Juvenilia, or writings by youthful authors, are not by their nature inferior literature but, rather, a legitimate part of the process of growth, of the literary apprenticeship of the youthful writer maturing into the adult author. The purpose of this course is to ask questions about the nature of writing by children particularly those gifted children (like Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and C.S. Lewis) who are famous for their childhood writings. Others (like George Eliot, Robert and Elizabeth Barret Browning, John Ruskin, Rudyard Kipling, Evelyn Waugh and Katherine Mansfield) are known today only for their adult works. The child writings of these authors will be looked at in terms of the individual psychologies of the children who wrote them, and the social-cultural context in which they were written. There will also be the opportunity to edit a juvenile manuscript for publication, an exercise that will involve teamwork and an introduction to editing.