The Little Blue Books

The Little Blue Books were a publishing phenomenon of the era after the First World War and through the Second World War. They were small -- vest-pocket size, 3½" by 5" -- and ranged from 32 to 128 pages. They were inexpensive, varying in price throughout the era from 5 to 10 cents each. During the twenties, the publisher offered any 20 titles for a dollar, postpaid!

Their publisher, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a socialist, published a wide range of literature and poetry, "how-to" guides, philosophy, religion, political tracts, and guides to birth control and sexuality that were just this side of legal -- given the restrictive laws of the time.

The first titles published were Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Rubiayat of Omar Kayyam, The Original Documents of the German Revolution, Private Notes of William Kaiser and Keynes' How to Mend by Treaty.

In many ways the Little Blue Books can be seen as the forerunners of the modern paperback, though Haldeman-Julius' methods of production, promotion, and distribution have probably never been duplicated. Haldeman-Julius kept all profitable titles in stock and is said to have averaged 2/10s of a cent profit on each book.

In The First Hundred Million, H-J made the case that his book sales were a pretty good barometer of American culture and opinion, of the interests and attitudes of the population.

By the time of his death in 1951, Haldeman-Julius had printed over 2000 distinct titles and over 500 million copies. Besides the Little Blue Books there ere numerous other "small" book series, and various "mid-sized" series too.

Fogler Resources

An URSUS search on Haldeman-Julius leads to his autobiography, The First Hundred Million, and to Dust, a novel authored with his wife, available as an e-book through a statewide subscription to NetLibrary.

Short potted biographies of Haldeman-Julius may be found in the reference sources American National Biography and in American Reformers (links to URSUS records). Contemporaneous articles about him may be located in The New York Times Historical and through JSTOR. America: History and Life points to a few articles locating the Little Blue Books in an historical context. A search on Haldeman-Julius in Literature Resource Center yields a history of his publishing house.

On the Web

Haldeman-Julius's papers are divided among three libraries, the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana (finding aid), the Library of the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle (finding aid), and the Leonard H. Axe Library at Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas (finding aid).

There are also Haldeman-Julius materials at Kansas State and California State-Northridge.

The Axe Library (great name!) provides a checklist , divided into 4 sections, of all of the Little Blue Books (1-500, 501-1000, 1001-1500, 1501-1915).

Kent State University's Special Collections has a large collection of the Little Blue Books, but as well holds runs of some of the other series published by Haldeman-Julius: the Ten Cent Pocket Series, People's Pocket Series, Appeal Pocket Series, Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket Series, Fillers, the Critic and Guide Series well as books in the various mid-sized series.

The Secular Web Library includes four essays by Haldeman-Julius.


Our Little Blue Books shown here are part -- a small part --of an extensive collection of materials donated to Fogler by Professor Emeritus David C. Smith.