Emanuel Haldeman-Julius Publishing Records | Special Collections & Archives

Series I: Business records

Series II: Jack Botwin Records

Series III: Haldeman-Julius Collection at Kansas State College

Series IV: Printing Plates

Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel)

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a newspaper publisher, opened a publishing house in Girard, Kansas, in 1919 where he published small, inexpensive paperback books, including classic works of literature and essays on myriad topics, for the working and middle classes. For his first printing project, he selected fifty classic and socialist works. In 1923 he named the series "Little Blue Books."  Little Blue Books measure 3½" x 5" and took their name from their blue covers. They fit into a pants or shirt pocket, and were especially popular across the US through the 1930s and 1940s, especially with travelers. He began issuing the Big Blue Books in 1925. They were 5 ½" x 8 ½."

Haldeman-Julius felt there was no subject too controversial to be in print. Customers could order titles from mail order catalogs or visit one of the outlet stores in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Venice, Colorado. The Los Angeles store opened in 1924 in the downtown Mercantile Arcade Building (recently converted to loft apartments).