So, while dealing with "Uncle Toby's Christmas Book for All the Family" published by Harper & Brothers in 1936, my next question is, "Who is this 'Uncle Toby' person supposed to be?
I like to think that I know a lot of things and am able to make connections that provide context, but I'm pretty much at a loss here.
The book itself in a straight-faced manner presents Uncle Toby as if he's someone you're supposed to know I guess. It's all in the third-person, but the conceit is that Uncle Toby has curated this book for us:
Oh, he likes to read "A Christmas Carol" out loud, does he?
He's presumably the gentleman shown on the cover, but there don't appear to be any illustrations of him on the interior and no other hints as to who he is.
Uncle Mistletoe I get, but not Uncle Toby!
In attempting some research, I did find that there's an extremely long-running Australian company called Uncle Tobys which is known for its oat products. Like crazy long-running, having its origins in the 1860s and gaining the Uncle Tobys (no apostrophe) name in 1892!
They're now owned by Nestlé, but are still milling those oats!
The logo features a man and woman. I guess the man is Uncle Toby, as the woman is hugging him because the oats are so good. He bears a vague resemblance to our guy on the "Christmas Book" cover, but mainly because he's wearing a hat.
The book seems pretty American (Harper & Brothers is an American Company) and I can't imagine that the 1936 intended audience had ever heard of the Australian oat makers.
So, who else could it be?
Well, the title character of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," the 18th century British novel by Laurence Sterne had an Uncle Toby. The character was somewhat famous, but I would not think that 1936 readers would be looking to an obscurish character from almost 200 years prior for their Christmas entertainment!
Or was that a favorite character of the actual Harper Brothers (James and John having been born in the 1790s) and the publishing house kept that character around as an homage?
To further muddy the waters, there was a line of children's books published by the McLoughlin Brothers (who had their own version of "A Christmas Carol" in 1940) in the 1880s using "Uncle Toby's Series" as a name:
But it can't be the same Uncle Toby - wrong publishing brother act!
Seriously, we need Nick Carter again!
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