The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the
Whitman Publishing Company of
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably
Saalfield, adopted this format after Whitman achieved success with its early titles, priced initially at 10¢ each, later rising to 15¢.
Format
A Big Little Book was typically 3⅝″ wide and 4½″ high, with 212 to 432 pages making an approximate thickness of 1½″. The interior book design usually displayed full-page black-and-white illustrations on the right side, facing the pages of text on the left. Stories were often related to radio programs (''
The Shadow
The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...
''), comic strips (''
The Gumps
''The Gumps'' is a comic strip about a middle-class family. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959.
According to a 1937 issue of ''Life'', ''The Gumps'' was i ...
''), children's books (''
Uncle Wiggily
Uncle Wiggily Longears is the main character of a series of children's stories by American author Howard R. Garis. He began writing the stories for the ''Newark News'' in 1910. Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day (except Sundays) for mo ...
''), novels (''
John Carter of Mars
John Carter of Mars is a fictional Virginian soldier who acts as the initial protagonist of the Barsoom stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A veteran of the American Civil War, he is transported to the planet Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabi ...
'') and movies (''
Bambi
''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. ...
''). Later books of the series had interior color illustrations.
History
After the first Big Little Book, ''
The Adventures of Dick Tracy'', was published (December 1932), numerous titles were sold through
Woolworth's and other retail store systems during the 1930s. With a name change to Better Little Books during 1938, the series continued into the 1960s. Variations such as Dime Action Books were produced by other publishers, as noted by the Collecting Channel's Andy Hooper:
Recently, Robert Thibadeau's project at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
has made at least two Big Little Books available online. Thibadeau attempts to "capture the entire production" of an old book with facsimile images showing pages with wear and tear. "We're basically trying to eternalize that book as it is," says Thibadeau. The Antique Books Digital Library offers two free Big Little Book titles, ''Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail'' and ''
Bronc Peeler
''Bronc Peeler'' was a Western adventure cowboy comic strip created by Fred Harman in 1933, and ran until July 2, 1938. Harman is best known as the artist for the ''Red Ryder'' comic strip, which he created with Stephen Slesinger.
Harman was on a ...
The Lone Cowboy''.
Fred Harman
Fred Charles Harman II (February 9, 1902 - January 2, 1982) was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular ''Red Ryder'' comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used th ...
's ''Bronc Peeler'' was a Western comic strip character who was a precursor to another comic strip drawn by Harman, the more successful ''
Red Ryder
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
''.
Mighty Midgets
From 1939 the British
Woolworths Group
Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to:
Businesses
* F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores
* Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...
sold "Mighty Midgets", 32-page books that measured 3¾ inches by 2½ inches (10 x 7 cm) and were sold at the artificially low price of threepence; the price subsidised by a full page advertisement on the back.
In popular culture
Sam Mendes
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honour ...
' film ''
Road to Perdition
''Road to Perdition'' is a 2002 American crime drama film directed by Sam Mendes. The screenplay was adapted by David Self from the graphic novel of the same name written by Max Allan Collins and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner. The film s ...
'' (2002) showed a boy reading ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'' Big Little Book, but this was an
anachronism
An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
since the movie is set during 1931, a year prior to the first Big Little Books and two years before ''The Lone Ranger'' premiered January 31, 1933 on radio.
References
{{reflist
Further reading
''Tom McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail''''The Big Little Book Price Guide''(1983) – James Stuart Thomas
''Big Big Little Book Book''(2004) – Arnold T. Blumberg
External links
Biglittlebooks.comat Lileks
at
Broward.org
Big Little Book Collectionat
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
Charles G. Wright Collection of Big Little Books 1933–1943at
NCSU
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...
Library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
American adventure novels
Novel series
Western (genre) novels
Works based on comics
Spin-offs
Books by type