Alice's Alphabet by Fannie E. Ostrander

Description:

Alice’s Alphabet is a richly illustrated booklet designed to instruct young readers in the alphabet. Each letter is followed by a rhyming stanza of about five lines. The references are made primarily to animals and children’s names. The animals and children described in each stanza are portrayed in detailed, colored illustrations. The front and back covers feature illustrations of children learning their ABCs through the use of building blocks and/or a reader. Both the cover and pages are made of heavy stock, linen-quality paper.

Author Fannie E. Ostrander was prolific author and editor of children’s story books. She graduated from Wisconsin State Normal School and also studied under private tutors. In addition to teaching in public schools, Ostrander contributed verse and prose to magazines. In 1899, Ostrander went to work as an editor and writer for Chicago publishing house W.B. Conkey. Ostrander died in May 1921 in New Haven, Connecticut.

The W. B. Conkey Company was formed in Chicago in 1877. It later built a plant in 1897 at 617 Conkey Street, Hammond, Indiana. At the time, it was one of the most modern, largest, and best equipped printing plants in the world. Conkey won the coveted commission to print the Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The firm also published the very first Sears Roebuck catalog in 1898. After the original owner and president died in 1923, his son Henry P. Conkey took over controlling interest of the company. Numerous types of catalogs and books were printed at the plant, including textbooks, biographies, encyclopedias, fiction, and Bibles. The publishing house was sold to Rand McNally in 1949.