The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of

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, 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 wide and high, with 212 to 432 pages making an approximate thickness of . 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 American 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 Gibs ...

''), comic strips ('' The Gumps''), children's books ('' Uncle Wiggily''), 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 inhabit ...

'') and movies (''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American Animated film, animated Coming of age, coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'', the ...

''). 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, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

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 The Lone Cowboy''. Fred Harman'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''.

Mighty Midgets

From 1939 the British Woolworth's sold "Mighty Midgets", 32-page books that measured 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 Honours ...

' film '' Road to Perdition'' (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 a ...

'' Big Little Book, but this was an

anachronism An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

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

External links

Biglittlebooks.com

at Lileks

at Broward.org
Big Little Book Collection - description
an
Big Little Book Collection - title list
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Charles G. Wright Collection of Big Little Books 1933–1943
at NCSU

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

American adventure novels Novel series Western (genre) novels Works based on comics Spinoffs Books by type

Format

History

Mighty Midgets

In popular culture

References

Further reading

Online copy

Secondary literature

External links