Authors and Books
for Children

Teaching and Preaching: Jacob Abbott Etexts

Jacob Abbott, an influential early writer for children and an educator, was responsible for several popular nineteenth-century series for both boys and girls. Though he emphasized moral lessons, as was the norm for children's literature in his day, he is noted for the realism he brought to his depictions of children and their world, particularly in his popular and long-running Rollo series.

Abbott was born in Hallowell, Maine, on November 14, 1803. A professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, Abbott was ordained as a Congregationalist minister. He devoted more time to teaching than to the ministry, cofounding two schools. But from the 1830s, Abbott primarily taught through his writing.


Over a fifty-year span, Abbott wrote an estimated two hundred books, the majority of them for young readers.

Abbott died on October 31, 1879, in Farmington, Maine. Though his large literary output is now mostly out of print and forgotten, the etexts available on the Web offer at least a sampling of the work of this influential nineteenth-century educator and author.

Cousin Lucy
#2 Cousin Lucy's Stories (chapters 1-4), 1841
#6 Cousin Lucy on the Sea-shore, 1842)

Franconia Stories
"Embellishment," from Beechnut, 1850 (published in Junior Classics: Old-Fashioned Tales, edited by William Patten)
"Rodolphus: A Franconia Story" (part one), from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, March 1852
"Rodolphus: A Franconia Story" (part two), from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1852
"Rodolphus: A Franconia Story" (part three), from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May 1852
Ellen Linn: A Franconia Story, 1852
Caroline: A Franconia Story, 1853

Harlie
#3 Harlie's Letter, or How to Learn with Little Teaching, 1863
#6 Friskie, the Pony, or Do No Harm to Harmless Animals, 1863

Jonas
Jonas's Stories: Related to Rollo and Lucy, 1839
Jonas on a Farm in Winter, 1841

Juno
#1 Juno and Georgie (chapters 5-6), 1870

Marco Paul
#2 Marco Paul's Travels on the Erie Canal, 1843
#4 Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels: Vermont, 1843

Mary Gay
#4 Mary Gay's Work in Autumn (chapters 1-3), 1865

Rainbow and Lucky
#1 Handie, 1859
#2 Rainbow's Journey, 1860
#3 The Three Pines, 1860
#4 Selling Lucky, 1860
#5 Up the River, 1860

Rollo
#2 Rollo Learning to Read, 1835
#4 Rollo at Play, or Safe Amusements, 1837
#9 Rollo's Travels, 1839

American History
#1 Aboriginal America, 1860
#3 Southern Colonies, 1861
#4 Northern Colonies, 1862
#5 Wars of the Colonies, 1863
#6 Revolt of the Colonies, 1864

Biographies
History of Julius Caesar, 1849
History of King Charles the Second of England, 1849
History of Cyrus the Great, 1850
History of Darius the Great, 1850
History of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, 1851
History of Romulus, 1852

Additional works on the Web by Jacob Abbott
The Young Christian, or A Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty, 1832
The Teacher: Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and Government of the Young, 1833
"The College Revival," from The Corner-Stone, or A Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Truth, 1834
Caleb in the Country: A Story for Children, 1839
"Armory at Springfield," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, August 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, October 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land--Bethlehem," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1852
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1853
"Memoirs of the Holy Land," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February 1853
"Memoir of Damascus," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, October 1853
The Harper Establishment, or How the Story Books Are Made, 1855
"Rome," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1867
"Memoir of Babylon," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1868
"The Freaks of Lightning," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1869
"Deep-Sea Sounding," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May 1869
"Military Pyrotechnics of Farmer Days," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1869
"Early Aeronautics," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July 1869
"New Theory of Heat," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, August 1869
"The Spots in the Sun," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May 1870
"The Mysteries of a Thunder-shower," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1870
"The Ocean Steamer," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July 1870
"The Electric Light," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, August 1870
"The Spectroscope," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, October 1870
"The Negative in Photography," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November 1870
"Inveigling Nature into a Disclosure of Her Secrets," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1870
Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young, or The Principles on Which a Firm Parental Authority May Be Established and Maintained, 1871
"Lyell and Geology," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1871
"The Stricken Heart: A Romance of the Andes," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November 1871
"A Siren of Science," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November 1872
Illustrated New Testament (with John S. C. Abbott), 1878