Finding Aid for the Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. records, ca. 1916-1974 LSC.1462
Finding aid prepared by Caroline Cubé, 2003.
UCLA Library Special Collections
© 2003
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Business Number: 310-825-4988
Fax Number: 310-206-1864
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
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.
Language of Material:
English
.
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.
[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.
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:
9942303043606533
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.
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.
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).
Albert Boni Collection of Material about Photography (Collection 1046). Available at UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Publishers and publishing -- United States -- Archives.
Albert & Charles Boni--Archives.
Boni, Albert
Boni, Charles
box 1, folder 1
box 1, folder 2
box 1, folder 3
box 1, folder 4
box 1, folder 5
box 1, folder 6
box 1, folder 7
box 1, folder 8
box 1, folder 9
box 1, folder 10
box 1, folder 11
box 1, folder 12
box 2, folder 1-4
box 2, folder 5-7
box 2, folder 8
box 2, folder 9
box 3, folder 1
box 3, folder 2
box 3, folder 3
box 3, folder 4
box 3, folder 5
box 3, folder 6
box 3, folder 7
box 3, folder 8
box 3, folder 9
box 3, folder 10
box 3, folder 11
box 3, folder 12
box 3, folder 13
box 3, folder 14
box 3, folder 15
box 3, folder 16
box 3, folder 17
box 3, folder 18
box 3, folder 19
box 3, folder 20
box 3, folder 21
box 3, folder 22
box 3, folder 23
box 3, folder 24
box 3, folder 25
box 3, folder 26
box 3, folder 27
box 3, folder 28
box 3, folder 29
box 3, folder 30
box 3, folder 31
box 3, folder 32
box 4, folder 1
box 4, folder 2
box 4, folder 3
box 4, folder 4
box 4, folder 5
box 4, folder 6
box 4, folder 7
box 4, folder 8
box 4, folder 9
box 4, folder 10
box 4, folder 11
box 4, folder 12
box 4, folder 13-15
box 4, folder 16
box 4, folder 17
box 4, folder 18
box 4, folder 19
box 4, folder 20
box 4, folder 21
box 4, folder 22
box 4, folder 23
box 4, folder 24
box 4, folder 25
box 4, folder 26
box 4, folder 27
box 4, folder 28
box 5, folder 1
box 5, folder 2
box 5, folder 3
box 5, folder 4
box 5, folder 5
box 5, folder 9
box 6, folder 1
box 6, folder 2
box 8, folder 4
box 10, folder 2
box 10, folder 5