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, who in 1940 was head of Artists and Writers Guild Inc. (a division of Western Publishing), first came up with this idea when he created new 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, more durable and affordable children's book than those being published at that time which sold for $2 to $3. 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 group decided to publish twelve titles for simultaneous release in what was to be called the Little Golden Books Series. Each book would have 42 pages, 28 printed in two-color, and 14 in four-color. The books would be staple-bound. The group first discussed a 50-cent price for the books, but Western did not want to compete with other 50-cent books already on the market. The group calculated that if the print run for each title was 50,000 copies instead of 25,000, the books could affordably sell for 25 cents each.
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 went to bring the Little Golden Book story, Little Man at Disneyland from 1955 to life by featuring a recreation of Patrick Begorra's home in a tree trunk somewhere in Adventureland at the park if visitors were to keep an eye out for it.
"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.
^ abjoint 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 Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
