Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Preferred Citation
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Processing History:
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Related Material
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. records
Creator:
Albert & Charles Boni
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1462
Physical Description:
5 Linear Feet
10 boxes
Date (inclusive): ca. 1916-1974
Abstract: Albert Boni (1892-1981) founded Albert and Charles Boni, Incorporated with his brother in New York City (1923). They introduced
Boni Paper Books, and sold them by mail-order subscription. Active in both literary and political fields, the firm published
such controversial and influential writers as Marcel Proust, Colette, D.H. Lawrence, Upton Sinclair and Leon Trotsky. The
collection consists of papers relating to Albert and Charles Boni, Incorporated.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
General Physical Description note: no content
Language of Material:
English
.
Restrictions on Access
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including
copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds
the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold
the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. Records (Collection 1462). Department of Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of William Boni, 1985.
Processing History:
Initial processing of collection done by Kayla Landesman, August 1986. Full processing and description by Michael Devine in
the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Laurel McPhee, Summer 2004.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
Albert Boni was born in 1892 in New York City and attended Harvard University. Between the two World Wars Albert Boni left
a lasting impression on the publishing world, first with Horace Liveright (Boni & Liveright) and then with his brother Charles
(Albert & Charles Boni, Inc.). Boni's first publishing venture was The Little Leather Library, which sold abridged classics
in a very small format through Woolworth's (1914). After selling the Washington Square Bookshop in 1917, he joined Horace
Liveright to form the Boni-Liveright Publishing Company, which started the Modern Library of the World's Best Classics. Modern
Library intended to copy the success of the popular British Everyman Series; in 1925, Boni's salesman Bennett Cerf bought
the line, and went on to start Random House. With Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., he moved away from repackaging the classics
in hopes of publishing exciting contemporary literature. By 1923 Boni and his brother founded Albert and Charles Boni, Incorporated,
a firm that introduced Boni Paper Books and sold them by mail-order subscription. Active in both the literary and the political
fields, the firm published such controversial and influential writers as Marcel Proust, Colette, D.H. Lawrence, Upton Sinclair,
and Leon Trotsky. In the 1940s, Boni's interest in photography and light technologies led him to create the Readex Microprint
Corporation. He died on July 13, 1981 in Ormond Beach, Florida.
Scope and Content
The bulk of this collection records Boni's commercial concerns as a publisher; his social and literary interests are clear
through correspondence with a variety of artists and writers, from Max Eastman and George Bernard Shaw to Jim Tully. The collection
also includes papers related to the Readex Microprint Corporation and Boni's photography compilation, A guide to the literature
of photography and related subjects.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged in the following series:
- Miscellaneous business papers, 1928-1974 (Boxes 1-2).
- Correspondence, 1916-1966 (Boxes 3-5).
- Contracts, 1921-1973 (Boxes 5-10).
Related Material
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Publishers and publishing -- United States -- Archives.
Albert & Charles Boni--Archives.
Boni, Albert
Boni, Charles