Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Little Leather Library Collection
Dates: Circa 1920-1924
Collection Number: MS0160
Creator/Collector:
Little Leather Library Corporation of New York
Extent: 2LF, 2 boxes, 101 titles
Repository:
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Special Collections and Archives
San Luis Obispo, California 93407
Abstract: The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4” x 4,” published by the Little Leather Library Corporation
of New York. The miniature books are bound in imitation leather and characteristic of the Redcroft edition published between
1920-1924. There were over 100 miniature book titles published in the various editions of the Little Leather Library, but
it is not known if all of these titles were included in the Redcroft edition.
Language of Material: English
Access
Collection is open to researchers by appointment. For more information on visiting, access policies, and reproduction requests,
please visit our Reference Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/search-and-find/collections-and-archives/reference-services/.
Publication Rights
Digital copies are provided to researchers for the purpose of study, research, and personal use only, unless otherwise specified
in writing. Materials that are the property of Cal Poly Special Collections and Archives require written permission prior
to publication. No complete collection may be reproduced.
For print and online publication, please visit our Reproduction Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/support/sca-policies/reproduction/.
Special Collections and Archives reserves the right to review all reproduction requests and to withhold permission if scanning
would endanger the material, would violate copyright law, or would violate institutional restrictions.
Copyright: © 2016 Trustees of the California State University. All rights reserved.
Preferred Citation
Little Leather Library Collection. California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Special Collections and Archives
Acquisition Information
Gift
Biography/Administrative History
The Little Leather Library Corporation of New York was the first company to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States.
The corporation, founded in 1916 by Albert Boni, Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim, made available a wide variety of classics
by authors including Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Morris, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats in miniature editions.
The 101 books in this collection are brownish green in color, bound in imitation leather, and characteristic of the Redcroft
edition published between 1920-1924. Only the first two editions were bound in real leather. When first published, the little
books were sold at the Woolworth’s chain. By the early 1920s, the books were advertised in popular magazines, selling in National
Geographic from 1922 to 1924. Sometimes a miniature classic might appear in a cereal box as a promotion. Robert K. Hass, Inc.,
Publishers took control of the Little Leather Library Corporation in 1924. Boni later established Modern Library Publishing
Company, of which Random House Publishers would become a subsidiary company. Scherman and Sackheim as well as Hass were later
involved in the establishment of the Book of the Month Club.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4” x 4,” published by the Little Leather Library Corporation
of New York. The miniature books are bound in imitation leather and characteristic of the Redcroft edition published between
1920-1924.