Thomas Day

The History of Sandford and Merton Thomas Day

The History of Sandford and Merton (1783-1789) was a bestselling children's book written by Thomas Day. He began it as a contribution to Richard Lovell and Honora Edgeworth's Harry and Lucy, a collection of short stories for children that Maria Edgeworth continued some years after Honora died. He eventually expanded his original short story into the first volume of The History of Sandford and Merton, which was published anonymously in 1783; two further volumes subsequently followed in 1786 and 1789. The book was wildly successful and was reprinted until the end of the nineteenth century. It retained enough popularity or invoked enough nostalgia at the end of the nineteenth century to inspire a satire, The New History of Sandford and Merton, whose preface proudly announces that it will "teach you what to don't."