was a coloured picture book with emphasis on pictures rather than text. Vicki Anderson, author of The Dime Novel in Children's Literature, writes that toy books were both temptingly colourful and not instructive. The books were inexpensive and often were reprints and condensed versions of existing stories such as fairy tales, which were commonly reprinted as toy books, as were books such as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Later toy books Children's illustrated books became fashionable during the Victorian period with an emphasis on the artistic value of the work at a period when the middle and upper classes had funds to spend on books for their offspring. Brightly coloured and well-designed toy books in particular became extremely popular. When the English publishing house Routledge and Warne contracted with printer Edmund Evans in 1865 to provide toy books for a growing market, the toy books he printed "revolutionized the field of children's books". Large print runs, often exceeding 10,000 for first printings, were necessary. Routledge asserted that each title required sales of 50,000 to be profitable. When the market for toy books exploded, Evans began publishing them himself, choosing and commissioning the artists to design the illustrations. Walter Crane (1845–1905), Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), and Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) are the best known illustrators of late-Victorian toybooks, and "did much to develop the sense, the shape, and the look of the modern picture book". Evans considered full colour printing, using the relatively inexpensive technique of chromoxylography to be well-suited to the simple illustrations in children's books, He objected to crudely coloured children's book illustrations, which he believed could be beautiful and inexpensive if the print run was large enough. Toy books that were illustrated by Greenaway, Crane and Caldecott, and engraved and printed by Evans, became popular and remain examples of classically illustrated children's literature. The three illustrators became known as the triumvirate of Victoria toy book illustrators and greatly influenced a younger generation of toy book or small book illustrators such as Beatrix Potter. Books such as The Diverting History of John Gilpin, published in 1878, became popular because of the quality of the illustrations and printing. The Diverting History of John Gilpin, written by William Cowper and first published in 1785, was illustrated by Caldecott and carefully printed in bright colours by Evans. Each page was illustrated and Caldecott's illustrations were designed to make a reader turn to the next page. Children's