MS-193
LITTLE LEATHER LIBRARY COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY
The Little Leather Library Collection was accessioned into the Piqua Public Library Archives and Special Collections in July 2009 as a gift from the family of Herschel and Marguerite Meek. The small books are housed in two boxes and 86 files. The books contain classic works of English literature and because of their age are part of the public domain.
The Little Leather Library Corporation of New York was founded in 1916 by Albert Boni, Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim. It was one of the first attempts to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States. The selection of book titles included in the Little Leather Library collection was generally limited to older classics for which the publisher did not pay any copyright royalties.
Soon after the Little Leather Library was founded, Albert Boni sold his interest in the business and went on to establish the Modern Library publishing company, which ultimately spawned Random House Publishers as a subsidiary company.
Initially the books were sold through the Woolworth’s chain of retail stores. The first two editions of the Little Leather Library volumes appear to have been bound in real leather. The retail price for these first editions has not been determined. By the early 1920’s the Little Leather Library was being advertised in popular magazines and sold directly by mail order. There is some indication that single volumes were included as promotional items in cereal boxes as a means of advertising the collection. The books were advertised on the back cover of National Geographic magazine ten different months from January 1922 to October 1924. By then the genuine leather covers originally used had been replaced with an early type of imitation leather consisting of latex coated canvas on the outside with flocking on the inside. No doubt this change was made to reduce the cost of the books. A 1922 advertisement for the Little Leather Library states, “the binding is a beautiful embossed Croft which, though NOT leather, looks even more handsome, and more durable.” A boxed set of thirty of the little faux leather volumes could be purchased for about $3.00 plus postage, insurance and C.O.D. charges.
Sometime between March 1924 and October 1924, Robert K. Haas, Inc., Publishers took over the Little Leather Library collection, at the same Now York business address. Mr. Robert Haas had joined the original Little Leather Library Corporation in 1922 and he also later worked with Scherman and Sackheim at the Book of the Month Club. Hass continued to sell the inventory of green “Redcroft” books (Type IV) at least through the middle of 1925. When the supply of green books was exhausted, Haas re-issued the volumes with red leatherette covers. On these red books, Haas changed the name to “Little Luxart Library” (Type V).
There appears to have been at least five different editions or types of the Little Leather Library. Type I was published between 1916 and 1920 in blue or gray genuine leather covers with “Little Leather Library” logo embossed on the front cover. Type II was published between 1916 and 1920 in real red soft suede leather covers and genuine endpapers. The type is distinguished by embossed floral borders and the “Little Leather Library” logo embossed on the back cover. Type III (the type in MS 193 – The Little Leather Library Collection) was published between 1918 and the early 1920’s. The cover was fake smooth red leather and the titles and logo were stamped in gold on the front cover. There were two versions of the logo used in Type III: one was “Little Leather Library” and the other was “Miniature Library” (this is the type found in MS 193). Type IV was published from the early 1920’s to mid-1924 and had a fake embossed leather cover which was green in color. The “Little Leather Library” logo was embossed on the back cover along with “Redcroft Edition”. Type V was published in 1924 and after. It had a fake embossed red leather cover with the “Little Luxart Library” logo on the back cover.[i]
The books that make up MS 193 were collected by the Meek family over a period of years from 1922 to 1930.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
SERIES I: THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 1-15.
SERIES II: THE WRITINGS OF RUDYARD KIPLING – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 16-21.
SERIES III: THE WRITINGS OF WASHINGTON IRVING – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 22-23.
SERIES IV: THE WRITINGS OF LEWIS CARROLL – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 24-25.
SERIES V: THE WRITINGS OF ALFRED TENNYSON – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 26-29.
SERIES VI: THE WRITINGS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 30-32.
SERIES VII: THE WRITINGS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 33-35.
SERIES VIII: THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE BERNARD SHAW – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 36-37.
SERIES IX: THE WRITINGS OF HENRIK IBSEN – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 38-39.
SERIES X: THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 40-43.
SERIES XI: THE GOSPEL WRITERS – The books in this series are found in Box 1, Files 44-45.
SERIES XII: THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING – The books in this series are found in Box 2, Files 1-2.
SERIES XIII: MISCELLANEOUS POETRY – The books in this series are found in Box 2, Files 3-15.
SERIES XIV: MISCELLANEOUS PROSE – The books in this series are found in Box 2, Files 16-41.
SERIES XV: BOOKS DONATED BY JIM & MARY JO ROSSITER – The books in this series are found in Box 2, Files 42-45.
Box Inventory
SERIES I: THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
BOX 1
File
1 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
2 Twelfth Night, or What You Will
3 The Taming of the Shrew
4 The Tempest
5 As You Like It
6 The Merchant of Venice
7 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
8 Othello: The Moor of Venice
9 The Merry Wives of Windsor
10 The Comedy of Errors
11 Macbeth
12 Julius Caesar
13 King Lear
14 Romeo and Juliet
15 Sonnets
SERIES II: THE WRITINGS OF RUDYARD KIPLING
16 Without Benefit of Clergy and Other Tales
17 Mulvaney Stories
18 At the End of the Passage and The Mutiny of the Mavericks
19 Barrack Room Ballads
20 The Man Who Was and Other Stories
21 The Phantom Rickshaw and My Own True Ghost Story
SERIES III: THE WRITINGS OF WASHINGTON IRVING
22 Old Christmas
23 Rip Van Winkle and Other Tales
SERIES IV: THE WRITINGS OF LEWIS CARROLL
24 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
25 Through the Looking-glass
SERIES V: THE WRITINGS OF ALFRED TENNYSON
26 Lancelot and Elaine
27 The Holy Grail
28 The Coming of Arthur
29 Enoch Arden and other Poems
SERIES VI: THE WRITINGS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE
30 The Raven and other Poems
31 The Gold Bug
32 The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other Tales
SERIES VII: THE WRITINGS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
33 The Song of Hiawatha
34 The Courtship of Miles Standish
35 Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
SERIES VIII: THE WRITINGS OF GDEORGE BERNARD SHAW
36 An Essay on Going to Church
37 Socialism for Millionaires
SERIES IX: THE WRITINGS OF HENRIK IBSEN
38 A Doll’s House
39 Ghosts: A Family Drama in Three Acts
SERIES X: THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE
40 Lady Windermere’s Fan
41 The Importance of Being Earnest
42 The Ballad of Reading Gaol and other Poems
43 Salome: Tragedy in One Act
SERIES XI: THE GOSPEL WRITERS
44 Words of Jesus, vol. 1 [Matthew and Mark]
45 Words of Jesus, vol. 2 [Luke and John]
BOX 2
SERIES XII: THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING
File
1 Poems
2 Pippa Passes – Drama
SERIES XIII: MISCELLANEOUS POETRY
3 Sonnets From the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
4 The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns – Robert Burns
5 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and other Poems – Samuel T. Coleridge
6 The “Bab” Ballads – W. S. Gilbert
7 The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: with an essay on Omar Khayyam – Edward Fitz Gerald
8 Lays of Ancient Rome – Thomas Babington Macaulay
9 Irish Melodies – Sir Thomas Moore
10 A Child’s Garden of Verses – Robert Louis Stevenson
11 Memories of President Lincoln – Walt Whitman
12 Snow-bound and Other Poems – John Greenleaf Whittier
13 The Land of Heart’s Desire – William Butler Yeats
14 Fifty Best Poems of England
15 Fifty Best Poems of America
SERIES XIV: MISCELLANEOUS PROSE
16 The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments [Tales From the Arabian Nights], vol. 1
17 The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments [Tales From the Arabian Nights], vol. 2
18 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louiis Stevenson
19 A Tillyloss Scandal – James M. Barrie
20 The Comtesse DeSaint Geran – Alexandre Dumas
21 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
22 Fairy Tales – Hans Christian Andersen
23 Carmen – Prosper Merimee
24 Dreams – Olive Schreiner
25 Tales of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
26 Dream Children and other Essays – Charles Lamb
27 Mumu and Kassyan of Fair Springs – Ivan Turgenev
28 A Message to Garcia and other Essays – Elbert Hubbard
29 Pelleas and Melisande – Maurice Maeterlinck
30 The Man Without a Country – Edward Everett Hale
31 The Trial of Socrates – Plato
32 The Last Days of a Condemned Man – Victor Hugo
33 A Dream of John Ball – William Morris
34 The Confessions of an English Opium Eater, vol. 1 – Thomas DeQuincey
35 The Confessions of an English Opium Eater, vol. 2 – Thomas DeQuincey
36 Friendship and other Essays – Henry David Thoreau
37 Essays – Ralph Waldo Emerson
38 Uses of Great Men – Ralph Waldo Emerson
39 Speeches and Letters – George Washington
40 Speeches and Addresses – Abraham Lincoln
41 The Constitution of the United States; The Declaration of Independence; The Covenant of the League of Nations
SERIES XV: BOOKS DONATED BY JIM & MARY JO ROSSITER
42 Short Stories – Guy De Maupassant
43 The Happy Prince and Other Tales – Oscar Wilde
44 The Greatest Thing In The World – Henry Drummond
45 Will O’ The Mill and Markheim – Robert Louis Stevenson
[i] The information for this article was taken from the Little Leather Library website at http://home.earthlink.net/~littlelibrary/