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Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1
Like some bedazzling magic, Cole's Funny Picture Book has been enchanting Australian children in their hundreds of thousands for over 100 years.
Over a century ago a remarkable man, E. W. Cole, the self-styled "Professor", compiled this amazing picture book. He it was who invented Girl Land and Laziness Land and the fabulous Whipping Machine, and who listed over 100 Names Suitable for Dollies and Babies. He wrote, too - wise words about people and language and funny words about travelling and husbands and wives. He also collected picture puzzles that have been mystifying generation after generation. To all this the Professor added an extraordinary collection of images that leap off the page and live forever in the memory.
If you were not brought up on Cole's wonderful book you will probably not believe all this. But for children the mysterious spell of Cole's Funny Picture Book is self-evident. Today's small people are just as entranced as were those of yesteryear.
In this special new edition 12 colour pages have been added though the original presentation is disturbed as little as possible. It is, as the Professor would doubtless say as he doffed his high top hat, part of the magic after all.
Over a century ago a remarkable man, E. W. Cole, the self-styled "Professor", compiled this amazing picture book. He it was who invented Girl Land and Laziness Land and the fabulous Whipping Machine, and who listed over 100 Names Suitable for Dollies and Babies. He wrote, too - wise words about people and language and funny words about travelling and husbands and wives. He also collected picture puzzles that have been mystifying generation after generation. To all this the Professor added an extraordinary collection of images that leap off the page and live forever in the memory.
If you were not brought up on Cole's wonderful book you will probably not believe all this. But for children the mysterious spell of Cole's Funny Picture Book is self-evident. Today's small people are just as entranced as were those of yesteryear.
In this special new edition 12 colour pages have been added though the original presentation is disturbed as little as possible. It is, as the Professor would doubtless say as he doffed his high top hat, part of the magic after all.
189 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1879
4 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Edward William Cole
18 booksCole was born at Woodchurch near Tenterden, Kent, England, son of Amos Cole, labourer, and his wife Harriett. He received little education, his father died young, and, after his mother had married again, the boy ran away to London. In 1850, with £20, he migrated to Cape Colony and had some success as a farmer. In November 1852 came to Victoria (Australia). He spent some time on the diggings at various jobs.
On 30 September 1865, Cole started a book shop at the Eastern market, Melbourne, with a stock of 600 volumes. His total takings at the end of October amounted to £15 12s., most of which was spent in buying fresh stock. He gradually prospered and became lessee of the whole of the market, most of which was sub-let to small stall-holders. He engaged a band, spent a comparatively large sum on advertising, and made the market a popular resort. Though Cole had little education he read a great deal, and in 1867, under the pseudonym of "Edwic", he published The Real Place in History of Jesus and Paul, which is largely a discussion on the validity of miracles. The last paragraph of the book stated that it had been written largely to show what Jesus was not, and that he hoped to publish another book showing "what he really was and Paul also, namely that they were two honest visionaries". No one in Melbourne or Sydney would publish it.
In 1874 Cole took a building fronting on Bourke Street near the market, and opened his first "book arcade". This business was successful and he also continued renting the market until 1881, when he was unable to secure a renewal of the lease on sufficiently favourable terms. He then began negotiations for a building lower down Bourke Street near the general post office. This was opened on 27 January 1883 and grew into one of the great book businesses of Australia, and became known as 'the prettiest sight in Melbourne'.[1][2] The shop was extended to Little Collins Street and afterwards buildings on the other side were bought through to the Collins Street frontage. The statement that there was once a stock of two million books is manifestly absurd, but the arcade certainly had one of the largest stocks of books in the world. Members of the public were invited to walk through the arcade, and to spend as much time as they liked turning over the books or even reading them. A large second hand department was on the first floor, where a band played every afternoon. The business continued to prosper and Cole eventually opened various new departments including one of printing. He compiled a large number of popular books, of which Cole's Funny Picture Book, which was launched with great publicity on Christmas Eve 1879, and Cole's Fun Doctor were most successful, their sales running into hundreds of thousands.
Cole married Eliza Frances Jordan in 1875, who predeceased him, dying on 15 March 1911. Cole himself died at Melbourne on 16 December 1918 and was buried in Boroondara Cemetery. Two sons and three daughters survived him.
Cole's establishment had a considerable effect on the culture of Melbourne. The business was continued for about 10 years after his death, when the executors decided to close it and sell the properties which had now become very valuable. A member of his family bought the goodwill, and the shop was continued for another 10 years in Swanston Street on a comparatively small scale.
Also published as Cole Turnley, E.W. Turnley.
On 30 September 1865, Cole started a book shop at the Eastern market, Melbourne, with a stock of 600 volumes. His total takings at the end of October amounted to £15 12s., most of which was spent in buying fresh stock. He gradually prospered and became lessee of the whole of the market, most of which was sub-let to small stall-holders. He engaged a band, spent a comparatively large sum on advertising, and made the market a popular resort. Though Cole had little education he read a great deal, and in 1867, under the pseudonym of "Edwic", he published The Real Place in History of Jesus and Paul, which is largely a discussion on the validity of miracles. The last paragraph of the book stated that it had been written largely to show what Jesus was not, and that he hoped to publish another book showing "what he really was and Paul also, namely that they were two honest visionaries". No one in Melbourne or Sydney would publish it.
In 1874 Cole took a building fronting on Bourke Street near the market, and opened his first "book arcade". This business was successful and he also continued renting the market until 1881, when he was unable to secure a renewal of the lease on sufficiently favourable terms. He then began negotiations for a building lower down Bourke Street near the general post office. This was opened on 27 January 1883 and grew into one of the great book businesses of Australia, and became known as 'the prettiest sight in Melbourne'.[1][2] The shop was extended to Little Collins Street and afterwards buildings on the other side were bought through to the Collins Street frontage. The statement that there was once a stock of two million books is manifestly absurd, but the arcade certainly had one of the largest stocks of books in the world. Members of the public were invited to walk through the arcade, and to spend as much time as they liked turning over the books or even reading them. A large second hand department was on the first floor, where a band played every afternoon. The business continued to prosper and Cole eventually opened various new departments including one of printing. He compiled a large number of popular books, of which Cole's Funny Picture Book, which was launched with great publicity on Christmas Eve 1879, and Cole's Fun Doctor were most successful, their sales running into hundreds of thousands.
Cole married Eliza Frances Jordan in 1875, who predeceased him, dying on 15 March 1911. Cole himself died at Melbourne on 16 December 1918 and was buried in Boroondara Cemetery. Two sons and three daughters survived him.
Cole's establishment had a considerable effect on the culture of Melbourne. The business was continued for about 10 years after his death, when the executors decided to close it and sell the properties which had now become very valuable. A member of his family bought the goodwill, and the shop was continued for another 10 years in Swanston Street on a comparatively small scale.
Also published as Cole Turnley, E.W. Turnley.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 22, 2012
Found this book online at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30726/...
I didn't read ALL of this book, but skimmed through and sampled quite a bit of it to get a good idea of what it was about, and I can see why it was so popular when it was first published in 1879. It is FULL of pictures, puzzles, poems, stories, lists of names, riddles, jokes, and other fun things organized into sections called "lands" (Girl Land, Boy Land, Naughtiness Land, Name Land, Drawing Land, Doggy Land, Stealing Land, Santa Claus Land, and on and on). E W Cole was the owner of Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne and he inserted clever advertisements for his store heavily throughout the book, such as this one at the beginning:
Later on he tells, alliteratively, The Strange History of 26 Funny Women, all of them doing something at Cole's Book Arcade:
"Isabella Ingram Ironically Inquired of the Illustrious Imperial Indian If Idleness, Ignorance, Impudence, Intemperance, Intolerance, Inhumanity, and Infamy. Were the seven cardinal virtues. She was referred for an answer to the Instructive books in Cole's Book Arcade."
I think he was a master advertiser. After reading only part of this book, I want to go to Cole's Book Arcade! All in all a really fun and clever book that I think kids would still enjoy today. I thought most of it was hilarious!
I didn't read ALL of this book, but skimmed through and sampled quite a bit of it to get a good idea of what it was about, and I can see why it was so popular when it was first published in 1879. It is FULL of pictures, puzzles, poems, stories, lists of names, riddles, jokes, and other fun things organized into sections called "lands" (Girl Land, Boy Land, Naughtiness Land, Name Land, Drawing Land, Doggy Land, Stealing Land, Santa Claus Land, and on and on). E W Cole was the owner of Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne and he inserted clever advertisements for his store heavily throughout the book, such as this one at the beginning:
Later on he tells, alliteratively, The Strange History of 26 Funny Women, all of them doing something at Cole's Book Arcade:
"Isabella Ingram Ironically Inquired of the Illustrious Imperial Indian If Idleness, Ignorance, Impudence, Intemperance, Intolerance, Inhumanity, and Infamy. Were the seven cardinal virtues. She was referred for an answer to the Instructive books in Cole's Book Arcade."
I think he was a master advertiser. After reading only part of this book, I want to go to Cole's Book Arcade! All in all a really fun and clever book that I think kids would still enjoy today. I thought most of it was hilarious!
July 22, 2022
This book is a bunch of common rhymes. Anecdotes etc. Sexist and Racist. And not funny.
September 4, 2015
I have not gotten around to reading all of this but I briefly look at it from time to and I realize why it's so popular.
January 28, 2026
I’m making my way through the children’s books included in “1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up”—those I haven’t already read as a child, anyway, or that I haven’t already read to my own children. Many of the older ones are available on Project Gutenberg, and many of the newer ones are available in my library, but I will not be able to check off the entire list. The originally non-English-language books are hard for me to come by without spending $$$, and this is not a project I intend to invest cash in.
As for this book--Pretty much any old English nursery rhyme or short fairy tale (Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Bluebeard, etc.) you might have been read as a child seems to be in this extensive, illustrated 1879 volume, along with quite a few you’ve probably never seen (including some offensively out-of-date ones). The author is Australian, and there are also some sections on why Australia is such "a grand country" (though it was not yet an independent one when this was written).
It was interesting to come across such a strong anti-smoking campaign (a series of pictures and pages and pages of alarming warnings, with regard to morals but also health), which made me wonder about the persistence of the myth that we “didn’t know how bad smoking was for you” until the late 20th century. The collection contains screeds against narcotics and drinking as well.
"Cole's Funny Picture Book" is interesting as a sort of historical compendium of the late-19th-century literary education of children, but when it comes to those select poems and stories I would have read (or did read) to my own children, those are just as easily found in other collections.
As for this book--Pretty much any old English nursery rhyme or short fairy tale (Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Bluebeard, etc.) you might have been read as a child seems to be in this extensive, illustrated 1879 volume, along with quite a few you’ve probably never seen (including some offensively out-of-date ones). The author is Australian, and there are also some sections on why Australia is such "a grand country" (though it was not yet an independent one when this was written).
It was interesting to come across such a strong anti-smoking campaign (a series of pictures and pages and pages of alarming warnings, with regard to morals but also health), which made me wonder about the persistence of the myth that we “didn’t know how bad smoking was for you” until the late 20th century. The collection contains screeds against narcotics and drinking as well.
"Cole's Funny Picture Book" is interesting as a sort of historical compendium of the late-19th-century literary education of children, but when it comes to those select poems and stories I would have read (or did read) to my own children, those are just as easily found in other collections.
February 27, 2024
Never going to read it all - but I read some and flipped past every page. Not outrageously funny.
But it is silly - especially for 1879 I suppose.
But it is silly - especially for 1879 I suppose.
April 12, 2015
I found this book at a market in Fed Square. It was one of my childhood favourites and was first published in 1879.
I tried a while ago to get one online without success. I loved the pictures, riddles, lists, how-to's and sheer randomness of the book. It also has an unusual and somewhat unsettling quality. Like many fairy tales and children's rhymes.
I tried a while ago to get one online without success. I loved the pictures, riddles, lists, how-to's and sheer randomness of the book. It also has an unusual and somewhat unsettling quality. Like many fairy tales and children's rhymes.
March 25, 2014
What is this thing and how did it find me
Read
February 9, 20161001 children's books you must read before you grow up
used to read at Grandma's house
used to read at Grandma's house
March 16, 2011
Brought me so much joy as a child! And still does. :)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews