The Golden Guides, originally Golden Nature Guides, were a series of 160-page, pocket-sized books created by Western Publishing and published under their "Golden Press" line (primarily a children's book imprint) from 1949. Edited by

Herbert S. Zim Herbert Spencer Zim (July 12, 1909 – December 5, 1994) was a naturalist, author, editor and educator best known as the founder (1945) and editor-in-chief of the Golden Guides series of nature books. Biography Zim was born 1909 in New York ...

and Vera Webster, the books were written by experts in their field and illustrated in a simple straightforward style. Intended for primary and secondary school level readers, the first books were

field guide A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the "field" or local area where such objects exi ...

s illustrated by James Gordon Irving, with such titles as ''Birds'' (1949), ''Insects'' (1951), and ''Mammals'' (1955). The series later expanded beyond identification guides to cover a wider range of subjects, such as ''Geology'' (1972), ''Scuba Diving'' (1968)'','' and ''Indian Arts'' (1970). In 1966, Zim launched a related series, the

Golden Field Guide The Golden Field Guides are a series of larger pocket-sized books that were created by Western Publishing and published under their "Golden Press" line (mostly used for children's books at the time), as a related series to the Golden Guides. Edit ...

s, aimed at high school or college-age readers. An updated series was relaunched in 2001 as "Golden Guides by

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

", illustrated largely with photographs but retaining some of the original 1950s illustrations.

List of Golden Guides

References

{{reflist

External links

Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press
- Current list of Golden Guides * List of th

Golden Books books Science books Series of books Publications established in 1949 Western Publishing