The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren *Association Copy*

Oxford: Clarendon Press, University of Oxford, 1959 Association Copy. Hard cover in navy blue publisher's cloth with titles in gilt to spine. A Presentation inscription from the Authors to Cecily Raysor [Hancock] to front flyleaf in pen. Also included are partial remains of the original dust jacket, and two items of early correspondence between Ceciley and Ioana. Condition: Very Good, with slight edgewear, moderate age-toning to pages, with some ghosting due to correspondence included with the book. Some annotations in blue ink. For those who, like ourselves, raised babies upon a (sometimes literal) diet of Iona Opie's Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, wonderfully illustrated by Rosemary Wells, this peek into the Opie's academic work on folklore, rhymes and schoolyard games is an eye-opener. Upward of 5,000 English school children were consulted to provide the breadth of material included here. The Opies put this study of children's spoken lore on the map as an academic discipline. Cecily Raysor Hancock, graduated from the University of Chicago, was an American linguist who wrote various scholarly essays, including " Musical Notes to the Annotated Alice" (1988). She would also contribute an essay on the singing of traditional nursery rhymes to later editions of the Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, considered a classic on the subject.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good.