Little Blue Books Collection

Archive

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Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum

Name/Title

Little Blue Books Collection

Entry/Object ID

MS.115

Scope and Content

Little Blue Books Collection MS 115 Little Blue Books Collection As an example of the power of popular culture and reformist ideas in the 1920s and 1930s, the Little Blue Books have no parallel. Published by the Haldeman-Julius Company in Girard, Kansas, these small [3.5" x 5"] paper-bound books were mass-produced at the rate of 40,000 per day. Emanuel Julius and his wife, Marcet Haldeman, were among the foremost Socialist reformers during the early part of the 20th century. Noted free-thinkers and atheists, when they married in 1916, they legally changed their name to the hyphenated Haldeman-Julius. The Haldeman-Juliuses believed that the key to social reform was mass education, and that was the aim of their "University in Print." Not only did Little Blue Book titles include classic literature, fiction and non-fiction, essays, how-to manuals, and dictionaries, but included such subjects as sex [marriage, homosexuality, abortion, unwed motherhood], atheism and agnosticism, and intellectual reason. The Little Blue Books and their associated series were sold all over the English-speaking world and served many who could not afford higher education. Considering the time and the publications’ subject matter, the longevity of the Haldeman-Julius press is remarkable. Marcet Haldeman-Julius died of cancer in 1941, while Emanuel mysteriously drowned in his pool in 1951. Emanuel had years before run afoul of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in his, Hoover’s, mindless paranoia over socialism and communism. Because Emanuel could not swim and ordinarily never set foot in his swimming pool, and because 1951 was the middle of the red-baiting McCarthy era, many have wondered whether Emanuel’s drowning was really an accident. And just days before the publishing house was to be declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978, the building burned to the ground. MS 115 contains a wide selection of Little Blue Book titles [including several of the early Ten Cent Pocket Series], ranging in date from 1919 to 1947. In addition, Box 1 contains biographical and bibliographical information on the Haldeman-Juliuses and their Little Blue Books. The finest collection of Haldeman-Julius material is stored in the Leonard H. Axe Library at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. A checklist of their complete collection of Little Blue Book is included here; the notation after each title in the MS 115 inventory [AXE #] refers to entries in this checklist. * * *

Collection

Manuscripts

Acquisition

Notes

002.169

Archive Items Details

Notes

MS 115 Little Blue Books Collection inventory [2 boxes] Box 1 of 2 ff no. 1. "Background on Emanuel [and Marcet] Haldeman-Julius" 2. "Haldeman-Julius, the Little Blue Books, and the Theory of Popular Culture" 3. advertisement for The Militant Agnostic, by E. Haldeman-Julius 4. "Little Blue Books Collection, Manuscript Collection 135 [State University of New York at Stony Brook" 5. "Checklist of Little Blue Books [Nos. 1 - 1915]" Box 2 of 2 [Little Blue Book no./title/date/AXE #] 1. LBB no. 2: "The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems," by Oscar Wilde [AXE #2g] 2. LBB no. 7: "A Liberal Education, by Thomas Huxley" [1921; AXE #7c] 3. LBB no. 9: "Great English Poems," ed. by Nelson Antrim Crawford [1924; AXE #9e] 4. LBB no. 9: "Great English Poems," ed. by Nelson Antrim Crawford [1924; AXE #9e] 5. LBB no. 15: "The Atheist’s Mass" and "An Accursed House," by Honore de Balzac [1923; AXE #15c] 6. LBB no. 25: "Rhyming Dictionary" [1924; AXE #25b] 7. LBB no. 25: "Rhyming Dictionary" [1924; AXE #25b] 8. LBB no. 33 [Pocket Series]: "Brann: Smasher of Shams," by John W. Gunn [AXE #33] 9. LBB no. 37: "A Dream of John Ball," by William Morris [1919?; AXE #37 var.] 10. LBB no. 51 [Ten Cent Pocket Series]: "Bruno: His Life and Martyrdom" [1923; AXE #51 var.] 11. LBB no. 56: "A Dictionary of American Slang," ed. by Clement Wood and Gloria Goddard [1926; AXE #56c] 12. LBB no. 66: "Crimes of the Borgias," by Alexander Dumas, ed. by H. M. Tichenor [AXE #66] 13. LBB no. 144: "Was Poe Immoral?," by Sarah Helen Whitman [1920; AXE #144] 14. LBB no. 156: "Andersen’s Fairy Tales" [AXE #156b] 15. LBB no. 176 [Ten Cent Pocket Series]: "Four Essays [On Sex]," by Havelock Ellis [1921; AXE #176] 16. LBB no. 183: "Life of Jack London," by. H. M.Tichenor [AXE #183b] 17. LBB no. 205: "Artemus Ward, His Book" [1919?; AXE #205 var.?] 18. LBB no. 228 [Ten Cent Pocket Series]: "Aphorisms of Thomas Huxley" [AXE #228a?] 19. LBB no. 326 [Ten Cent Pocket Series]: "Hints on Writing Short Stories," by Charles J. Finger [1922; AXE #326] 20. LBB no. 369: "Artemus Ward’s Travels" [AXE #369] 21. LBB no. 374: "The Psychology of Suicide …," by Hugh Russell Fraser [1927; AXE #374b] 22. LBB no. 374: "The Psychology of Suicide …," by Hugh Russell Fraser [1927?; AXE #374b] 23. LBB no. 387: "The Story of Painting: Facts You Should Know About Painting and Painters," by Murray Sheehan, M.A. [AXE #387] 24. LBB no. 432: "The Tragic Story of Oscar Wilde’s Life," by Charles J. Finger [AXE #432] 25. LBB no. 435 [Ten Cent Pocket Series]: "One Hundred Best Books," by John Cowper Powys [1923; AXE #435] 26. LBB no. 467: "Evolution Made Plain," by John Mason [1923; AXE #467] 27. LBB no. 501: "Poems of Carew, Suckling, Lovelace and Herbert," with biographical introductions by Bartlett J. Whiting [1924; AXE #501a] 28. LBB no. 514: "Hints on Writing Poetry," by Clement Wood [AXE #514] 29. LBB no. 523: "Life of Benjamin Franklin," by John W. Gunn [AXE #523] 30. LBB no. 554: "A Child’s Garden of Verses," by Robert Louis Stevenson [AXE #554] 31. LBB no. 556: "Hints on Etiquette," by Esther Floyd [AXE #556] 32. LBB no. 669: "Josh Billings’ Humorous Epigrams" [AXE #669] 33. LBB no. 744: "Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley" [AXE #744] 34. LBB no. 786: "Catherine the Great and Her Lovers," by Leo Markun [AXE #786b] 35. LBB no. 822: "Rhetoric Self-Taught," by Lloyd E. Smith [AXE #822] 36. LBB no. 836: "Bluebeard, Cinderella, and Other Tales," by Charles Perrault, retold by Lloyd E. Smith [1925; AXE #836] 37. LBB no. 920: "A Queer Night in Paris and Other Stories," by Guy de Maupaussant [AXE #920] 38. LBB no. 1011: "Pocket Dictionary, English-French, French-English," ed. by Vance Randolph [1927; AXE #1011] 39. LBB no. 1093: "A Book of Interesting and Amusing Puns," ed. by George Milburn [1926; AXE #1093] 40. LBB no. 1116: "A Book of Funny Dramatics," by Stephen Leacock ["reprinted from Over the Footlights;" 1923; AXE #1116] 41. LBB no. 1130: "The Dark Ages," by Joseph McCabe [AXE #1130] 42. LBB no. 1146: "A Book of College Humor," ed. by George Milburn [AXE #1146] 43. LBB no. 1152: "The Seven Vagabonds and Other Queer Tales," by Nathaniel Hawthorne [AXE #1152] 44. LBB no. 1154: "Tales of Hypnotism and Revenge," by Edgar Allan Poe [AXE #1154] 45. LBB no. 1174: "How to Write Business Letters," by Miriam Allen deFord [AXE #1174] 46. LBB no. 1185: "The Weather: What Makes It and Why," by Clifton L. Ray [1926; AXE #1185] 47. LBB no. 1204: "A Dictionary of Musical Terms," by Maynard Shipley [1927; AXE #1204] 48. LBB no. 1209: "The Charming Hostess: How to Entertain Economically and Delightfully," by Gloria Goddard [AXE #1209] 49. LBB no. 1222: "Easy Readings in Spanish," by Gaylord Du Bois [1927; AXE #1222] 50. LBB no. 1442: "What You Should Know About Graphology: The Facts About Telling Character from Handwriting," by Leo Markun [AXE #142] 51. LBB no. 1481: "The New Immorality: A Little Dictionary of Unorthodox Opinion," by Isaac Goldberg [1929; AXE #1481] 52. LBB no. 1716: "The Superstition of 'Sin,' " by William Archer [1931; AXE #1716] 53. LBB no. 1828: "Bunk About Marriage and More Than 100 Other Short Pieces," by Joseph McCabe [reprint of LBB no. 1804; here issued as "Fillers," c. 1:1 (January 1947); AXE #1828] * * *

Created By

admin@catalogit.app

Create Date

December 9, 2002

Updated By

bcmha.archives@gmail.com

Update Date

September 8, 2025