Little Golden Books were sold for just 25 cents in department stores, drug stores and supermarkets.
This ad, aimed at grocery chains, illustrated how shoppers picked up the inexpensive picture books during their every day shopping.
- Image Courtesy of Penguin Random House
The year 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of a bold experiment- the launch of the Little Golden Books during the dark days of World War II. At a time when the literacy rate was not nearly as high as it is now - and privation was felt by nearly all - quality books for children would now be available at a price nearly everyone could afford (25 cents), and sold where ordinary people shopped.
GOLDEN LEGACY is a lively history of a company, a line of books, the groundbreaking writers and artists who created them, the clever mavericks who marketed and sold them, and the cultural landscape that surrounded them.
Golden Legacy : The Story of Golden Books
Author Marcus, Leonard S.,
ContributorsCarle, Eric.
245 pages : illustrations (chiefly color)
Description:
Chronicles the fascinating story of the creation, marketing, and worldwide impact of Little Golden Books, the most popular children's books of all time. Launched during the dark days of WWII, Golden Books such as The Poky Little Puppy were an instant sensation. Hallmarked by their superlative quality yet affordable to nearly all, they changed the cultural landscape and mirrored our changing postwar culture: the powerful influence of television, the post-Sputnik renaissance in American science education, and the birth of the civil rights movement.
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#BoloBooks | The History of Little Golden Books & Why Collectors LOVE Them!
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Check out these NEWER Little Golden Books at a library near you. View List here
Updated Sources:
Still Golden: Little Golden Books Are 81 Years Old & Going Strong (2023)The Long History of Little Golden Books (2021)
Little Golden Books Turns 75! A Look Back at the Iconic Collection with Editor Diane Muldrow (2017)
‘The Poky Little Puppy’ And His Fellow Little Golden Books Are Turning 75 (2017)
Commemorating 75 Years Of Little Golden Books (2017)
The Story Behind Little Golden Books (2011)
- Featured Artists:
Aurelius Battaglia, Sheilah Beckett, Mary Blair, A. Burnbaum, Tibor Gergely, Trina Schart Hyman, Elizabeth Orton Jones, Jack Kent, Hilary Knight, Corinne Malvern, J. P. Miller, Jan Pfloog, Alice Provensen, Martin Provensen, Feodor Rojankovsky, Richard Scarry, Cathleen Schurr, Bob Staake, Gustaf Tenggren, Jane Werner Watson, Leonard Weisgard, Eloise Wilkin, Garth Williams, Dan Yaccarino - Read more... (Archived List plus books featured)
Copyright © 2018 - Creative eXpressions
These books are for educational purposes only!!
**FAIR USE** Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
