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Little Blue Book collection: Finding Aid
644677  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Historical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Related materials in the Huntington Library
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Overview of the Collection

    Title: Little Blue Book collection
    Dates (inclusive): 1921-1943
    Bulk dates: 1920s
    Collection Number: 644677
    Creator: Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951, editor
    Extent: 324 items in 6 boxes
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Rare Books Department
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2191
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: This collection contains 324 booklets from the Little Blue Book and related series published by the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard, Kansas in the mid-20th century. The titles in the collection range from reprints of literary classics by authors such as ancient Greek tragedians, William Shakespeare, and Ralph Waldo Emerson to contemporary writings by geologist Carroll Lane Fenton, historian Will Durant. More than 150 authors are represented and the booklets often focus on topics such as free thought, philosophy, religion, evolution, natural history, biographies of scientists and historical figures, and guides and essays about philosophers and authors.
    Language: English.
    Note:
    Finding aid last updated on January 12, 2015.

    Access

    Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Little Blue Book Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    Volumes in this collection were primarily received as part of the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection that was acquired by the Huntington Library and Art Collections in 1999; some volumes were also received from Martin Ridge.

    Historical Note

    Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1889-1951) was an American social activist, journalist, and publisher. Haldeman-Julius was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1889, and became a member of the Socialist part in the early 1910s. In 1915, he moved to Girard, Kansas, to edit the socialist paper The Appeal to Reason. Four years later, Haldeman-Julius, his wife, and Louis Kopelin purchased the Appeal's printing plant and formed the Appeal Publishing Company. That year, the company began producing a small, inexpensive booklet series titled The Appeal's Pocket Series. In 1922, the company became the Haldeman-Julius Company.
    The booklets expanded into multiple series in the early 1920s, including the People's Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket Series, and Pocket Series; the most commonly issued pocket series, the "Little Blue Books," was begun in 1923. Little Blue Books were published from 1923 until 1978 in a uniform 3.5 x 5 inch format with color paper wrappers and a 15,000-word limit. The booklets were aimed at providing inexpensive educational resources to the working class and typically included reprints of classic literary works, socialist writings, original essays, often by liberal and radical writers, and self-improvement manuals.
    In 1925, the company also began publishing "Big Blue Books," which were 8.5 x 5.5 inches, typically with 30,000 words and 64 pages, and more expensive than the Little Blue Books. More than 300 million copies of the Big and Little Blue Books were sold before their discontinuation in 1964.
    Haldeman-Julius died in 1951. Under the management of Haldeman-Julius's son Henry J. Haldeman, the company continued to produce pamphlets until the Girard plant was destroyed by fire in 1978.
    Source:

    Bushnell, Judith. "Haldeman-Julius Company," in The Dictionary of Literary Biography: Volume 46: American Literary Publishing Houses, 1900-1980 (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1986).

    Scope and Content

    This collection contains 324 booklets from the Little Blue Book and related series published by the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard, Kansas. The collection includes booklets dating from 1921 to 1943, with the bulk dating from the 1920s. The titles in the collection range from reprints of literary classics by authors such as ancient Greek tragedians, William Shakespeare, and Ralph Waldo Emerson to contemporary writings by geologist Carroll Lane Fenton, historian Will Durant. More than 150 authors are represented and the booklets often focus on topics such as free thought, philosophy, religion, evolution, natural history, biographies of scientists and historical figures, and guides and essays about philosophers and authors.
    The booklets are 3.5 x 5.5 inches, with colored paper wrappers. The booklets are primarily identified as part of the "Little Blue Book" series on the front cover, but there are some titles from the Five cent pocket series; the Ten Cent pocket series; the Appeal pocket series; and the Pocket series. Entries for each imprint in the contents list contain the following information (when known): publisher's number; title; date; and author(s).

    Related materials in the Huntington Library

    Arrangement

    The books are arranged numerically according to the number printed on the front cover. Generally, this number corresponds to chronological order, though some same later titles issued with the same number are repeated.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Little blue book
    Evolution
    Free thought
    Humanities
    Literature
    Natural history
    Philosophy
    Religion

    Added Entries

    Andreyev, Leonid, 1871-1919
    Aristophanes
    Arnold, Matthew, 1822-1888
    Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626
    Balmforth, Ramsden
    Barnes, Harry Elmer, 1889-1968
    Beaujoint, Jules, 1830-1893, compiler
    Bercovici, Konrad, 1882-1961
    Bisaccioni, Maiolino, conte, 1582-1663
    Brandes, Georg, 1842-1927
    Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902
    Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881
    Carrington, Hereward, 1880-1959
    Cook, Stanley Arthur, 1873-1949
    Crawford, Nelson Antrim, 1888-
    Darrow, Clarence, 1857-1938
    Davidson, John, 1857-1909
    De Ford, Miriam Allen, 1888-1975
    Del Riccio, Luigi
    Du Bois, Gaylord, 1899-
    Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870
    Durant, Will, 1885-1981
    Ehrmann, Max, 1872-1945
    Eliot, George, 1819-1880
    Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882
    Epictetus
    Euripides
    Fenton, Carroll Lane, 1900-1969
    Fenton, Mildred Adams, 1899-1995
    Fielding, William J. (William John), 1886-
    Finger, Charles Joseph, 1869-1941
    Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880
    France, Anatole, 1844-1924
    Fulks, Clay
    Gambs, John S. (John Saké), 1899-
    Garnett, Edward, 1868-1937
    Gautier, Théophile, 1811-1872
    Gay, John, 1685-1732
    Goddard, Gloria, 1897-
    Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832
    Goldberg, Isaac, 1887-1938
    Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936
    Gottschalk, Louis Reichenthal, 1899-1975
    Gourmont, Remy de, 1858-1915
    Gregory, Ralph.
    Gunn, John W.
    Haeckel, Ernst, 1834-1919
    Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951
    Hale, Edward Everett, Sr., 1822-1909.
    Hamblen, Emily S., 1864-
    Harding, T. Swann (Thomas Swann), 1890-
    Harris, Frank, 1856-1931
    Harvey, Alexander, 1868-1949
    Hays, Arthur Garfield, 1881-1954
    Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856
    Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547
    Hibschman, Harry, 1879-
    Horace
    Howell, A. G. Ferrers (Alan George Ferrers), 1855-1928
    Hudgings, William F. (William Franklyn), 1889-1937?
    Hudson, William Henry, 1862-1918
    Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895
    Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906
    Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833-1899
    Johnstone, Hilda, 1882-1961
    Jones, William Tudor, 1865-1946.
    Joubert, Joseph, 1754-1824
    Kallen, Horace Meyer, 1882-1974
    Keith, Arthur, Sir, 1866-1955
    Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834
    Landman, Isaac, 1880-1946
    Levin, Ruben
    Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891
    Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron, 1800-1859
    Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 121-180
    Markun, Leo, 1901-
    Masuccio, Salernitano, active 15th century
    Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893
    McCabe, Joseph, 1867-1955
    McMichael, Charles B. (Charles Barnsley), 1850-, translator
    Mérimée, Prosper, 1803-1870
    Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873
    Molière, 1622-1673
    Moritzen, Julius, 1863-1946
    Morris, William, 1834-1896
    Nash, J. V. (James Vincent), 1886-
    Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900
    Nordau, Max Simon, 1849-1923
    Ogburn, William F., 1886-1959
    Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
    Paquin, Hélène.
    Plato
    Powys, John Cowper, 1872-1963
    Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 1863-1944
    Randolph, Vance, 1892-1980
    Renan, Ernest, 1823-1892
    Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon), 1856-1933
    Robinson, Henry Crabb, 1775-1867
    Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882
    Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778
    Russell, Bertrand, 1872-1970
    Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
    Schnittkind, Henry Thomas, 1888-1970
    Scholl, Warren
    Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860.
    Schwalbe, Gustav Albert, 1844-1916
    Seibel, George, 1872-1958
    Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D.
    Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de, 1626-1696
    Seymour, Flora Warren, 1888-1948
    Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
    Sheehan, Murray
    Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822.
    Shipley, Maynard, 1872-1934
    Shumway, Arthur
    Smith, Langdon, 1858-1908
    Smith, Lloyd E. (Lloyd Edwin), 1902-1971
    Solly, J. Raymond (James Raymond), 1854-
    Sophocles
    Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.
    Stock, St. George, 1850-
    Stoughton Holborn, I. B. (Ian Bernard), 1872-1935
    Terence
    Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863.
    Thomas, James Bishop, 1871-
    Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862
    Tichenor, Henry M. (Henry Mulford), 1858-1922, editor
    Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910
    Torrey, Volta, 1905-
    Volney, C.-F. (Constantin-François), 1757-1820
    Voltaire, 1694-1778
    Wallis, Keene, translator
    Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892.
    Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900
    Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
    Wood, Clement, 1888-1950
    Browning, Robert, 1812-1889.
    Conington, John, 1825-1869
    Goldberg, Isaac, 1887-1938, translator
    Gunn, John W., editor
    Harvey, Alexander, 1868-1949, translator
    Manning, Henry Edward, 1808-1892
    Markun, Leo, 1901-, editor
    Mason, John (John Harmon), 1867-
    Morgan, Bayard Quincy, 1883-, translator
    Quinn, Peter, artist
    Russell, Winter
    Seiler, Conrad, 1897-
    Smith, Lloyd E. (Lloyd Edwin), 1902-1971, editor
    Vedder, Henry C. (Henry Clay), 1853-1935, editor
    Viereck, George Sylvester, 1884-1962, editor
    Weisberg, Charles, compiler
    Haldeman-Julius Company, publisher