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.