A Collection of Little Blue Books

Girard, Kansas(ca.1922-1935): haldeman-Julius Co. 3 1/2" X 5" 55 titles. These were the books that were read by those who hungered for knowledge as well as entertainment that were published in the millions. Often these readers had not finished high school nor could not dream of college so in reading they became aware in an abbreviated way of the outside world. In his "Adventures of a Wandreing Man", Louis L'Amour writes of his living as a wanderer (or perhaps a hobo), with the little blue books in his pocket which he devoured. Richard Colles Johnson and G. Thomas Tanselle published a major article in 1970 on the Little Blue Books as a major bibliographic problem. While the Lilly Library's collection has more than 1700 volumes, it is still difficult to determine which were truly first editions (Blanck often listed the reprints in BAL). These were cheap editions originally sold at 10 cents each (later as a new faster printer was developed reduced to 5 cents each). Among the titles of interest in this series are: M.A. Mugge;s "Nietzsche: who He Was and What He Stood For'" (96 pages) Harry Hisbschman's 'Laws Every Woman Should Know' (64 pages). John Cowper Powys, "The Art of Happiness" H.L. Mencken despised their abbreviations of important literature and the cheap printing. All are in very good condition with topics ranging from literatue, philosophy, and tasks on how to repair furniture or love-making where veiled references deal with homosexuality, sadism, etc,