The Perhappsy Chaps - 1

 

Today we start a new Sunday blog feature - a serialization of Ruth Plumly Thompson's first book, The Perhappsy Chaps. This beautiful little book was published by the Volland Company in 1918 - three years before Thompson took over writing the Oz books. The Perhappsy poems had originally been published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger as part of Thompson's "children's page." The poems in the ledger were illustrated in black and white by Arthur Henderson. For the book collection, each of Henderson's images appears in sumptuous full-color. Indeed, the drawings are at least half the charm of the little volume.

One of the benefits of sharing this on the blog is that it allows for sharing it in full-color. So here is the first Perhappsy Poem exactly as it appeared in the 1918 edition of The Perhappsy Chaps! 

Please note that if you click on any of the images they will expand to a full-size version which will make it much easier to read! All of the other blog images will similarly enlarge.