Opening the Nursery Door is a fascinating collection of essays inspired by the chance discovery of the nursery library of Jane Johnson (1706-59), wife of a Buckinghamshire vicar. The discovery of this tiny archive - which contained her poems and stories for children - captured the scholarly interest of social anthropologists, historians, literary scholars, educationalists and archivists and opened up a range of questions about the nature of childhood within English cultural life over three centuries.

The contributors to this book focus on the cultural and social history of children's literature and literacy development from several different perspectives. It reconsiders the central importance of literacy practices in childhood in its examination of the process by which children came to read and write. At the centre is the work of Jane Johnson and the many ways in which her archive has prompted us to raise important questions about women, children and literacy.