TOPSY

(New York: McLoughlin Brothers, n.d. [c. 1890])



As you can see from the image of the front-and-back covers behind these words, this 8-page illustrated children's book was shaped like a doll that opened up to 3 poems. The first and last are about the novel's "Topsy" (though as the watermelon in her hand suggests, the "Topsy" here exists at some distance from the character Stowe created); the middle one is included, presumably, because it is also about a black child.


Courtesy the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, John Hay Library, Brown University; all rights reserved.