Father Goose
☞ Public‐domain character. Literary. First appearance, Father Gander’s Tales, or, Youth’s Moral Companion, ca. 1783.
Father Goose or Father Gander is the husband, presumably English, of renowned authoress and storyteller Mother Goose and is himself a capable author of rhymes and tales. He is presumably the father of Jack and of Sis and Bub. According to an 1886 text, he is also half of a heroic duo with Mother Hubbard’s dog Tray who have saved the lives of a number of fairy‐tale figures. He is also known as Father Goosie Gander, Father Goosey Gander and Daddy Gander. Like Mother Goose, he is usually portrayed as a human being but is sometimes portrayed as a goose.
Despite the fact that his wife has made a tremendous number of literary appearances, Father Goose is rarely mentioned, and the story of who he is and how he came to meet Mother Goose goes entirely undocumented. Even when a 19th‐century chapbook discloses that Mother Goose has a son named Jack, no indication is given therein or in any other document as to the identity of Jack’s father, and that Father Goose is his father can at best only be inferred (Old Mother Goose, and the Golden Egg); and two texts from 1881 and 1899 even explicitly portray Mother Goose as an unmarried woman who accepts a marriage proposal from Santa Claus (“Marriage of Santa Claus” and “Christmas Chimes Cantata”). Also in 1899, Mother Goose leaves two children, named Sis and Bub, in the care of Father Goose, suggesting that these children may perhaps be later offspring, but again, details are scant (Father Goose). How long Mother and Father Goose have been married is also unknown. However, a text from the week of 14 December 1886 indicates that Father Gander has intervened in a number of dangerous episodes in the lives of 16th‐ and 17th‐century fairy‐tale personages (“Father Gander”), and in 1894, he states that he had fanned Mother Goose while she was composing many of her songs (Father Gander’s Melodies for Mother Goose’s Grandchildren), so it would seem to be quite a while, perhaps centuries.
The undated book Father Gander’s Tales, or, Youth’s Moral Companion, thought to have been published around 1783, gives the earliest concrete evidence of Father Gander’s existence, and records his earliest known writings about eighty years after his wife’s earliest publication in 1697. His moralistic tales, quite uncharacteristic of the humorous style of writing whereon he would later settle, strongly promote good conduct in children, and he even derides certain tales written by his wife as unsuitable to that aim.
In October 1808, ….
In 1868, the book Father Gander’s Melodies is published and, much like his wife has done, Father Gander transitions from writing prose tales to writing lighthearted rhymes. The two poems in the book wherein he refers to himself both suggest he is an actual goose: In the introductory poem, “Father Gander’s Greeting,” he calls himself “a gay old gander” and indicates he lives with Mother Goose and sings his own songs while wandering around their yard. In the closing poem, “Good Bye,” he states that Mother Goose is “ready for a fly” and that he’ll therefore “flap [his] wings and fly away.” Eight further books of his works are published as late as 1909, and numerous other poems of his are published in periodicals as late as 1924.
In the week of 14 December 1886, Harper’s Young People recounts a number of past adventures … (“Father Gander”).
In 1891, a tiddlywinks disc named Miss Green Tiddledywink reads aloud a number of poems from Father Gander’s Melodies to a visitor named Jimmieboy. In point of fact, however, none of the poems she recites actually appears in Father Gander’s Melodies, unless perhaps it is in a later volume or an edition specifically published for Tiddledywink‐land.
In September 1899, Father Goose evidently attends a picnic … (“Diamond Condensed Soups are not canned soups”).
Public‐domain bibliography.
“Goose‐a, goose‐a, gander” (nursery rhyme), Gammer Gurton’s Garland, 1783 or 1784. Not about Father Gander but evidently had an influence on some versions of the character. (1810, HathiTrust) (1810, Google Books) (1810, Internet Archive)
“Goosy Goosy Gander,” A Christmas Box, 1796. (Internet Archive) (Google Books)
“Goosey, goosey, gander,” Songs for the Nursery, 1805. (1808, Internet Archive)
“Goosy goosy gander !,” An Essay on the Archaiology of Popular English Phrases and Nursery Rhymes, by John Bellenden Ker, 1834. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)
“Goosy goosy gander !,” The Nursery Rhymes of England, Collected Principally from Oral Tradition, 1842. (HathiTrust) (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)
“Goosey Gander,” Nursery Rhymes, with the Tunes to Which They Are Still Sung in the Nurseries of England, 1846. (1861?, HathiTrust) (Google Books)
Father Gander’s Tales, or, Youth’s Moral Companion: Being a Collection of Pleasing Stories in Two Volumes, Illustrated with Variety of Copper Plates Accurately Engrav’d, [ca. 1783]. (WorldCat, WorldCat)
“Anticipation of Various Articles of The General Evening Post of Saturday Afternoon, Sept. 26, 1907,” by Joseph Moser, The General Evening Post, (8?) Oct. 1808. Reprinted in The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1808: Being an Impartial Selection of the Most Ingenious Essays and Jeux d’esprits That Appear in the Newspapers and Other Publications; With Explanatory Notes and Anecdotes of Many of the Persons Alluded To, vol. 12, 1809. Documents a fictional future melodrama entitled Father Gander, to be written and staged ninety‐nine years hence. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)
“The Viceroy’s Festival” (poem), Translations from Ancient Irish Manuscripts, and Other Poems, by James Martin, 1811. Not necessarily a reference to the author Father Gander: “[L]et them thro’ the markets wander / Like Mother Goose and Father Gander.” (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)
Poems in The New York Tribune?, Nov. 1866? The Louisville Journal, 14 Nov. 1866, hints at possible Tribune content: “␚The editor of the New York Tribune tries to make rhymes in imitation of ‘Mother Goose.’ But ‘Mother Goose’ is unapproachable by Father Gander.” (Internet Archive)
Father Gander’s Melodies, by Belacee (pseud. of Barnet W. Lacy), 1868.
“Father Gander’s Preface” and “The Bear and the Squirrels,” Father Gander’s Rhymes About the Animals, by C. P. Cranch, The Riverside Magazine for Young People, vol. 4, no. 2, whole no. 38, Feb. 1870. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)
“The Fox,” “An Old Cat’s Confessions” and “The Disobedient Son,” Father Gander’s Rhymes About the Animals, by C. P. Cranch, The Riverside Magazine for Young People, vol. 4, no. 3, whole no. 39, Mar. 1870. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)
“Father Gander’s Criticism on the Turkey” and “The Turkey’s Reply,” Father Gander’s Rhymes About the Animals, by C. P. Cranch, The Riverside Magazine for Young People, vol. 4, no. 4, whole no. 40, Apr. 1870. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)
The William Henry Letters, by Abby Morton Díaz, 1870. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Owl poem and “About the Hippopotamus, and Other Queer Creatures,” Father Gander’s Rhymes About the Animals, by C. P. Cranch, The Riverside Magazine for Young People, vol. 4, no. 8, whole no. 44, Aug. 1870. (HathiTrust, page missing) (Google Books, page missing) (Internet Archive, page missing)
“Irene and the Yesterdays,” by “Raja,” with one illustration, St. Nicholas, vol. 7, no. 1, Nov. 1879. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)
“Father Gander” (poem), by G. T. Lanigan (George T. Lanigan posthumously?), Harper’s Young People, vol. 8, no. 372, 14 Dec. 1886. (HathiTrust) (Google)
Tiddledywink Tales, ch. 8, “Miss Green Tiddledywink,” by John Kendrick Bangs, 1891. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google)
Father Gander’s Melodies for Mother Goose’s Grandchildren, by Adelaide F. Samuels, illustrations by Lillian Trask Harlow, 1894. (Internet Archive) (CBO)
The Rhymes of Father Goosie Gander: A Companion and Sequel to Mother Goose Melodies, by Blanche Carpenter Huleatt and Belle Carpenter Sabin, illustrations by Blanche Carpenter Huleatt, 1898. (Internet Archive) (UF)
Reprinted(?) with additional illustrations as Mother Goose as Told by Father Gander, 1902?
Father Goose: His Book, by L. Frank Baum, illustrations by William Wallace Denslow, (Sept.) 1899. (HathiTrust)
The Songs of Father Goose, music by Alberta Neiswanger Hall, 1900.
Advertisements for Diamond Soup Co., illustration by William Wallace Denslow, various magazines, beginning Sept. 1899. (HathiTrust) (HathiTrust) (HathiTrust)
Daddy Gander: For Little and Big Folks, by Francis Edgar Mason, illustrations by (Samuel M.) Spedon, 1900. Published in the US and UK simultaneously, but the author and illustrator are both American. (select pages, Blogger)
Old Father Gander; or, The Better‐Half (?) of Mother Goose: Rhymes, Chimes, and Jingles Scratched from His Own Goose‐Quill for American Goslings, by Walter Scott Howard, 1900.
“Father Goose” (song), by W. Brian Hooker and Thomas G. Shepard, Yale Melodies: A Collection of the Latest Songs Used by the Yale University Glee Club, 1903. (HathiTrust)
Mother Goose Told by Father Gander, 1903. (Not to be confused with the volume above.)
Father Goose’s Year Book: Quaint Quacks and Feathered Shafts for Mature Children, by L. Frank Baum, illustrations by Walter G. Enright, 1907.
Father Gander Golf Book, by Myra Bradwell Helmer and Inez Lenore Klumph, illustrations by Clarence G. Vollmer, 1909. (Internet Archive)
“A Suitable Successor (A Christmas Dialogue),” Entertainments for All the Year, by Clara J. Denton, 1910. (Internet Archive) (1920, HathiTrust) (1920, Google)
“Boys of Mother Goose Land” (play), by Stanley Schell, Boy Impersonations, Werner’s Readings and Recitations, no. 52, 1913. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google)
“Father Gander” (rhyme), The Clay‐Worker, vol. 69, no. 2, Feb. 1918. Man So Wise. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)
“Father Gander” (poem), All ’Round Our House, by Rupert Sargent Holland, 1919. (Internet Archive)
“Mother Goose and Father Gander” (poem), The Golden Island, by Emma Kenyon Parrish, 1921. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google)
“Mother Goose and Father Gander” (three rhymes), Life, vol. 80, no. 2091, 30 Nov. 1922. King Coal. (HathiTrust) (Google Books)
“Father Gander” (rhyme), Life, vol. 84, no. 2197, 11 Dec. 1924. (HathiTrust) (Google Books)