John Newbery

John Newbery (1713-1767), English publisher, bookseller, and writer, who greatly influenced the development of children's literature in Britain and the United States. Born in Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire, to a farming family, Newbery attended a village school but was mostly self-educated. In 1729 he moved to Reading and became an apprentice to William Carnan, the proprietor of a printing and medicine business. After Carnan died in 1737, Newbery inherited part of the business and soon embarked on a career in the book trade. In 1745 he moved his family and business to St. Paul's Churchyard in London, where he operated his bookshop, called The Bible and Sun. Newbery had a varied career that included printing, publishing books and religious periodicals, founding newspapers and magazines, and writing children's books. He commissioned books by Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, and other important writers of his time.

In 1744 Newbery wrote and published his first book for children, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. The book was the first in what became a popular series of small, finely crafted books intended to instruct and entertain young people. Newbery published numerous other children's books that he wrote, in addition to publishing books written by others. In 1751 he started the first periodical for children, The Lilliputian Magazine. Books written by Newbery include Fables in Verse (1758), under the pseudonym Abraham Aesop, and The Newtonian System of Philosophy (1761), under the pseudonym Tom Telescope. Newbery also is believed to have coauthored Mother Goose's Melody (1760?) and to have written The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), a classic children's book in which success is equated with education.

American publisher Frederic G. Melcher proposed the creation of an award, to be named after Newbery, honoring the book deemed the most distinguished work of children's literature published each year. In 1921 the American Library Association approved the proposal, and the Newbery Medal has been presented annually since 1922.