A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LITTLE BLUE BOOKS

Little Blue Books are a series of small staple-bound books published by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company of Girard, Kansas (1919–1978). In size about 3½ by 5 inches (8½ by 12¾ cm) the booklets were designed to fit easily into a shirt or pants pocket.

The Little Blue Book series were published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and his wife, Marcet. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius was a socialist, a Jewish atheist, , and a newspaper man. The couple purchased the Appeal to Reason Publishing House in Girard, Kansas (a failing socialist newspaper for which H-J, as he is known, had been editor) in 1919 and set out to publish easily-affordable booklets.

The original version was Appeal's Pocket Series, printed on cheap pulp paper with stiff red wraps. Over the next several years the name and cover color changed several times, including the People's Pocket Series, the Appeal Pocket Series, the Ten Cent Pocket Series, the Five Cent Pocket Series, and finally Little Blue Books in 1923. The price remained at five cents per copy for many years and the Little Blue Book name stuck.

Little Blue Books attempted to provide a "University in Print" for the working class. Many notable authors began their careers in the Haldeman-Julius stable. Many other noteworthy works by the more famous appeared in these booklets for the first time. The subjects covered everything from literature and fine art to basic language and math skills, home improvement, mental improvement, history, and social issues such as abortion, racial issues, religious issues, the KKK, evolution, etc. The series provides truly significant peek at cultural standards in the first half of the 20th century.

Some of the titles are available on my website:

http://www.kirksbooks.com/bookmem.asp?subid=1382

While I have hundreds more available but as yet unlisted. (Just inquire if you have particular needs!)

THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CLUELESS CUSTOMER PHONE CALL

Sometimes a telephone call is so oblique, I wonder if the caller and I live on different planets – or perhaps just different planes!
Riiiing!

Me: “The Prints and The Paper.”
She: “Yeah – I found….I see….I…um…..It says here you have RARE BOOKS?”
[warning alarms…..]
Me: “Well, I do sell USED and rare books.”
She: “Right. So you have RARE BOOKS?”
Me (reluctantly): “Well, I have some….”
She: “I have this book…..”
[LOUD warning alarm….]
She: “I’m trying to find out….like, why this is a RARE BOOK.’
Me: (feeling a bit lost): “Well – uh – what book is it.”
She, proudly: “It’s LITTLE BLUE BOOK!”
[oh dear oh dear oh…….]
Me: “uh, well – which one is it?”
She: “I TOLD you! It’s LITTLE BLUE BOOK.”
Me: “Well, there are a couple of thousand Little Blue Books. Most of them aren’t worth much – I have hundreds I would sell for $1 apiece. So what title is yours?”
She; “I TOLD you! LITTLE BLUE BOOK. You mean it’s only worth a dollar? How can a RARE BOOK be worth a dollar? And you have hundreds of it?”

Me: (I spend considerable time trying to explain that there are many authors, many titles….some are scarce and worth a little money, most are not….there are some collectors, but not many….I keep trying to determine what she has and/or what her question is….)

She: “Well I saw this book you have for $8. It’s the LITTLE BLUE BOOK so I’m trying to figure out why a rare book is $8.”

I’m not too sure how the conversation finally ended – I was pretty confused by then and I remember only that she was rather hostile and ended our discussion abruptly.

I’d like to ask “what’s next?” but I’m afraid I’ll find out.