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Guide to the Little Leather Library Collection
MS 160
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Title: Little Leather Library Collection
Date (inclusive): 1920-1924
Collection number: MS 160
Creator:
Little Leather Library Corporation of New York
Extent:
The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4" x 4," and is housed in two flat boxes.
Languages: English
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Abstract: The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4" x 4," published by the Little Leather Library Corporation
of New York. The miniature books are brownish green in color, of imitation leather, and characteristic of the Redcroft edition
published between 1920-1924. There were over 100 miniature book titles published in the various editions of the Little Leather
Library, but it is not known if all of these titles were included in the Redcroft edition. The collection was donated in 2008.
Donated by John Helps in 2008.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by appointment only. For more information on access policies and to obtain a copy
of the Researcher Registration form, please visit the Special Collections Access page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
In order to reproduce, publish, broadcast, exhibit, and/or quote from this material, researchers must submit a written request
and obtain formal permission from Special Collections, Cal Poly, as the owner of the physical collection.
Photocopying of material is permitted at staff discretion and provided on a fee basis. Photocopies are not to be used for
any purpose other than for private study, scholarship, or research. Special Collections staff reserves the right to limit
photocopying and deny access or reproduction in cases when, in the opinion of staff, the original materials would be harmed.
[Identification of Item]. Little Leather Library Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo.
The Little Leather Library Corporation of New York was the first company to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States.
The corporation, founded in 1916 by Albert Boni, Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim, made available a wide variety of classics
by authors including Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Morris, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats in miniature editions.
The 101 books in this collection are brownish green in color, bound in imitation leather, and characteristic of the Redcroft
edition published between 1920-1924. Only the first two editions were bound in real leather.
When first published, the little books were sold at the Woolworth's chain. By the early 1920s, the books were advertised in
popular magazines, selling in National Geographic from 1922 to 1924. Sometimes a miniature classic might appear in a cereal
box as a promotion. Robert K. Hass, Inc., Publishers took control of the Little Leather Library Corporation in 1924. Boni
later established Modern Library Publishing Company, of which Random House Publishers would become a subsidiary company. Scherman
and Sackheim as well as Hass were later involved in the establishment of the Book of the Month Club.
Sources
"Arts and Crafts Movement."
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement
Hamilton, Charles F.
As Bees in Honey Drown: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters. New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1973.
Helps, John. Personal interview. 26 Jun 2008.
Hubbard, Elbert.
The Tale of Two Tailors: Which the Same Has the Quality of Being TRUE. East Aurora, N.Y.: Roycrofters, 1909.
"Little Leather Library"
http://home.earthlink.net/~littlelibrary/
"Roycroft."
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roycroft
Wolfe, Richard J., and Paul McKenna.
Louis Herman Kinder and Fine Bookbinding in America: A Chapter in the History of the Roycroft Shop. Newtown, PA.: Bird & Bull Press, 1985.
The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4" x 4," published by the Little Leather Library Corporation
of New York. The miniature books are brownish green in color, of imitation leather, and characteristic of the Redcroft edition
published between 1920-1924.
There were over 100 miniature book titles published in the various editions of the Little Leather Library, but it is not known
if all of these titles were included in the Redcroft edition. Only the first two editions were bound in real leather.
The production of the Little Leather Library enabled the masses to read inexpensive classics. The cheap imitation leather
Redcroft edition, published between 1920-1924, appears to have been a take-off on the well-crafted books published by Elbert
Hubbard's Roycroft Press.
Elbert Hubbard, who was inspired by William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in England, became an important Reformist in
the United States, beginning the Roycroft movement and community in East Aurora, New York in 1895.
Hubbard's Roycroft Press was modeled after Morris' Kelmscott Press. Books made from handmade paper were printed on the Roycrofter's
Golding Pearl letterpress. There is a marked difference between the finely bound, hand-crafted Roycroft volumes of Emerson,
Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and Coleridge and their Redcroft edition counterparts.
Although the Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution, there were those in
the movement who felt that objects should be affordable.
Roycrofters supported those who did fine personal work in all endeavors, including design work in factories, but it is doubtful
that the Roycroft seal would be applied to the volumes of the Little Leather Library.
The volumes of the Little Leather Library are stored in two boxes. The provenance, or original organization, of the books
has been preserved for the most part and the collection is in one series.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Literature — Collections
American Literature
English Literature
Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915
Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Morris, William, 1834-1896
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Miniature books, 3-1/4" x 4"
Related Collections:
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Rare Books Collection
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Fine Printing Graphic Arts Collection