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Part of
Transnational Books for Children 1750-1900: Producers, consumers, encounters
Edited by Charlotte Appel, Nina Christensen and M.O. Grenby
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 15] 2023
► pp. 198–223

Chapter 9
From Michaelmas-Day to Thanksgiving

The transatlantic transformation of Michaelmas Day

This chapter explores the appropriation, adaptation, and translation of the picturebook Grandmamma Easy’s Michaelmas Day, or The Fate of Poor Molly Goosey. Originally issued by London publisher Dean & Company c. 1843, it was reprinted three years later in Philadelphia by George S. Appleton. In about 1850, the text was Americanized and issued by Boston publisher Wier & White under the title Thanksgiving Day. Around 1870, New York publisher D. Appleton & Company translated the picturebook into Spanish and issued it as La Historia de La Gansa Amorosa (The Story of the Loving Goose) for sale in an emerging Hispanic book market, enlisting picturebook manufacturer McLoughlin Brothers. Tracing the transnational, translingual history of Molly, this study illuminates the use of recognized public holidays to reach new markets.

Article outline
  • Poor Molly Goosey, the unwitting “star” of Michaelmas Day
  • Molly Goosey meets the new “tradition” of American Thanksgiving
  • Molly Goosey becomes “La Gansa Amorosa”
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.15.09was
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