The Wonderful Letter-Bag of Kit Curious. By Uncle Frank

Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Company, [1852] First edition, a work for children that contains chapters on a variety of subjects, many are scientific: the boiling springs of Iceland, the properties of magnets, life among the icebergs, the wonders of Egypt, the North Pole, et. Publisher's red cloth stamped and lettered in blind with central gilt design, gilt spine, all edges gilt, yellow coated endpapers. Small octavo. Engraved half-title and seven engraved plates, including frontispiece, with tissue guards. Light offsetting from engravings, the occasional minor smudge. Contemporary ink inscription on recto of front flyleaf. A fine, bright copy. Francis Channing Woodworth (1812-1859) was a Connecticut-born printer, vicar, writer, and the nephew of Samuel Woodsworth. He resigned from the church due to health issues. Afterward, he became a writer of children's literature, sometimes using the pseudonym Theodore Tinker. Woodworth served as the editor of a magazine entitled Youth's Cabinet, which his brother published. His works for young readers include The Peddler's Boy (1851) and Jack Mason: The Old Sailor (1855).