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Argentina Small Storybooks Collection
SPC.2022.37
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Contributing Institution:
California State University Dominguez Hills, Gerth Archives and Special Collections
Title: Argentina Small Storybooks Collection
Creator:
Vigil, Constancio C., 1876-1954
Creator:
Editorial Tor (1916-1971) (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Creator:
Torrendell, Juan Carlos, 1895-1961
Creator:
Editorial Atlantida
Identifier/Call Number: SPC.2022.37
Physical Description:
3 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1927-1957
Abstract: This collection brings together works for small children published in Argentina from the 1920s to around 1950. It contains
materials produced by three publishers: Atlántida, Editorial Tor, and Águila Saint. In all cases, the works are small-format
and printed on cheap newsprint and priced to be affordable to all children. The stories presented in this collection include
original works, as well as adaptations of fables, fairy tales, and famous adventure stories. The Águila Saint issues contain
games, moral lessons, nature and health facts, and historical and biographical vignettes.
Language of Material:
Spanish; Castilian
.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
While some of the materials in this collection come from the late 1920s to early 1930s, the bulk come from the 1940s to 1950s,
which places them in the so-called Golden Age of Argentine publishing. The works of the three publishers represented in this
collection were all very popular in their time and are well-remembered as an important part of childhood by many Argentine
adults.
Editorial Atlántida
In some ways, the storybooks published by Editorial Atlántida are the most significant in this collection, mainly for the
contributions of Constancio C. Vigil (1876-1954), an Uruguayan whose family moved to Argentina for political reasons. He was
a journalist who founded a number of minor magazines, including La Alborada, Mundo Argentina, and Atlántida, and helped establish
a number of others. With the establishment of Editorial Atlántida in 1918, Vigil became a Major publisher of magazines about
sports (El Grafico), women's issues (
Para ti), and childhood life (
Billiken), among many others. Billiken remained the most popular of the magazines for several decades. At the same time, Vigil began
publishing both adult and children's books through Editorial Atlántida, many of them those he authored. While the adult books
were successful, Vigil became famous through his more than 100 works for children. These works, the (Vigil's Stories for ital
were inexpensively manufactured and affordable to children across South America. They were immediately recognizable for their
uniform size (6 x 5 inches) and brightly-drawn covers (often created by some of Argentina's best-known illustrators). The
works were numbered, and constantly re-issued, often gathered into different groupings to make collectible sets.
While Vigil's tales contain many familiar tropes of children's literature – anthropomorphized animals, heroic children, long
ago kingdoms, and so forth, the stories are often moralistic by nature, with good behaviors rewarded, and even minor discretions
leading to punishment. As such, parents were comfortable giving Vigil's stories to children, often as birthday or religious
confirmation presents. While the plots, characters, and tones of the stories may appear dated, some of Vigil's creations –e.g.,
The Clockmaker Monkey or The Little Traveling Ant – have become archetypal and are constantly reintroduced to children in
new formats.
Editorial Tor
Editorial Tor was founded in 1916 by Juan Carlos Torrendell. Tor established itself quickly as a publisher of cheaply produced
volumes, where quality had less value than cost-cutting. These books included biographies, essays, manuals, reprints, collections
of short stories, and novels – whose publishing was often funded by the authors themselves.
In 1930, Editorial Tor acquired its first rotary press, which allowed it to improve production significantly. While the quality
of the materials was still low, it found a way to make a mark on the children's market by establishing the La Abeja (The Bee)
series in 1940. These books are of a uniform size (5 x 7 inches) and length (initially 64 pages, later 32 pages) with thin
cardboard covers, and brightly drawn covers, and multi-colored illustrations throughout issue. There were 100 titles published
in the La Abeja series between 1940 and 1950. Unlike the works of Constancio Vigil, La Abeja books were adaptations of a wide
range of established works – generally fairy tales and European children's literature, but also stories by Washington Irving,
Jonathan Swift, and even Geoffrey Chaucer.
Águila Saint
Águila Saint was a factory founded in 1880 by Abel François Charles Saint, A Frenchman who had moved to Buenos Aires. The
factory first focused on coffee, and was very successful. Saint was to find his greatest success, however, in finding ways
to serve and market hot chocolate for drinking. This led the way for all kinds of chocolate products, which made Águila Saint
famous all over South America.
From 1921 to 1932, Águila Saint produced a magazine, titled
Colibri, paginas para los ninos (Hummingbird, pages for children). Colibri was produced weekly during the school year, and students could "buy" it by presenting
two labels from Águila Saint chocolates. While there were some fictional stories in the magazine, each issue also contained
a a variety of information to educate and entertain children. there is often scientific information, historical accounts,
biographical vignettes, and information about other countries. The cover subject was covered in some depth in the middle of
the magazine. Topics includes legndary characters, sports, gardening, weaving, and so forth. As with the other series, items
in Águila Saint have a strong educational mission.
The distribution of the publication represent the egalitarian bent of the publisher. The monthly issues were not priced and
sold, per se, as the publisher was afraid that only the privileged could collect them. Instead, they were given free to children
in exchange for 20 labels from Aguila Chocolates. At the end of the year, Águila Saint gave children a free binder folder,
so they could gather the year's issues together and keep them as a book.
The Argentina Small Storybooks Collection is arranged in three series:
Series I: Editorial Atlántida. 1940-1950
Series II: Editorial Tor, 1942-1957
Series III: Águila Saint, 1927-1932
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
María Paula Bontempo. "En La Escuela, En La Librería o En El Quiosco: Los Escritos Para Niños de Constancio C. Vigil (1927-1954)."
Secuencia (Mexico City, Mexico), 2018, https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i0.1664.
Sabaj Daniela A., Fornes Marcelo S. "Tor's bee. An illustrated children's collection of popular books." Revista Latinoamericana
de Estudios Editoriales, No. 9. Buenos Aires: Red de Estudios Editorials (University of Buenos Aires). 2019
Maestros, Biblioteca Nacional de Maestras y. "Colibrí, Páginas Para Niños." Noticias BNM (blog), March 27, 2013. http://www.bnm.me.gov.ar/novedades/?p=6608.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Children's literature, Latin American
Children's literature, Argentine
Fairy tales