Despite changes in detail, the Little Golden Books maintain a distinctive appearance. A copy of The Poky Little Puppy bought today is essentially the same as one printed in 1942. Both are readily recognizable as Little Golden Books. At the time of the series' golden anniversary in 1992, Golden Books claimed that a billion and a half Little Golden Books had been sold.[2] Although the Little Golden Books have remained the backbone of the product line, the enterprise that produced them has created a variety of children's books in various forms of media, including records, tapes, videos, and toys and games. Some titles have appeared in several different formats (including "A Golden Book").
History
Little Red Hen cover
Georges Duplaix, head of Artists and Writers Guild Inc. (a division of Western Publishing), came up with an idea for a new imprint as he was developing books for children. Meanwhile, a shared printing plant led Western and Simon & Schuster to develop a close relationship. In 1938, Western and Simon & Schuster released their first joint creation, A Children’s History.[3]
Duplaix had the idea to produce a colorful children's book that was more durable and affordable than those being published at that time, which often sold for US$2 to $3 (approximately $40 to $70 now). With the help of his fellow Guild colleague Lucile Olge, Duplaix contacted Albert Leventhal and Leon Shimkin with his idea (Albert and Leon work for Simon & Schuster, and Albert serves as the company's vice president and sales manager).
The team agreed to launch twelve titles simultaneously under the banner of the Little Golden Books Series. Each book would consist of 42 pages, with 28 pages printed in two colors and 14 pages in four colors. The books would be bound with staples. Initially considering a price of 50 cents per book, there was hesitation due to existing competition in that price range. By increasing the print run to 50,000 copies per title instead of 25,000, they calculated that the books could be sold affordably at 25 cents each (equivalent to approximately $5 today).
The series underwent an expansion when Lucy Sprague Mitchell (educator and founder of Bank Street Nursery School now Bank Street College of Education) joined. A strong supporter of realistic children's literature, Mitchell created the Bank Street Writer's Laboratory. Works coming from this institution became the new basis for the Little Golden Book series, with characters and situations often inspired by the very locale of the Bank School.
Mitchell had been in discussions with Georges Duplaix and Lucille Ogle as early as 1943 about the possibility of a special series of Little Golden Books written by members of Bank Street Writer’s Laboratory. Wartime shortages had delayed the launch of the series until 1946. The first two titles appeared that year: Lucy Sprague Mitchell's The New House in the Forest, illustrated by Eloise Wilkins, and The Taxi That Hurried, coauthored by Irma Simonton Black and Jessie Stanton, with illustrations by Tibor Gergely.[10]
In 1958, Simon & Schuster sold its interest in Little Golden Books to Western Publishing. The price of Little Golden Books rose to 29¢ in 1962.
Western introduced a line of Big Little Golden Books for slightly older children aged five and up. Some titles from this series range from brand new stories (such as The House That Had Enough) to reprints (such as The Monster at the End of This Book).
In the 1980s, Golden Books introduced Golden Melody Books. Titles from this series included a long-lasting electronic chip that played music when readers open those books. Songs featured in this series range from popular children's songs such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, to songs from children's TV and family movies including People in Your Neighborhood from Sesame Street and Heigh-Ho from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In 2001, Random House acquired Little Golden Books for about $85 million.[11] At that point, nearly 15 million copies of The Poky Little Puppy had been sold, including copies in various languages.[12]
In 2015, with the release of Little Golden Book adaptations of the first six installments of the Star Wars saga on August 25, the Little Golden Book adaptation of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith became the first-ever Little Golden Book in history to come from a film that was rated PG-13 by theMPAA.[13] Months later, on April 12, 2016, a Little Golden Book adaptation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the next film in the saga, also rated PG-13, was released. This release opened the door for further Little Golden Books that drew upon PG-13 rated licensed film properties; some adaptations in this criterion include the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, characters and storylines from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Jurassic Park.[14][15]
In 2023, a biography about singer-songwriter Taylor Swift became the fastest-selling in the series' history, selling one million copies in seven months.[16]
Writers and illustrators
Many popular authors and illustrators have worked on Little Golden Books and related products, including:
In 2010, Ryan Jude Novelline revealed the "Golden Book Gown", a "one-of-a-kind fairytale-inspired gown almost entirely from Golden Books...[featuring] a 22,000-square-inch page-turning skirt and a form-fitting bodice made from the spines".[17]
Homages
In 2015, during the Diamond celebration at Disneyland, the Disney Imagineers brought the 1955 Little Golden Book story Little Man at Disneyland to life by featuring a recreation of Patrick Begorra's home in a tree trunk somewhere in Adventureland at the park for visitors to find.
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was a Racine, Wisconsin, best known for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products. The company had editorial offices in New York City and Los Angeles, California. Western Publishing became Golden Books Family Entertainment in 1996. Little Golden Books remains as an imprint of Penguin Random House. Golden Guides and Golden Field Guides are published by St. Martin's Press.
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.
Margaret Wise Brown was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942), both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements.
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
Margaret Cecile "Peggy" Parish was an American writer known best for the children's book series and fictional character Amelia Bedelia. Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina, attended the University of South Carolina, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She worked as a teacher in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and in New York. She taught at the Dalton School in Manhattan for 15 years and published her first children's book while teaching third grade there. She authored over 30 books, which had sold 7 million copies at the time of her death.
The Poky Little Puppy is a children's book written by Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. It was first published in 1942 as one of the first twelve books in the Simon & Schuster series Little Golden Books. The copyright was renewed in October 1969.
Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky, also known as Rojan, was a Russian émigré illustrator. He is well known both for children's book illustration and for erotic art. He won the 1956 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration from the American Library Association, recognizing Frog Went A-Courtin' by John Langstaff.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth was an American writer of fiction and poetry for children and adults. She won the 1931 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association award recognizing The Cat Who Went to Heaven as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." In 1968 she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writers.
Aladdin Paperbacks is one of several children's-book imprints owned by Simon & Schuster. It was established by Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Books where she was the founding director of the children's department (1961). Atheneum merged with or was acquired by Scribner's in 1978, then Macmillan in 1984, before the acquisition by Simon & Schuster in 1994.
Gustaf Adolf Tenggren was a Swedish-American illustrator and animator. He is known for his Arthur Rackham-influenced fairy-tale style and use of silhouetted figures with caricatured faces. Tenggren was a chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company in the late 1930s, in what has been called the Golden Age of American animation, when animated feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi and Pinocchio were produced.
Little Golden Book Land is an animated syndicated special produced by DIC Animation City and Western Publishing Company in 1989. The special stars many popular characters from the Little Golden Books, a beloved children's book series. It was possibly a pilot episode for an animated TV show that never came to fruition. Its full title is Little Golden Book Land: The Great Harbor Rescue.
Scuffy the Tugboat is a children's book written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely. The book was first published in 1946 as part of the Little Golden Books series.
Golden Book Video was a line of children/family animated and live-action videos marketed by Western Publishing, which began during the holiday season of 1985. They featured characters and stories from Western's print publications, such as Little Golden Books, and were originally released on VHS video cassette for under $10.
Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry was published in 1963 and became a best-selling children's book. Scarry had been illustrating children's books since 1950, but this was his first as both author and illustrator. The book also marked the beginning of the author's work on the "Best Ever" series. The original edition contains over 1,400 labelled pictures and the book sold over seven million copies in 12 years. The word book is designed to entertain children while teaching them words and numbers. It is divided into subjects on each pair of pages. Subjects range from sports to houses, with examples from all over the world. The pages have a small amount of text, which often challenge the reader to find something on the page. The characters are all anthropomorphic animals, often cats, bears, rabbits and mice, but many other animals are also used. The art for Best Word Book Ever was first drawn in, then painted in, which was by that time Scarry's normal method.
Eloise Margaret Wilkin, born Eloise Margaret Burns, was an American illustrator. She was best known as an illustrator of Little Golden Books. Many of the picture books she illustrated have become classics of American children's literature. Jane Werner Watson, who edited and wrote hundreds of Golden Books, called Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books", and Wilkin's books remain highly collectible. Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings.
Poky and Friends is a series of animated videos and books produced by Varga TVC Productions and Golden Books Family Entertainment that ran from 1998 until 2003.
Janette Sebring Lowrey was an American children's writer, best known for the book The Poky Little Puppy. As of 2001, The Poky Little Puppy was the single all-time best-selling hardcover children's book in the U.S., having sold nearly 15 million copies. While the book has outsold many other famous books such as Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, Lowrey herself remained in relative obscurity until her death.
The Shy Little Kitten is a famous Little Golden Book written by Cathleen Schurr and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, noted for his illustrations featured in fellow Little Golden Book The Poky Little Puppy. Originally published in 1946, the storybook has earned a reputation as one of the most iconic, classic Little Golden Books ever written and as a popular children's picture book.
Nina Bourne (1916–2010) was a publishing executive for more than 70 years for both Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf. She was known for her marketing and advertising campaigns for many books including Catch-22 and the Eloise series of children's books.
References
Sources consulted
"A Birthday Celebration for Golden Books..." Publishers' Weekly. 221(15):24. April 9, 1982.
"Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 4:671-672. 1991.
Greason, Rebecca. Tomart's Price Guide to Golden Book Collectibles. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead Book Company, 1991.
Santi, Steve. Collecting Little Golden Books: a Collector's Identification and Price Guide, 3rd Edition. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1998.
Marcus, Leonard S. Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became An American Icon Along the Way. New York: Golden Books, 2007.
↑ Cunningham, Virginia (1948-01-01). "Other Publications". Notes. 6 (1). Music Library Association: 167–170. doi:10.2307/891519. JSTOR891520.
↑ Marcus, Leonard S. Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008).
↑ "Random House Lands Golden Book Assets." Publishers' Weekly. 248(33):13& 23. August 20, 2001.
1 2 joint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft, Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.
↑ joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.
↑ joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
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