I have done some writing in the past about what I saw as an increasing
emphasis on the importance of education and child development toward the end
of the eighteenth century.  I decided to use the ESTC to see whether the
patterns of publication of volumes of fairy tales, children's literature, and
educational literature supported my idea by showing a significant 
increase in the number of such books as the century progressed.  Here are 
the results of searches by decade for the strings "fairy tale," "child#," 
and "educat#":<pre>
 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE - 23 records 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 179# - 6 records 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 178# - 3 records 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 177# - 5 records 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 176# - 3 records 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 175# - 1 record 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 174# - 1 record 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 173# - None in ESTC 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 172# - None in ESTC 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 171# - 1 record 
FIN TW FAIRY TALE AND IYR 170# - 1 record 
FIN TW CHILD# - 5651 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 179# - 1193 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 178# - 599 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 177# - 467 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 176# - 466 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 175# - 281 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 174# - 228 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 173# - 222 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 172# - 228 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 171# - 305 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 170# - 201 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 169# - 133 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 168# - 117 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 167# - 129 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 166# - 109 records 
FIN TW CHILD# AND IYR 165# - 153 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# - 1774 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 179# - 355 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 178# - 281 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 177# - 180 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 176# - 138 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 175# - 162 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 174# - 107 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 173# - 90 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 172# - 99 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 171# - 91 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 170# - 92 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 169# - 33 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 168# - 22 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 166# - 5 records 
FIN TW EDUCAT# AND IYR 165# - 9 records 
</pre> 
     So far, so good.  In each case, the 1790's figure represents a sharp
jump up from the publication levels of the 1780's.  Each example also 
shows a sharp increase in publications around 1700 and another around 
1750, so the jumps in 1790 appear to indicate a sharp rise topping off a 
more gradual but significant rise in previous decades.<p>
     A problem with my method occurred to me, however: since I had not
checked the total number of volumes printed in each period, I only knew that
the number of these books was increasing.  I still did not know whether the
proportion of all published volumes that contained these strings was
increasing.  Here are the results of a search by decades for all titles:
<pre> 
FIN IYR 179# - 68207 records 
FIN IYR 178# - 42542 records 
FIN IYR 177# - 36076 records 
FIN IYR 176# - 29757 records 
FIN IYR 175# - 24918 records 
FIN IYR 174# - 21455 records 
FIN IYR 173# - 19981 records 
FIN IYR 172# - 19682 records 
FIN IYR 171# - 22971 records 
FIN IYR 170# - 18853 records 
FIN IYR 169# - 9007 records 
FIN IYR 168# - 11593 records 
FIN IYR 167# - 7618 records 
FIN IYR 166# - 7503 records 
FIN IYR 165# - 9553 records
<p> 
     Indeed, the sample was hardly constant.  I needed to adjust my earlier
figures in this light.  Here are the results ("T,%" stands for "total,
percentage; in other words, the absolute number of titles is listed, followed
by the percentage of the total books published in the decade that that
represents):
<pre> 
Decade     Total Books     "FT" T,%         "Child" T,%     "Educat" T,%
 
1790's     68207           6, 0.009%        1193, 1.75%     355, 0.52%
  80's     42542           3, 0.007          599, 1.40      281, 0.66
  70's     36076           5, 0.014          467, 1.29      180, 0.50
  60's     29757           3, 0.010          466, 1.57      138, 0.46
  50's     24918           1, 0.004          281, 1.13      162, 0.65
  40's     21455           1, 0.005          228, 1.06      107, 0.49
  30's     19981           0, 0              222, 1.11       90, 0.45
  20's     19682           0, 0              228, 1.15       99, 0.50
  10's     22971           1, 0.004          305, 1.33       91, 0.39
  00's     18853           1, 0.005          201, 1.07       92, 0.49
1690's      9007           0, 0              133, 1.48       33, 0.37
  80's     11593           0, 0              117, 1.01       22, 0.19
  70's      7618           0, 0              129, 1.69       25, 0.32
  60's      7503           0, 0              109, 1.45        5, 0.06
  50's      9553           0, 0              153, 1.60        9, 0.09
</pre> 
     Now the figures are far less dramatic.  The fairy tale numbers are too
small to tell much much beyond the fact that the genre was emergin toward the
end of the century.  I suspect these numbers would rise dramatically in the
1810's, as the Grimms' first volume came out and was widely read in 1812.<p>
     The levels of books whose title included the "child#" string in the
1790's were indeed unprecedented in this period, and the latter half of the
century shows a clear rise relative to the earlier half in these book.  What
appears now, though, is that the relative number of these books was
also high toward the end of the previous century; English writers from 1700-
1760 appear to have been significantly less interested in children's
literature and literature about children than their predecessors or their
followers.<p>
     The results for "Educat#" show a less gradual increase.  I decided 
to do two more searches to see how much that increase had to do with 
children's education specifically, one for "educat#" and "child#," and 
one checking for "instruct#" and "child#."<p>
     For other reasons, I also checked the frequencies of the word "gothic"
(excluding "architect#") and "novel" in the period.  I will not include the
individual searches here, but the results were these:
<pre> 
Decade     Total      "E&C" T,%  "I&C" T,%  "Gothic" T,%    "Novel" T,%
 
1790's     68207      88, 0.13%  121, 0.18% 39, 0.057%      405, 0.59%
  80's     42542      55, 0.13    52, 0.12   8, 0.019       209, 0.49
  70's     36076      35, 0.09    31, 0.09   6, 0.017        89, 0.25
  60's     29757      40, 0.13    38, 0.13   8, 0.027        51, 0.17
  50's     24918      52, 0.21    17, 0.07   2, 0.008        35, 0.14
  40's     21455      31, 0.14    22, 0.10   3, 0.014        29, 0.14
  30's     19981      31, 0.16    23, 0.12   0, 0.000        20, 0.10
  20's     19682      24, 0.12    13, 0.07   1, 0.005        50, 0.25
  10's     22971      33, 0.14    24, 0.10   0, 0.000        21, 0.09
  00's     18853      26, 0.14    20, 0.11   0, 0.000        10, 0.05
1690's      9007      12, 0.13     9, 0.10   0, 0.000        10, 0.11
  80's     11593       4, 0.03     9, 0.08   0, 0.000        40, 0.35
  70's      7618       4, 0.05    10, 0.13   0, 0.000        19, 0.24
  60's      7503       2, 0.03     2, 0.03   0, 0.000         4, 0.05
  50's      9553       2, 0.02     5, 0.05   0, 0.000         0, 0.00
</pre> 
     Again, the education-related searches show striking absolute gains but
modest relative gains.  One could argue either that the relatively stable
proportion of books written on the subject indicates a relatively stable
interest in the subject or that the large increases in the sheer number of
such books is a truer indication of the interest level.<p>
     What is most remarkable to me is the increase in the number of books in
general.  I wonder whether there has been an increase since then as 
impressive as the near-doubling of the volume of printed books in three 
decades at the end of the eighteenth century.