Reading Little Blue Books and Libraries:
A Guide to Self-Improvement

Oliver B. Pollak - Department of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha

This essay is dedicated to Tillie Olsen who died in Oakland, California, at the age 93 on January 1, 2007. She dropped out of Omaha Central High School in the 11th grade. Many times she exclaimed that she had read every book A through M in the Omaha public library. Her Los Angeles Times obituary reported that “She also read great writers, such as Thomas Hardy, in the five-cent Blue Books that were designed to fit into a worker’s pocket.”[1]

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius published about 2,200 Little Blue Books in Girard, Kansas, between 1919 and 1951, totaling about 300 million “volumes.” He took offense at the word “pamphlet.”[2] He feverishly promoted reading and the written arts. “The quest” for self-improvement, self-education, self-betterment, and self-development comprised the “eternal pursuit of happiness.” The Little Blue Books were “tiny missionaries, spreading a taste for good literature and inducing a desire for better reading.”[3] The motto “A University in Print,” adorned the press logo.

The Julius family emigrated from Odessa to America. Emanuel’s father worked as a bookbinder in Philadelphia. Emanuel, born in 1889, claimed to be a radicalized freethinker at the age of 13 and “a full-fledged left-winger at 16.[4] A voracious reader he frequented the public library. He moved to New York at the age of 17. While a bell-boy at a Miss Mason’s School for Girls in Tarrytown he claimed “the library became the most important thing in my life.” His mentor, an aging librarian, identified fine literature and introduced him to Mark Twain.[5] He favored the Astor Library and “always kept the New York Public Library in mind, sending free copies by the hundred as a token of my appreciation for favors granted me.” Haldeman-Julius’s “beloved library” in Girard contained about 5,000 volumes. He had access to the Girard’s Carnegie Library and the library of Kansas State Teacher College of Pittsburg.[6]

Mail order accounted for ninety-five percent of Little Blue Book sales. The catalog mailing list contained “a preponderance of rural and small-town addresses.”[7] He plastered America’s newspapers with full-page advertisements. The average purchase, about $1.50, provided 30 titles after 1922 when the booklets dropped from ten cents to five cents each. In 1928, he offered a 50-volume high school education, with a “genuine black Levant leather slip cover,” for $2.98, and in 1929, 60 volumes, 3,488 pages and 825,000 words for $2.98. Over 300,000 sets were sold. In early 1941 full-page ads in the New York Times offered the volumes for a limited time at two ½ cents each.

Adults may not have received the education they desired. They could rectify the deficiency in night school, YMCA educational programs, and correspondence courses. The Little Blue Books catered to these underserved learners. Haldeman-Julius went to night school between the ages of 13 and 15. The five-cent curriculum, Arithmetic through Zoology, “prepared especially so that the reader can educate himself without the aid of an instructor,” fulfilled the “desire for betterment” and “success.”[8] The books emphasized free thought, mental health, and liberal causes such as birth control and the Soviet Union. The books had no pretension to outward cultural affectation, just the most information at the lowest possible price.

There is no shortage of works advising readers on what to read. Educators and philosophers made recommendations based on a thoughtful selection of authors and titles. Librarians favored non-fiction over fiction. In the early twentieth century Nebraska’s traveling libraries sent out 40 books, predominantly practical in nature, in wooden boxes. Patrons clamored for fiction. Lists of favored titles, frequently number one hundred, abounded and a canon developed. Literary Taste: How to Form It (1909) by Arnold Bennett, The Book of the Month Club founded in 1926, Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education (1940), Clifton Fadiman‘s The Lifetime Reading Plan (1960) and Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon (1994), are testimony to continuous marketing and assessments of taste. But other than free library material none of this advice was available for a nickel.

Haldeman-Julius reprinted pre-existing works, allegedly in the public domain. He selected some of the most renowned dead authors, and some up and coming living authors, such as Will Durant, Isaac Goldberg and Lloyd E. Smith, or “hacks,” whom he commissioned for $50 to $100 to produce 15,000 word contributions, to increase the publisher’s list of titles.[9]

LITTLE BLUE BOOK REPRINTS ON READING
Thomas Carlyle, in On the Choice of Books (1920)
Thomas Huxley, A Liberal Education (1921)
Georg Brandes, On Reading, An Essay (1923)
John Cowpers Powys, One Hundred Best Books (1923)

ORIGINAL LITTLE BLUE BOOK IMPRINTS ON READING
E. Haldeman-Julius, The Art of Reading (1923)
Charles J. Finger, Free Fantasia on Books and Reading (1924)
Lloyd E. Smith, Some General Hints on Self- Improvement (1925)
Isaac Goldberg, The Enjoyment of Reading. Notes on the Appreciation of Lit erature (1925)

The reprints and new works carried a consistent message –- reading provided the path to self-improvement. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), in On the Choice of Books, probably presented at the University of Edinburgh in 1865, stated that university education prepares the individual to collect good books into a great library “which you proceed to study and read.” (13)

Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895), a biologist and Principal of the South London Working Men’s College, which maintained a free library, wrote A Liberal Education claiming the mission to educate the working class was driven by the fear that “…if the country is not shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated.” (3)

The Danish critic and scholar Georg Brandes (1842-1927), published On Reading, An Essay as early as 1906. He asked, Why should we read?, What should we read?, and How should we read? He promoted ownership of books, especially for the upper classes, rather than the use of libraries.

It is a sure sign of failing culture and poor taste when at every watering-place in a great country like Germany expensively dressed women are invariably seen each with a greasy novel from a circulating library in her hand. These ladies, who would be ashamed to borrow a dress, or wear second-hand clothes, do not hesitate to economize in book-buying. (11)

Brandes criticized the pedagogy “of so-called general education.” He preferred to read deeply rather than widely, better to “read ten books about one thing or about one man than a hundred books about a hundred different things!” To the question, Why should we read?, he responded “To increase our knowledge, divest ourselves of prejudices, and in an ever greater degree become personalities. What should we read? The books that attract us and hold fast, because they are exactly suited to us. These books are the good books for us.” (30, 55)

One Hundred Best Books by prolific Englishman John Cowpers Powys (1872-1963) first appeared in 1916. The 100 titles, accompanied by a content summary, were by 62 authors. It included the obvious canon of biblical, Greek, Roman, Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Russian, American, Swedish, Polish and Irish writers. Only two women, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, made the list.

The names Sir Thomas Browne, Sudermann, Hauptman, Edgar Lee Masters, Remy de Gourmont, Paul Bourget, Romain Rolland, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Artzibasheff, George Meredith, Gilbert Cannan, Vincent O’Sullivan, and Arnold Bennett, no longer resonate. This list may tell us more about Powys’ taste, middlebrow culture, the endurance of some authors and titles, and the transitory nature of culture. Powys took pains to explain why he included Oliver Onions and not George Eliot, Catullus and not Sophocles.

Newspaper advertising promoting the Little Blue Books listed title and author. A sixty-four page 1922 catalog listed 239 titles in the then “Ten Cent Pocket Series”, each with a descriptive paragraph. Haldeman-Julius exhorted his purchasers to “Improve Your Mind by Reading in Odd Moments.” He continued to put “the best literature within reach of the masses.” He advertised Carlyle On the Choice of Books:

Carlyle ought to be a pretty good man to go to for advice on what to read, and on how to read. His advice, given in an address to college students, is still available to the seeker after knowledge. As a student and a maker of books, Carlyle could speak with a certain authority about their reading.

He heaped praise on Brandes’s On Reading and Huxley’s A Liberal Education. In 1927 100 Best Books to Read (Powys) sold 32,000 copies, Carlyle trailed at 10,000. Haldeman-Julius thought his audience more receptive to the tabulation of goods books, like Powys, than to Georg Brandes “or anyone else when it is written like a thesis for a collegiate degree.” [10]

E. Haldeman-Julius wrote the first original Little Blue on reading, The Art of Reading, which appeared in 1923. He solicited letters about reading from his Haldeman-Julius Weekly readers. He asked: “write it down carefully, send it to me and I shall publish your letter.” Responses came from Fallon, Nevada, Portland, Maine and Oregon, Eatontown, New Jersey, Cedar Falls, Iowa, Ankum, California, Watrous, Saskatchewan, Canada, Prescott, Arizona, Wheeler Fish’s Eddy, New York, and from James H. Seward languishing on death Row in the St. Louis Jail. The Art of Reading sold 15,000 copies in 1927.

In 1924 Charles J. Finger (1867-1941), an Englishman transplanted eight miles from Fayetteville, Arkansas published Free Fantasia on Books and Reading and in 1934 a much larger work, After the Great Companions: A Free Fantasia on a Lifetime of Reading. Most definitions of “fantasia” refer to music. It also stands for imaginative or fanciful literature “in which the author's fancy roves unrestricted.” Finger traveled widely and wrote pedantically. Haldeman-Julius labeled him a “lovable, charming windbag.”[11]

Lloyd E. Smith, among the most prolific Little Blue Book writers, responsible for about 68 titles, second only to Joseph McCabe, is only identified as a “former college English assistant.”[12] Smith stated self-servingly in Some General Hints on Self-Improvement (1925), “It is because there seems to be a need for some kind of guide, some signpost to point the way, that this book has been written.” He quoted Sir Francis Bacon, “Writing maketh an exact man, conference a ready man, and reading a full man.” Smith wanted to assist “self-made” men to achieve an “attitude of mind.” A 24-page curriculum guided readers to pertinent Little Blue Books. Little Blue Books frequently contained self-promotional advertising in the text and on the back pages.

Isaac Goldberg (1887-1938), of Roxbury, Massachusetts, published The Enjoyment of Reading, Notes on the Appreciation of Literature in 1925. He earned a doctorate in Romance Languages at Harvard. A Socialist and polymath he translated Yiddish, Portuguese and Spanish literature into English. [13] He edited several periodicals including the Stratford Journal. He wrote several plays and biographies including Sir William Gilbert and George Gershwin, and edited or translated 31 Blue Book titles.

Goldberg asked the same three questions posed by Brandes and dwelled on aesthetics. Goldberg, aping Einstein, the intellectual rage, preached the importance of relativity. No two readers are alike. All authors and readers are unique. Literary tastes change with the times and the aging of the reader. A book read when it first appears resonates differently as time goes by. He erases the distinction between prose and poetry and sets himself against the intrusion of morality in literature as that must lead to censorship. The Enjoyment of Reading sold 12,000 copies in 1927.

Haldeman-Julius published many reference works to assist readers. Leo Markun prepared An International Dictionary of Authors in 1927 and A Dictionary of Contemporary Authors in 1929, the latter including Willa Cather, Marcel Proust, many of the authors reprinted in Little Blue Books as well as Blue Book regulars Isaac Goldberg, Haldeman-Julius and Joseph McCabe. Markun, lived in Indianapolis, and wrote at least 62 Little Blue Books, that sold about 4,758,500 copies. He died in 1931 without Haldeman-Julius ever learning a single fact about his background.[14]

Little Blue Book dictionaries included Rhyming Dictionary, A Dictionary of American Slang, Book of Synonyms, A Dictionary of Scientific Terms, A Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases in Frequent Use in English Contexts, A Dictionary of Biblical Allusions, A Dictionary of Sea Terms, A Dictionary of Musical Terms, A Dictionary of Geographical Names, and A Dictionary of the Social Sciences.

Lloyd E. Smith published How to Use the Dictionary in 1929, in which he stated a truism -- “To find a word you must know how it is spelled, or you must have some notion how it is spelled,” adding, “When you do not know how to spell a word, be patient.” His hands-on advice is somewhat dated:

When you know how to spell a word, finding it in the dictionary is easy. Put your finger on the tab of the thumb index which corresponds to the first letter of your word. This will enable you to open the dictionary immediately at this letter of the alphabet.

The World War brought hundreds of new words into daily use. Smith recommended dictionaries whose copyright were within the last twenty years. If Webster’s, Winston’s, Worcester, or Murray dictionary were inadequate he referred readers to the multivolume Oxford English Dictionary.[15]

Smith’ How to Find What you want in a Library (1929) discussed knowledgeable use of the library, etiquette, card catalogues, Dewey decimal system, reference books and of course a further guide to Little Blue Books.

Miriam Allen DeFord wrote Typewriting Self Taught. Blue books instructed in the mechanics of writing and preparing for publication: Hints on Writing Short Stories, Hints on News Reporting, Hints on Writing One-Act Plays, How to Become a Writer of Little Blue Books, How to Read and Correct Proof, How to Prepare Manuscripts, How to Write for the Market, Hints on Writing Poetry, and Getting into Print: A Practical Guide by I. Goldberg, but not “How to Prepare Footnotes.”[16]

Book reviews are directly related to reading books. Leo Markun published Hints on Writing Book-Reviews in 1925? He noted that “So far as I am aware, no correspondence course has yet been offered in book-reviewing.” He advised that reviewers should approach the task with enthusiasm and knowledge. “There are no fortunes to be made reviewing books.” You do it because you are passionately devoted to it. Markun admonished reviews to “Be clear. Then be clearer.” Reviewers should be “able to perform with some fluency on the typewriter,” and have a Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus at hand. “We do not usually embark on the writing of a book-review unless we feel that it is going to be published, and then read” though he allows that most book reports were presented by women in their club meetings.[17]

Trepidations include having to face authorial response in editorial column, or reviewing a currently most popular universally acclaimed author. “Imagine a conscientious young man who writes reviews for a newspaper in the corn-belt, confronted with a choice of saying what he does not believe to be true or setting down what the readers of his literary page will not and perhaps can not believe.” The time involved in reading 60,000 to 150,000 word book, and the hours involved in writing the review, could leave the review-reading public incredulous. He urged would be reviewers to “Try to begin with something that will arouse interest, and to keep the review as interesting as possible throughout.” How to Write Book Reviews sold about 8,000 a year.

The didactics and pedagogy of these booklets played an important role in the lives of many aspiring to self-education. Marketing literacy, guiding reading habits, striving for economical intellectual development were important goals in an industrial society with limited though growing educational opportunities for adults. Haldeman-Julius, “an exceptional mixture of inspired idealism and practical commercialism,” fostered self-improvement through mail order catalogs and full-page newspaper advertisements.[18] The U.S. mail brought economical books directly to the learner’s mailbox.

Endnotes
1 Elaine Woo, “Tillie Olsen, 94; author known for a slip output of raw, powerful works,” Los Angeles Times, Thursday, January 4, 2007, OC B6.

2 E. Haldeman-Julius, The First Hundred Million (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1928), 122. “Occasionally some aloof and hypercritical person will contemptuously call them ‘pamphlets.’ Of course, a booklet containing 15,000 words of text is not exactly a pamphlet, but the objection is there, nevertheless.”

3 Ibid., 47, 261, 271. Haldeman-Julius marketing statistics reveal that 79.8 percent of the purchasers were men, 20.2 were women. The influence of psychology and Sigmund Freud permeated the publisher’s list.

4 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, My First 25 Years, Instead of a Footnote: An Autobiography (Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1949), 15.

5 Ibid., 27, 37-40, 44.

6 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, My Second 25 Years, Instead of a Footnote: An Autobiography (Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1949), 28. The World of Haldeman-Julius edited by Albert Mordell and with a foreword by Harry Golden has several references to the debt and affection Haldeman-Julius had for libraries. (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1960), 9, 11, 52, 54-5, 126, 262, 287. Marcet Haldeman-Julius, What the Editor’s Wife is Thinking About (Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1925), 54.

7 Stuart McConnell, “E. Haldeman-Julius and the Little Blue Bookworms: The Bridging of Cultural Styles, 1919-1951,” Prospects 11 (1986-87): 59-79, 77, n.18.

8 First Hundred Million, 39-40. According to his wife, Marcet Haldeman-Julius, What the Editor’s Wife is Thinking About, 21.

9 Ibid., 200. For a discussion of “hacks” see My Second 25 Years, 75, 79, and First Hundred Million, 203, 215.

10 First Hundred Million, 14-15, 41, 194.

11 My Second 25 Years, 78.

12 First Hundred Million, 131-32; Advertisement, “Be Your Own Teacher,” Kansas City Star, Sunday, October 7, 1928, 19A, and Galveston Daily News, Wednesday, January 2 1929, 7. (Newspaperarchive.com ). My Second 25 Years discusses prolific Little Blue Book writers Will Durant, Joseph McCabe, H. M. Tichenor, Charles J. Finger, Isaac Goldberg, Leo Markun, and Clement Wood, but makes no mention of Lloyd E. Smith.

13 See Allen Crandell, Isaac Goldberg, An Appreciation (Sterling, CO: 1934). The Goldberg papers at the New York Public Library occupy 6.1 linear feet.

14 My Second 25 Years, 106.

15 The first edition of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary appeared in 1898.

16 Haldeman-Julius disdained footnotes, exclaiming, “A good writer can get along without footnotes. I don’t pose as a good writer, but even I have written some 20,000,000 words without once slipping in a footnote.” My Second 25 Years, 96.

17 Markun, Hints on Writing, 5, 27, 29, 30, 35, 44. Ambrose Bierce is credited with “Good writing is clear thinking made visible” and Strunk and White proclaimed in The Elements of Style, “omit needless words.”

18 Marcet Haldeman-Julius, What the Editor’s Wife is Thinking About, 9.