Little Leather Library Corporation

The Little Leather Library Corporation was conceived of by publisher brothers Charles and Albert Boni in about 1914. Inspired by the example of a cigarette company that gave away free miniature copies of works by William Shakespeare with each tobacco purchase, the brothers created a prototype — a miniature copy of Romeo and Juliet.{{cite book|last=Radway|first=Janice A.|title=A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desires|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2357-0|pages=158}}{{cite book |last=Tebbel |first=John Williams |title=A History of Book Publishing in the United States |publisher=R. R. Bowker Co. |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-8352-0499-6 |location=New York |pages=288 |oclc=7786145 |author-link=John William Tebbel}} In 1916 they showed their prototype to ad men Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim, who worked at J. Walter Thompson Company.

Scherman suggested approaching the manufacturer of a product the high cost of which might justify inclusion of a premium. Growing up in Philadelphia, Scherman was familiar with the Whitman's Candy Company of Philadelphia and in 1916 proposed to Whitman's the concept of the “Library Package”, a box that would include a copy of a literary classic enclosed with Whitman's chocolates.{{cite book|last=Radway|first=Janice A.|title=A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2357-0|pages=158}} Whitman’s Co. ordered a total of 15,000 copies of fifteen of Shakespeare's plays.{{cite book|last=Tebbel|first=John William|title=A History of Book Publishing in the United States (Vol. 3)|year=1981|publisher=R. R. Bowker Co.|location=New York|oclc=7786145|isbn=978-0-8352-0499-6|pages=288}} The team scrambled to collect the $5,000 startup capital needed to print the books, which they acquired with the help of A. L. Pelton.

The enterprise prospered. Scherman resigned from J. Walter Thompson to become president of the Little Leather Library Corporation and oversee production.{{cite book|last=Radway|first=Janice A.|title=A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2357-0|pages=159}} After the Whitman’s order came additional titles, sold by Woolworth's for ten cents each.{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Joan Shelley|title=The Making of Middle-Brow Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2010-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi/page/94 94]}} In 1917, it is estimated Woolworth's ordered over 1 million copies.{{cite book|last=Radway|first=Janice A.|title=A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2357-0|pages=159}} The Little Leather Library Corp. later issued a set of “Thirty World’s Greatest Masterpieces,” capitalizing on the clamor for access to liberal culture and providing consumers with a “handsome mahogany or quartered oak bookrack ... attractive enough to ornament any library table” for purchasers to display their refinement.{{cite journal|last=Stanley|first=Robert Jennings|title=Are Americans as Cultured as Europeans?|journal=The Outlook|date=1917|pages=161}} In the first year, sixty titles — all in the public domain — were published, and one million were sold in a little over a year.

World War I affected production and distribution of the Little Leather Library titles. As leather prices rose, primarily due to the demand for leather during World War I, the publishers switched to synthetic bindings which, it turned out, smelled bad in hot weather. Despite that setback, by 1920 the Little Leather Library had marketed over twenty-five million volumes, many of them by mail.{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Joan Shelley|title=The Making of Middle-Brow Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=University of North Carolina|location=Chapel Hill|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi/page/95 95], 343|isbn=9780807843543}}

During World War I, the Little Leather Library Corporation marketed their volumes as gifts to send to soldiers and sailors overseas as “Something that will make their minds normal, and keep them normal.” A box, ready for shipping to overseas soldiers, was offered with the purchase of ten books.{{cite journal|title=Who Thought of It--A Soldier?|journal=The Illustrated Review|date=March 1918}}

Whitman’s modified its Library Package and renamed it “Service Chocolates—Sweets with a book," a “vest-pocket edition of classics”, packed with the company’s chocolates, that could be purchased and sent overseas to American troops.{{cite web|title=Milestones at Whitman's Candies|url=http://www.russellstover.com|accessdate=3 May 2012}}

File:LittleLeatherLibraryCorporationJudge1921.png, 26 Feb 1921.]]

In 1920, Scherman and Sackheim began marketing the books directly by mail. The mail-order scheme relied on a combination of publication advertising and direct circulating to reach those who bought only by mail as well as individuals who might never set foot in traditional bookstores .{{cite book|last=Radway|first=Janice A.|title=A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2357-0|pages=159}} A 30-volume set was marketed at $2.98.

In 1917, the Boni brothers sold their interest in the company and went on to other undertakings, including the founding of the Modern Library with Horace Liveright.{{cite book|last=Tebbel|first=John Williams|title=A History of Book Publishing in the United States, Vol. III|year=1981|publisher=R. R. Bowker Co.|location=New York|oclc=7786145|isbn=978-0-8352-0499-6|pages=257}} In 1920, aware that they must be approaching a saturation point, Scherman and Sackheim decided to diversify and formed the advertising firm of Sackheim & Scherman.{{cite book |last=Tebbel |first=John Williams |title=A History of Book Publishing in the United States |publisher=R. R. Bowker Co. |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-8352-0499-6 |location=New York |pages=288 |oclc=7786145 |author-link=John William Tebbel}} Their experiences at the Little Leather Library Corporation taught them that although they had tapped a profitable wellspring of customers by operating outside retail outlets, they could not be profitable unless buyers were "hooked" to return for continuing purchases.{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Joan Shelley|title=The Making of Middle-Brow Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlebr00rubi/page/95 95]|isbn=9780807843543}} They took these lessons with them to their next enterprise, the Book-of-the-Month Club, which they founded in 1926.

The company was eventually bought out by Robert K. Haas, who worked for the mail-order subsidiary of J. Walter Thompson. In 1922 he purchased a seventy-five-percent controlling interest in the Little Leather Library Corporation and renamed the company as published by the new Robert K. Haas, Inc.{{cite book|last=Madison|first=Charles A|title=Book Publishing in America|url=https://archive.org/details/bookpublishingin0000madi|url-access=registration|year=1966|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookpublishingin0000madi/page/393 393]}} (Little Leather Library changed to Little Luxart Company, as embossed on the back cover of the new shiny red leatherette books.) But by 1925, the company was no longer publishing new volumes. The publishing house of Funk & Wagnalls contracted for 250,000 thirty-volume sets from Robert K. Haas, Inc, which they offered to send free to any subscriber who would promise to take The Literary Digest for a year.{{cite journal|title=A Vast Mail-Order Program|journal=The Publishers Weekly|date=17 October 1925|pages=1420}}

Although its heyday was brief, the company’s successful marketing strategies meant that the market was flooded with millions of copies of the volumes. It is easy to find copies on the market; many families have incomplete or full sets passed down through the generations. A boxed set of 30 volumes might sell from $50 to $100.{{cite web|last=Neavill|first=Gordon|title=The Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books|url=http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/bookcolls/smith%20miniature%20collection/20th%20Century%20U%20S%20Com/Haas.htm|accessdate=14 May 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531024954/http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/bookcolls/Smith%20Miniature%20Collection/20th%20Century%20U%20S%20Com/Haas.htm|archivedate=31 May 2012}}

{{reflist|25em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120531024954/http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/bookcolls/Smith%20Miniature%20Collection/20th%20Century%20U%20S%20Com/Haas.htm The Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Iowa]
• [http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/research/cms/FindingAids/ABSHIRE/tabid/152/Default.aspx Mary E. Abshire Collection, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]
• [https://www.lib.calpoly.edu/specialcollections/findingaids/ms160 Guide to the Little Leather Library Collection, 1920–1924], at CalPoly Special Collections (calpoly.edu)
• {{LCAuth|no2007104676|Little Leather Library Corporation|1|}}

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Category:Publishing companies established in 1916

Category:Publishing companies of the United States

Category:American companies established in 1916