Experiments and Failures in Paper Back Publishing, 1920-1938

The classic publishing houses, the Harpers, Appletons, Scribners, turned noses up at what they saw as "trashy" or "lower quality" writings of the Pulp Magazines and tried to convince themselves that the pulps were appealing to a market wholly different from their own educated, cultured readership. The gap between quality first editions and the pulps was filled by reprint specialists such as Grosset and Dunlap and Hurst which produced reprints on pulp-paper in hardback. But Munsey had already proven that most people really did not care about the paper quality of the books they were reading, so when Time Magazine complained in 1920 about the rising costs of hardback "quality" literature and wondered if there might be a market for first editions of talented authors in pulp paper, more than a few alarm bells sounded in the offices of publishers.

Within a few months of Time's article, Fredrick A. Stokes Co. conducted a test of the paperback market by simultaneously releasing Gertrude Atherton's new novel "Sisters-in-Law" in a $2.00 cloth cover and a $1.50 paperback edition. The hardback outsold the first edition paperback by an astonishing 54 to 1; furthermore, over one half of the paperbacks were sold in New York, and most of those were to a single dealer hoping to get rich. The dealer didn't, and the Stokes experiment confirmed what the traditional publishers had been claiming all along: There was no market for quality literature in paperback.

Another experiment had similar results. After collaborating with Collier's to publish a paperbound Atlas, Reynolds Publishing launched a full series of paperback titles. Saddle-stitched, sized 4 3/8" x 6 1/2", with large 10-12 point type, 96 pages, and six-color illustrated cover, the books managed to be dignified in appearance while abandoning the dullness of the Riverside paperbacks without having the melodrama cheapness of the pulps. The titles, too, represented serious literature: Dream Woman, Wilkie Collins; A Bal Masque, Alexander Dumas; The Necklace Guy de Maupassant; His Wedded Wife Charles Dickens, and others. But Reynolds was never able to turn a profit, and finally abandoned the effort.

One paperback publisher was exceptionally successful, even though his publishing and advertising methods were certainly outside the mainstream. Emanuel Haldemann-Julius, an eccentric living in Missouri and avowed Communist and atheist, took out newspaper ads in 1921 for his "University in Print", a series of mini-mini books, 3.5x5, wrapped in paper, costing only three cents each. He settled on a standard blue paper cover, renamed the series the "Little Blue Books", and hit pay dirt with mail order sales. In his first year he sold over 31 MILLION Little Blue Books. By 1925 Publisher's Weekly proclaimed him "the greatest publishing house in history". But his unethical advertising tactics, very shoddy publishing standards, and politically incorrect choice of subjects kept him outside the mainstream.

Meanwhile, as publishers feared, Grosset and Dunlap began experimenting with issuing original titles in their pulp-paper hardbacks. However, no established author would allow his work to enter the world in such an ugly book, so G/D's original efforts were limited to unknown authors and presented no real threat to the establishment.

More worrisome was the effort by the Boni Brothers (who had established the Modern Library and soon-to-be Random House). All the paperback revolutions, they noted, relied heavily on mail orders. Of course, the nation had changed, the farmer was no longer as isolated from cities as he had been in the 19th century, but still, they noted, Haldeman-Julius' success was in mail-order. So they launched "Charles Boni Paper Books", a mail-order book club. Join the club ($5.00 per year), and receive periodic mailings of high quality literature in paper back. To lend prestige, each book was illustrated by a renowned artist, such as Noman Rockwell and Rockwell Kent. The Bonis had their doubts and offered, ala Stokes earlier, a cloth bound option to subscribers. The crash of Wall Street the very year they started doomed their efforts. They struggled for a few years without turning a profit. The lasting influence of Boni Paper Books is less on the development of paperbacks than on the founding of book clubs, but that's a different story.

Another attempt at producing quality literature in paperback came from Modern Age Books in 1931.Full-sized books, often with over three hundred pages, they were bound in paper. The company offered three imprints: Blue Seal Books were original titles for twenty-five cents each; Red Seal Books, usually priced at thirty cents, were classic reprints; and Gold Seal Books, at fifty cents, were illustrated works. Such prices seemed outrageous for paper items, and Modern Age finally switched to hardbacks with nearly the same retail price.

In 1933, Sam Lowe, president of Whitman Printing Company, the official printer for Grosset & Dunlap, Walt Disney, and several pulp magazines, including those of Dell, noticed the increasing popularity of daily newspaper comic strips. Attempting to capitalize on this trend, he launched Big Little Books with cartoon illustrations on the right hand page and simple text on the left. Initially these books were hardbacks, but after 125 titles he switched to paperback format for the next 32 titles before World War Two ended the venture.

That was about the scope of serious paperback publishing up to the start of the World War in Europe. But things were happening in Europe besides the gathering of war clouds, and more than one publisher took note.