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Big Blue Book collection: Finding
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605986
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Title: Big Blue Book collection
Dates (inclusive): 1927-1951
Bulk dates: 1947-1951
Collection Number: 605986
Creator:
Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951, editor
Extent:
81 items in 4 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 81 booklets from the popular Big Blue Book series edited by American social reformer and writer E.
Haldeman-Julius and
published by the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard, Kansas. The collection includes booklets dating from 1927 to 1951, with
the bulk
from 1947 to 1951. The titles in the collection are primarily on topics related to free thought, humanism, religion, sex,
health, self-improvement, and history. More than thirty different
authors are represented, including sexologist David O. Cauldwell and freethought writer Joseph McCabe.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on January 12, 2015.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
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.
[Identification of item]. Big Blue Book Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of Merle R. Bobzien, January 2014.
Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1889-1951) was an American social reformer, writer, 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 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).
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).
This collection contains 81 booklets from the
Big Blue Book series edited by American social reformer and writer E. Haldeman-Julius and published by the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard,
Kansas. The collection includes booklets dating from 1927 to 1951,
with the bulk from 1947 to 1951. The titles in the collection are primarily on topics related to free thought, superstition,
humanism, religion, sex, psychology, health, relationships, self-improvement, and history.
More than thirty different authors are represented, including a number by sexologist Dr. David O. Cauldwell and freethought
writer Joseph McCabe.
The booklets are 8.5 x 5.5 inches, with colored paper wrappers; many have the name "Leo Rosenthal" stamped on the inside
front cover. 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
- Little Blue Book collection
- Additional Big Blue Books acquired separately by the Huntington Library are individually cataloged in the Huntington Library Online Catalog: catalog.huntington.org
The books are arranged numerically according to the publisher's title number, often with a "B" prefix, printed on the front
cover.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Big blue book
Catholic Church -- Controversial literature
Free thought
Humanism
Psychology
Religion
Sex
Sex customs
Superstition
World history
Barrett, T. D.
Blank, Nell
Blank, Sarge
Bristol, Richard R.
Cauldwell, David O. (David Oliver), 1896-
Crapsey, Algernon Sidney, 1847-1927
Draper, William R.
Dulaure, J.-A. (Jacques-Antoine), 1755-1835
Eastman, Rex R.
Eldridge, Paul, 1888-1982
Fulks, Clay
Gould, F. J. (Floyd Jerome), 1936-
Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951
Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951, editor
Leigh, W. R.
Liber, B. (Benzion), 1875-
Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch), 1859-1943
McCabe, Joseph, 1867-1955
McGee, John Edwin, 1893-
Niemoeller, A. F. (Adolph Fredrick), 1903-
Reiser, Oliver Leslie, 1895-1974
Ries, Estelle H.
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon), 1856-1933
Sessions, Alanson E.
Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950
Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968
Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Strachstein, Abraham, 1881-
Swancara, Frank
Weaver, George Russell
Wolbarst, A. L. (Abraham Leo), 1872-
Woodford, Jack, 1894-1971
Yarros, Victor S.
Haldeman-Julius Company, publisher