Guide to the Little Leather Library Collection
Special Collections Department
Robert E. Kennedy Library
1 Grand Avenue
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Phone: (805) 756-2305
Fax: (805) 756-5770
URL: http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/specialcollections/
Email: archives@lib.calpoly.edu
© 2008
Trustees of the California State University. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Little Leather Library Collection
Special Collections Department
Robert E. Kennedy Library
1 Grand Avenue
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Contact Information
- Special Collections Department
- Robert E. Kennedy Library
- 1 Grand Avenue
- California Polytechnic State University
- San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
- Phone: 805/756—2305
- Fax: 805/756—5770
- Email: archives@lib.calpoly.edu
- URL: http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/specialcollections/
- Processed by:
- Ken Kenyon
- Date Completed:
- 2008
- Encoded by:
- Byte Managers and Marisa L. Ramirez, 2009
© 2008 Trustees of the California State University. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
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.
Provenance
Donated by John Helps in 2008.
Restrictions on Access
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.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of Item]. Little Leather Library Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo.
Biography
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
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.
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.
Scope and Content Note
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.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Literature — Collections
American Literature
English Literature
Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915
Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Morris, William, 1834-1896
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Genres and Forms of Material:
Miniature books, 3-1/4" x 4"
Related Material
Related Collections:
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Rare Books Collection
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Fine Printing Graphic Arts Collection
Container List
Series 1. Book volumes,
1920-1924
Scope and Content Note
Contains one subseries: A. Book volumes, Redcroft edition
A. Series 1. Book volumes, Redcroft edition,
1920-1924
Scope and Content Note
Contains 101 Little Leather Library books, arranged alphabetically by author's last name, with the first five books arranged
alphabetically by book title for collected works.
Box 1, Volume 1
Fifty Best Poems of America
Box 1, Volume 2
Fifty Best Poems of England
Box 1, Volume 6
Allen, James.
As a Man Thinketh
Box 1, Volume 7
Andersen, Hans Christian.
Fairy Tales
Box 1, Volume 8
Balzac, Honoré de.
Christ in Flanders and Other Stories
Box 1, Volume 9
Barrie, J. M.
A Tillyloss Scandal
Box 1, Volume 10
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Box 1, Volume 11
Browning, Robert.
Pippa Passes
Box 1, Volume 12
Browning, Robert.
Poems and Plays
Box 1, Volume 13
Burns, Robert.
The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
Box 1, Volume 14
Burton, Richard F. — trans.
Tales from the Arabian Knights, Vol. I
Box 1, Volume 15
Burton, Richard F. — trans.
Tales from the Arabian Knights, Vol. II
Box 1, Volume 16
Carroll, Lewis.
Alice in Wonderland
Box 1, Volume 17
Carroll, Lewis.
Through the Looking Glass
Box 1, Volume 18
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems
Box 1, Volume 21
De Quincey, Thomas.
Confessions of an Opium Eater, Vol. I
Box 1, Volume 22
De Quincey, Thomas.
Confessions of an Opium Eater, Vol. II
Box 1, Volume 23
Dickens, Charles.
A Christmas Carol
Box 1, Volume 24
Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir.
Tales of Sherlock Holmes
Box 1, Volume 25
Drummond, Henry.
The Greatest Thing in the World
Box 1, Volume 26
Dumas, Alexandre.
The Comtesse de Saint-Géran
Box 1, Volume 27
Emerson, Ralph Waldo.
Essays
Box 1, Volume 28
Emerson, Ralph Waldo.
Uses of Great Men
Box 1, Volume 29
Fitzgerald, Edward — trans.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Box 1, Volume 30
Gilbert, W.S.
The "Bab" Ballads
Box 1, Volume 31
Hale, Edward.
Man Without a Country
Box 1, Volume 32
Hubbard, Elbert.
A Message to Garcia
Box 1, Volume 33
Hugo, Victor.
Last Days of a Condemned Man
Box 1, Volume 35
Ibsen, Henrik.
A Doll's House
Box 1, Volume 36
Irving, Washington.
Old Christmas
Box 1, Volume 37
Irving, Washington.
Rip Van Winkle
Box 1, Volume 38
Kielty, Bernardine.
The Sidewalks of New York
Box 1, Volume 39
Kipling, Rudyard.
At the End of the Passage and The Mutiny of the Mavericks
Box 1, Volume 40
Kipling, Rudyard.
Barrack Room Ballads
Box 1, Volume 41
Kipling, Rudyard.
City of Dreadful Night and Other Stories
Box 1, Volume 42
Kipling, Rudyard.
Finest Story in the World
Box 1, Volume 43
Kipling, Rudyard.
The Man Who Was and Other Stories
Box 1, Volume 44
Kipling, Rudyard.
The Mark of the Beast and the Head of the District
Box 1, Volume 45
Kipling, Rudyard.
Mulvanney Stories
Box 1, Volume 46
Kipling, Rudyard.
The Phantom Rickshaw and My Own True Ghost Story
Box 1, Volume 47
Kipling, Rudyard.
Vampire and Other Verses
Box 1, Volume 48
Kipling, Rudyard.
Without Benefit of Clergy
Box 2, Volume 49
Lamb, Charles.
Dream Children
Box 2, Volume 50
Lincoln, Abraham.
Speeches and Addresses
Box 2, Volume 51
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.
Evangeline
Box 2, Volume 52
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.
Hiawatha, Vol. I
Box 2, Volume 53
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.
Hiawatha, Vol. II
Box 2, Volume 54
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.
The Courtship of Miles Standish
Box 2, Volume 55
Macaulay, Thomas.
Lays of Ancient Rome
Box 2, Volume 56
Maeterlinck, Maurice.
Pelleas and Melisande
Box 2, Volume 57
Maupassant, Guy de.
Short Stories
Box 2, Volume 59
Moore, Thomas.
Irish Melodies
Box 2, Volume 60
Morris, William.
A Dream of John Ball
Box 2, Volume 61
Plato.
The Trial of Socrates
Box 2, Volume 62
Poe, Edgar Allan.
The Gold Bug
Box 2, Volume 63
Poe, Edgar Allan.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Box 2, Volume 64
Poe, Edgar Allan.
The Raven and Other Poems
Box 2, Volume 66
Shakespeare, William.
As You Like It
Box 2, Volume 67
Shakespeare, William.
A Comedy of Errors
Box 2, Volume 68
Shakespeare, William.
Hamlet
Box 2, Volume 69
Shakespeare, William.
Julius Caesar
Box 2, Volume 70
Shakespeare, William.
King Lear
Box 2, Volume 71
Shakespeare, William.
Macbeth
Box 2, Volume 72
Shakespeare, William.
Merchant of Venice
Box 2, Volume 73
Shakespeare, William.
Merry Wives of Windsor
Box 2, Volume 74
Shakespeare, William.
Midsummer Night's Dream
Box 2, Volume 75
Shakespeare, William.
Othello
Box 2, Volume 76
Shakespeare, William.
Romeo and Juliet
Box 2, Volume 77
Shakespeare, William.
Sonnets
Box 2, Volume 78
Shakespeare, William.
The Taming of the Shrew
Box 2, Volume 79
Shakespeare, William.
The Tempest
Box 2, Volume 80
Shakespeare, William.
Twelfth Night
Box 2, Volume 81
Shaw, George Bernard.
On Going to Church
Box 2, Volume 82
Shaw, George Bernard.
Socialism for Millionaires
Box 2, Volume 83
Stevenson, Robert Louis.
A Child's Garden of Verses
Box 2, Volume 84
Stevenson, Robert Louis.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Box 2, Volume 85
Stevenson, Robert Louis.
Will O' the Mill and Markheim
Box 2, Volume 86
Tennyson, Alfred.
Coming of Arthur
Box 2, Volume 87
Tennyson, Alfred.
Enoch Arden
Box 2, Volume 88
Tennyson, Alfred.
The Holy Grail
Box 2, Volume 89
Tennyson, Alfred.
Lancelot and Elaine
Box 2, Volume 90
Thoreau, Henry David.
Friendship and Other Essays
Box 2, Volume 91
Tolstoy, Leo.
The Bear Hunt and Other Stories
Box 2, Volume 92
Turgenev, Ivan.
Mumu and Kassyan of Fair Springs
Box 2, Volume 93
Washington, George.
Speeches and Letters
Box 2, Volume 94
Whitman, Walt.
Memories of President Lincoln
Box 2, Volume 95
Whittier, John Greenleaf.
Snow-bound and Other Poems
Box 2, Volume 96
Wilde, Oscar.
Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems
Box 2, Volume 97
Wilde, Oscar.
The Happy Prince
Box 2, Volume 98
Wilde, Oscar.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Box 2, Volume 99
Wilde, Oscar.
Lady Windermere's Fan
Box 2, Volume 101
Yeats, William.
Land of Heart's Desire
