Educational Association Children’s Library Publishing: the Case of Fairy Tales

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to highlight aspects of the publishing activity of the Educational Association founded in Athens in 1910. The main aims of the Association were the educational reform and the diffusion of the vernacular language form of Greek, the demotic, in education. From 1913 to 1919, the numbered book series Educational Association Children’s Library published fairy tales in the demotic language in three books. Members of the Association worked for the fairy tales: the authors Penelope Delta and Julia Dragoumi, both specialized in juvenile literature and the educator Alexander Delmouzos as a translator. The fairy tales, written or translated by the members of the Association named above, were for specific age groups of children and covered the entire spectrum from the very young children to the older. This article evaluates the role of fairy tales in the Educational Association’s aims. In that context, fairy tales were of paramount importance both as a literary text for the spread of the demotic language and as a pedagogical tool.