British Library web page I think makes it a must have item.
