The Water-Babies Collection #1 – Set of 9

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children’s novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862–63 as a serial for Macmillan’s Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. The book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children’s literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in part due to its prejudices (common at the time) against Irish, Jews, Americans, and the poor.

Warwick Goble was born in Dalston, north London, the son of a commercial traveller, and educated and trained at the City of London School and the Westminster School of Art. He worked for a printer specializing in chromolithography and contributed to The Pall Mall Gazette and The Westminster Gazette. In 1909, he became resident gift book illustrator for MacMillan and produced illustrations for The Water Babies