Did and Didn't

[jamespowers]

One of the most interesting publishers of this type of material was Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a Socialist writer who hit on the idea of packaging pamphlet-size editions of all sorts of public-domain works on controversial subjects and selling them for a nickel apiece by mail order, or in bundles for even less. They were packaged in blue card-stock covers and were advertised in all the popular magazines of the day as "Little Blue Books." No subject was out of bounds for Little Blue Books, from radical politics to human sexuality, and many people got their first introduction to the Facts Of Life in the pages of a Little Blue Book. The peak of their popularity was the Depression, when Haldeman-Julius sold millions of copies a year by mail order, but you could still buy them into the sixties. They make for interesting reading even today.

Yep and ended up killing himself in his swimming pool due to a six-month Federal sentence he had recently received for income-tax evasion. I love hypocrisy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep and ended up killing himself in his swimming pool due to a six-month Federal sentence he had recently received for income-tax evasion. I love hypocrisy.

Significantly, there was never a Little Blue Book called "How To Figure Your Income Tax." He did, however, publish a booklet called "The Basis of an American Police State -- The Alarming Methods of J. Edgar Hoover," which likely had something to do with his coming to the attention of the IRS.

 

[jamespowers]

Significantly, there was never a Little Blue Book called "How To Figure Your Income Tax." He did, however, publish a booklet called "The Basis of an American Police State -- The Alarming Methods of J. Edgar Hoover," which likely had something to do with his coming to the attention of the IRS.

Well that and cheating on his taxes in the first place. lol lol A., when you are a socialist and are publicly a "tax the rich guy," it might not do to be a tax dodger when YOU become rich yourself. lol lol B., When you find yourself in a glasshouse, throwing stones is not a good idea.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And especially don't hire your son to do your bookkeeping.

 

[jamespowers]

And especially don't hire your son to do your bookkeeping.

His son is still running that publishing business part time isn't he? Last I heard, he was still doing it---not on the same scale of course.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I haven't seen any of their ads since the '70s -- I actually sent away for a few of those booklets when I was in high school, and they appeared to be very old stock. The blue covers had faded to yellow, and the pages likewise. But where else will you get a pocket edition of The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde for a nickel?

 

[jamespowers]

I haven't seen any of their ads since the '70s -- I actually sent away for a few of those booklets when I was in high school, and they appeared to be very old stock. The blue covers had faded to yellow, and the pages likewise. But where else will you get a pocket edition of The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde for a nickel?

You are right. The place was destroyed in an arson fire in 1978. Hmmmmmm.....

 

[MikeKardec]

One of the most interesting publishers of this type of material was Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a Socialist writer who hit on the idea of packaging pamphlet-size editions of all sorts of public-domain works on controversial subjects and selling them for a nickel apiece by mail order, or in bundles for even less. They were packaged in blue card-stock covers and were advertised in all the popular magazines of the day as "Little Blue Books." No subject was out of bounds for Little Blue Books, from radical politics to human sexuality, and many people got their first introduction to the Facts Of Life in the pages of a Little Blue Book. The peak of their popularity was the Depression, when Haldeman-Julius sold millions of copies a year by mail order, but you could still buy them into the sixties. They make for interesting reading even today.

According to the older generation (now departed) in my family ... those who were known to hop a freight or two ... these were very popular with the Hobo crowd.

They predated the paperback along with several other inexpensive and portable formats (railway novels) but helped to pave the way for the Penguin and Pocket Books of the mid to late 1930s and the Armed Forces Editions (a horizontal paperback) ... after the war paperbacks made books stores popular (in places other than major cities) and book sales in other spaces, like supermarkets, big business. The Brits really started it in both in the 1890s incarnation and then with Penguin's mid 1930s reboot. They did pretty well reprinting material provided by hardcover publishers. The average guy could finally afford to buy books to see what they contained, rather than just collecting "the classics" (if he could afford any at all) because they were a safe bet.

I think the first Paperback Originals were done by Fawcett's Gold Medal imprint around 1950. It was considered the death knell of the publishing business ... for about 15 minutes. GM sold about 10 million copies of their new books in fairly short order, then everyone jumped into the business. That and TV put the already fading pulps pretty much out of commission.

The 25 cent price caused quite a bit of trouble because it was actually too low to make much money. As a writer you made a cent a book and the publisher half of that. It could take 80k to 120k copies to break even. Price experiments proliferated but stores kept over-buying and then returning, creating HUGE inventory problems. By 1952 or '53 the whole business was on the ropes and some serious managers were required to get it back on track. That led to the "Quality Paperback" a trend started by Doubleday. The price was higher but breakeven was around 25% of the earlier numbers.

Lots of new and marginalized writers broke into the business. people who'd have never made it in the old "elite" world of publishing ... it's happening again today with "self published" (Kindle) ebooks, the format snuck in under the noses of the regular publishers (even paperback publishers) and they are STILL denying how big the market is. Low price allowed people to take a chance on writers they had never heard of and a new form of distribution is paving the way just as it did in the day when they first started putting books in railway and tube stations and drug stores. A great deal of the material is considered low quality and smutty (and that's true) but democracy is again in action in the book business and a whole new class of people are making a living at it.

The one thing about ebooks that is the OPPOSITE of the paperback revolution is the effect of covers. With paperbacks (even some of the quality versions) racy covers helped make a lot of sales. I'm convinced that 50 Shades of Gray, a book that swept away the competition in epub was only successful because, as an ebook, it had NO cover ... no one could tell WHAT you were reading, so it was safe to read it in public!!

 

[MikeKardec]

Well that and cheating on his taxes in the first place. lol lol A., when you are a socialist and are publicly a "tax the rich guy," it might not do to be a tax dodger when YOU become rich yourself. lol lol B., When you find yourself in a glasshouse, throwing stones is not a good idea.

I know plenty of lefty university professors who'll go on and on about there not being enough cooperation and looking after others in our society, but they all break traffic laws like it was New Year's Eve in Anarchistan. Maybe it's okay because they are risking their own lives at the same time. So, um ... egalitarian.

 

[2jakes]

I haven't seen any of their ads since the '70s -- I actually sent away for a few of those booklets when I was in high school, and they appeared to be very old stock. The blue covers had faded to yellow, and the pages likewise. But where else will you get a pocket edition of The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde for a nickel?

There's a group of 226 members that are fans & collectors of the various
booklets published by E Haldeman~Julius & son. The Little Blue Book Co.
includes: The Appeals Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket
Series and The Little Blue Books.
http://haldeman-julius.org/

 

[vitanola]

Yep and ended up killing himself in his swimming pool due to a six-month Federal sentence he had recently received for income-tax evasion. I love hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy? How about misleading statements?

You of course failed to mention that the charges of tax evasion, which were pursued in one form or another for more than twenty years, (even before the publication of "Herbert Hoover, The Fatuous Failure in the White House", a suprisingly popular 1931 issue) were sumarily dismissed by the appellate court some days after Haldeman-Julius' untimely death. Strange that it took Hoover (J. Edgar this time) so long to dig up some charge which was not laughed out of a grand jury room. He was obviously not a Cardinal Richelieu.

Oddly enough, the ledger sheets necessary for Haldeman-Julius to mount their a proper defense of the IRS charges happened to have been stolen in a burglary in 1948. The appellate court found it curious that the IRS appeared to have at one point in 1950 presented copies of the ledgers into evidence.

In 1954 the IRS reached a civil agreement with Henry Haldeman for back taxes, interest and penalties. They accepted 40% of the amount claimed to be owed. When later asked about the matter the younger Haldeman said that the settlement was cheaper than his estimated legal costs to fight the charge.

Some hypocrite, eh?

 

[vitanola]

You are right. The place was destroyed in an arson fire in 1978. Hmmmmmm.....

Hmmmmmm.... Arson?

Well, not exactly.

"Incendiary" does not necessarily mean "Arson".

It seems that the plant was set alight on July 4, 1978 by stray fireworks.

Certainly not the sort of "Arson" that you implied.

 

[MikeKardec]

There's a group of 226 members that are fans & collectors of the various
booklets published by E Haldeman~Julius & son. The Little Blue Book Co.
includes: The Appeals Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket
Series and The Little Blue Books.
http://haldeman-julius.org/

That's just too cool. I've got a few that my father carried back in the 1920s, just 6 or 7 I think.

 

[jamespowers]

Hmmmmmm.... Arson?

Well, not exactly.

"Incendiary" does not necessarily mean "Arson".

It seems that the plant was set alight on July 4, 1978 by stray fireworks.

Certainly not the sort of "Arson" that you implied.

My source said arson. Show me your source.

 

[jamespowers]

Hypocrisy? How about misleading statements?

You of course failed to mention that the charges of tax evasion, which were pursued in one form or another for more than twenty years, (even before the publication of "Herbert Hoover, The Fatuous Failure in the White House", a suprisingly popular 1931 issue) were sumarily dismissed by the appellate court some days after Haldeman-Julius' untimely death. Strange that it took Hoover (J. Edgar this time) so long to dig up some charge which was not laughed out of a grand jury room. He was obviously not a Cardinal Richelieu.

Oddly enough, the ledger sheets necessary for Haldeman-Julius to mount their a proper defense of the IRS charges happened to have been stolen in a burglary in 1948. The appellate court found it curious that the IRS appeared to have at one point in 1950 presented copies of the ledgers into evidence.

In 1954 the IRS reached a civil agreement with Henry Haldeman for back taxes, interest and penalties. They accepted 40% of the amount claimed to be owed. When later asked about the matter the younger Haldeman said that the settlement was cheaper than his estimated legal costs to fight the charge.

Some hypocrite, eh?

I dunno. He still offed himself and his son still paid.

 

[1mach1]

My source said arson. Show me your source.

:fencing:

op2:

 

[Fastuni]

Making a vast array of literature and knowledge available to hundreds of millions people, many who otherwise couldn't have afforded it, is his legacy.

Whether there was some bunk among the books or the question whether Haldeman did or didn't evade taxes, pales in comparison to this colossal feat.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Hoover was deep in the doghouse and being cursed by every Democrat in America since he was being blamed (unfairly) for the depression. I doubt he had any vendetta against a penny ante publisher.

 

[vitanola]

My source said arson. Show me your source.

The Girard Press, July 6, 1978. Notes form my article in the November 5, 1980 feature in the Kenyon Collegian, and information acquired incident to the completion of my Junior Thesis.

I have always bn a great fan of the Little Blue Books and did my Junior Thesis on the firm's cultural impact whenI was at Kenyon. This was back in 1981, and information was at that time readily available from original sources. Henry Haldeman was quite helpful, though initially a bit wary. Fred Turner, the then editor of the Kenyon Review was instrumental in getting access to the family.

Turner was initially unfamiliar with the Little Blue Books but was quite impressed with the project when he understood its scope.

What was your source, by the way? That review posted on Amazon?

 

[vitanola]

Hoover was deep in the doghouse and being cursed by every Democrat in America since he was being blamed (unfairly) for the depression. I doubt he had any vendetta against a penny ante publisher.

"Penny Ante publisher"? You apparently have no idea of the influence of the Little Blue Books. 100 million copies of these little books had been sold by 1928. Another 100 million were sold in the next decade. They exposed working class America to the writings and ideas of Strindberg and Shakespere, Einstein and Keynes, Plutarch and Bunyan, Villion and
Lowell. They had not the cachet of Eliot's "Five-Foot shelf" but their reach was far greater, I think.

As far as the FBI was concerned, well, Attorney General Palmer was investigating him back in the 'teens, and he never therafter dropped off the FBI's radar.