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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 next hit 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: previous hit Little Leather next hit Library Collection
Date (inclusive): 1920-1924
Collection number: MS 160
Creator: previous hit Little Leather next hit Library Corporation of New York
Extent: The previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit Little Leather next hit Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4" x 4," published by the previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit Little Leather next hit 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]. previous hit Little Leather next hit Library Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Biography

The previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit leather. next hit
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 previous hit Little Leather next hit 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.
" previous hit Little Leather next hit 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.

Scope and Content Note

The previous hit Little Leather next hit Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4" x 4," published by the previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit Little Leather next hit Library.
The volumes of the previous hit Little Leather next hit 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 previous hit 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 3

Mother Goose Rhymes

Box 1, Volume 4

Words of Jesus, Vol. I

Box 1, Volume 5

Words of Jesus, Vol. II

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 19

Dante. Inferno, Vol. I

Box 1, Volume 20

Dante. Inferno, Vol. II

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 35

Ibsen, Henrik. Ghosts

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 58

Mérimée, Prosper. Carmen

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 65

Schreiner, Olive. Dreams

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 100

Wilde, Oscar. Salomé

Box 2, Volume 101

Yeats, William. Land of Heart's Desire

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