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This post was contributed by Jason Ramsay-Brown and Haldeman-Julius.org. Take a moment to visit their site, it’s quite nicely put together.

—— About EHJ and the Little Blue Books ——

Emanuel Julius was born in Philadelphia on July 30, 1889, the third of six children. He was an ardent advocate of socialism throughout his formative years, in time taking employment in the ranks of America’s growing left-wing media.  His passions eventually brought him to Girard, Kansas, the epicenter of the nation’s socialist press, to work for the infamous “Appeal to Reason” newspaper.  It was here he became romantically involved with Marcet Haldeman, granddaughter of Senator John H. Addams, and niece of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams. The two were wed on June 1st, 1916 and mutually assumed the surname Haldeman-Julius.

wonderful little books by Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius

In 1919, Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius purchased controlling interest in the Appeal to Reason.  As his first act as owner, Emanuel ordained the publication of a “University in Print” - a library of classic literature, social discourse, and political rhetoric aimed at being attractive and affordable to the average working person.  These 3½ × 5 inch volumes were designed to fit in a worker’s back pocket, and printed with the cheapest materials possible in order to keep costs low.  The initial booklets, known as “The Appeal’s Pocket Series” were priced at 25 cents a copy, and available only by mail order. Over the next few years, however, the series would change names several times, and as distribution escaped the restraints of mail order, prices would plunge as low as 5 cents a piece.

In 1923 the publication would become known as the Little Blue Book series, a name that would last until its final days some five decades later.  Staunch left-wing tracts like #4 “Soviet Constitution” and #5 “Socialism vs. Anarchism” soon found themselves accompanied by volumes like #1013 “The Best Irish Jokes”, and #1111 “Prostitution in the Medieval World”.  By 1978, when the press & warehouse were destroyed by fire, some 2000 titles would have been issued, and hundreds of millions of booklets sold.

—— About Haldeman-Julius.org ——

Haldeman-Julius.org site is devoted to the history, identification and collecting of the various 3½ × 5 inch volumes published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (and his son) from 1919 to 1978. These series include: The Appeal’s Pocket Series, People’s Pocket Series, Appeal Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket Series, Pocket Series, and the most popular and prolific series title, the Little Blue Book.

I just received a neat email from Jason, one of our blog readers, about his website where he discusses the Little Blue Books series which was published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and his son Henry J. Haldeman. Its quite a good page and provides a lot of neat information.

Haldeman was a newspaper man who wished to publish small low priced paperback books for the working class.  The books were to be cheap and small enough to fit into ones pocket (~3.5"x5").  In 1919 he purchased Appeal to Reason publishing and raised his start up capital by by appealing to the companies 175, 000 person subscriber list  asking them to pledge $5 each to receive 50 future publications.  5000 of the readers took him up on the offer and he was in business.

Over the course of the companies existence (1919-1978) the Halderman's printed thousands of editions amounting to hundreds of millions of copies.  The Little Blue Books was just one of several different series the Haldemans produced, others included: The Appeal's Pocket Series, People's Pocket Series, Appeal Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket Series and the Pocket Series.

I find this type of publication fascinating.  They became desirable because they were cheaply produced and therefore were well within the price range of the working class.  Because they were cheap they were used, abused, and discarded which is what has made them collectible. This same phenomenon occurred with Victorian era Yellow Backs as well as the 1920s-50s pulp paperbacks... I'm sure there are more these are just the first two that came to my head.

                                Yellow-backs                                 Little Blue Books                               Pulp Novels

This is also a great type of book for a beginner collector because even with moderate means one can begin to put together a very nice collection without spending a mint (although it is still easy to get carried away). 

If you want a more in depth review on Halderman and Little Blue Books I recommend Jason's website, it has lots of really good information, or search for Little Blue Books on BookFinder.com 

[Now reading: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga]