Big Blue Book collection, 1927-1951, bulk 1947-1951

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Summary

Creators:
Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951, editor
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.
Extent:
81 items in 4 boxes
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

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).

Biographical / historical:

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).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Merle R. Bobzien, January 2014.
Arrangement:

The books are arranged numerically according to the publisher's title number, often with a "B" prefix, printed on the front cover.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on January 12, 2015.

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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