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Little Leather Library Corporation ** Robert K. Haas History
Carrying a large selection of Little Leather Library Corporation books in their various formats has led to numerous questions concerning the history of the books as well as their value. We are unable to assign a value due to various points that have to be taken into consideration. However we are happy to give a brief history and some insight into this wonderful Collection.
The Little Leather Library Corporation of New York was founded in 1915 by Albert Boni, Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim. They were initially used as premiums in Whitman’s Sampler. These small 4inch by 3 inch books were perfect for was to become one of the first attempts to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States. This pioneering effort eventually led to the establishment of Book of the Month Club, Modern Library publishing company, which ultimately spawned Random House Publishers as a subsidiary company.
Initially the books were sold individually through retail stores with the Woolworth's chain of retail stores being the largest. The publishers were extremly creative in their marketing of these books from placing them in Whitman's Sampler boxes to redeming them by sending in X number of Florida Orange Wrapers. There is some indication that single volumes were included as promotional items in cereal boxes as a means of advertising the collection.
The first versions of the Little Leather Library volumes were bound in real leather. By the early 1920's the Little Leather Library was being advertised in popular magazines and sold directly by mail order. The books were advertised on the back covers of Mentor Magazine, Pictorial Review as well as National Geographic magazine ten different months from January 1921 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. This change was due to the war effort ( WW1) which needed the leather for helmets etc.
A set of 30 books were sold for $2.97 and a set of 100 books was priced at $9.97.
The different editions of the Little Leather Library Corporation ( several are illustrated ) are:
Wraps version: Proof( I have only run across one of these)
Wraps Version 2: Proof (these are larger)
Hard Cover: Proof ( Stiff card board boards)
Leather with blind stamped title in various colors.
Tan Leather with abstract floral borders
Dark Brown leather (abstract floral border)
Brown stiff textured leather with tan blind stamp
Black leather with blind stamp title (full page Witman's Sampler Candy Ad on last page)
Rough Suede with blind stamp in various colors
Suede with floral abstract floral border
Various Leather Colors with abstract floral border
Red Miniature Library Edition with Gold Blind Stamp
Redcroft Version 1: Green Leatherette
Redcroft Version 2: Deluxe Green/Bronze tinted Leatherette
Redcroft Version 3: Deluxe Bronze with Turquoise Wash
Redcroft Version 4: Biltmore Edition
Redcroft Version 5: Gilt Title on Spine
Brown Leatherette Version 1: Matte Finish
Brown Leatherette Version 2: Glossy Finish
Brown Bible Set of 30
a. Flat Brown Covers
b. Deep Bronze with Dark Brown Wash ( similiar to Delux Redcroft Editions
Green Child Health Set
Brown Child Health Set
ROBERT K. HAAS formaly THE LITTLE LEATHER LIBRARY
Red Leatherette (aka Little Luxart Library )
Brown Leatherette: Version 1: Matte Finish
Brown Leatherette Version 2: Glossy Finish
Brown Bible Set of 30
a. Flat Brown Covers
b. Deep Bronze with Dark Brown Wash ( similiar to Delux Redcroft Editions
Green Child Health Set
Brown Child Health Set
The rarest versions are the wraps followed by early editions bound in genuine leather that were sold through retail stores. The green and red mail order version are more plentiful. Not all titles are available in all editions.Little Leather Library Titles
Not all titles available in all formats.
Constitution of the League of Nations ** Constitution of the United States of America ** Fifty Best Poems of America ** Fifty Best Poems of England ** Mother Goose Rhymes, Words of Jesus ** Allen, James: As a man Thinketh ** Anderson, Hans: - Fairy Tales ** Balzac, Honore: Christ in Flanders and Other Stories ** Barrie, James: A Tillyloss Scandal ** Browning, Elizabeth: Sonnets From the Portugese ** Browning, Robert: Pippa Passes -- Poems and Plays ** Burns, Robert: The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns ** Burton, Richard F. (translator): Tales From the Arabian Nights, Vol I -- Tales From the Arabian Nights, Vol II ** Carroll, Lewis: Alice In Wonderland -- Through the Looking Glass ** Coleridge, Samuel: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems ** Dante: Inferno, Vol. I -- Inferno, Vol. II ** De Maupassant, Guy: Short Stories ** De Quincey, Thomas: Confessions of an Opium Eater Vol I -- Confessions of an Opium Eater Vol II ** Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol ** Doyle, Arthur Conan: Sherlock Holmes, A Case of Identity and Scandal in Bohemia ** Drummand, Henry: The Greatest Thing in the World ** Dumas,Alexandre: The Comtesse de Saint-Geran ** Emerson, Ralph Waldo: Essays -- Uses of Great Men ** Fitzgerald (translator): The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ** Gilbert, W. S.: Bab Ballads ** Hale, Edward: Man Without a Country ** Hubbard, Elbert: A Message to Garcia ** Hugo, Victor: Last Days of a Condemned Man ** Ibsen, Henrik: A Doll's House -- Ghosts ** Irving, Washington: Old Christmas -- Rip Van Winkle ** Kielty, Bernardine: The side walks of New York (Brown & Brown Deluxe leatherette only) ** Kipling , Rudyard: At the End of the Passage and The Mutiny of the Mavericks -- City Of Dreadful Night and Other Stories -- Barrack Room Ballads -- Finest Story In the World -- Mulvanney Stories --The Man Who Was and Other Stories -- The Mark of the Beast and The Head of the District -- The Phantom Rickshaw and My Own True Ghost Story -- Vampire and Other Verses -- Without Benefit of Clergy ** Lamb, Charles: Dream Children ** Lincoln, Abraham: Speeches and Addresses ** Longfellow. Henry: Evangeline -- Hiawatha, Vol I -- Hiawatha, Vol II __ The Courtship of Miles Standish ** Macaulay,Thomas: Lays of Ancient Rome ** Maeterlinck, Maurice: Pelleas and Melisande ** Merimee, Prosper: Carmen ** Moore, Thomas: Irish Melodies ** Morris, William: A Dream Of John Ball ** Plato: The Trial of Socrates ** Poe, Edgar Allan: The Gold Bug -- The Murders In the Rue Morgue -- The Raven and Other Poems ** Schreiber, Olive: Dreams ** Shakespeare, William: A Comedy of Errors -- As You Like It -- Hamlet -- Julius Caesar -- King Lear -- MacBeth -- Merchant of Venice -- Merry Wives of Windsor -- Midsummer Nights Dream -- Othello -- Romeo and Juliet -- Sonnets -- The Taming of the Shrew -- The Tempest -- Twelfth Night ** Shaw, George Bernard: On Going to Church -- Socialism for Millionaires ** Stevenson, Robert Louis: A Child's Garden of Verses -- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Will O' the Mill and Markheim ** Tennyson, Alfred: Enoch Arden -- Lancelot and Elaine -- The Coming of Arthur -- The Holy Grail --Idylls of the King ** Thomson, James: City of Dreadful Night ** Thoreau, Henry: Friendship and Other Essays ** Tolstoi, Leo: The Bear Hunt and Other Stories ** Turgenev, Ivan: Mumu -- The Jew ** Washington, George: Speeches and Letters ** Whitman, Walt: Memories of President Lincoln ** Whittier, John Greenleaf: Snowbound and Other Poems ** Wilde, Oscar: Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems -- Lady Windermere's Fan -- Salome -- The Happy Prince -- The Importance of Being Earnest ** Yeats, William: Land of Hearts DesireHoly Bible - 30 Volume Set
The Little Leather Library Bible is a 30-volume set, covered in bronze/brown (deluxe) and dark brown , embossed leatherette, published by the Little Leather Library Corporation in the late 1910's or early 1920's, before the Little Leather Library Corporation became Robert K. Haas, Inc.
OLD TESTAMENT
I: The Holy Bible-the First Book Of Moses Called Genesis
II: The Holy Bible Vol. II the First Book Of Moses Called Genesis
(continued)
III: The Holy Bible-ExodusIV: The Holy Bible-Leviticus & Numbers
V: The Holy Bible-Numbers (con't)
VI: The Holy Bible-Deuteronomy & Joshua
VII: The Holy Bible-Joshua & Judges
VIII: The Holy Bible-Judges (continued), Ruth
IX: The Holy Bible-Samuel
X: The Holy Bible-Samuel I & II
XI: The Holy Bible-The First Book of Kings
XII: The Holy Bible-Kings I & II
XIII: The Holy Bible-Chronicles I & II
XIV: The Holy Bible-Chronicles (con't)
XV: The Holy Bible-Ezra & Nehemiah & Esther
XVI: The Holy Bible-Job
XVII: The Holy Bible-Psalms
XVIII: The Holy Bible-Psalms (con't) & Proverbs
XIX: The Holy Bible-Ecclesiastes, Solomon & Isaiah
XX: The Holy Bible-Jeremiah
XXI: The Holy Bible-Lamentations of Jeremiah & the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel ( con’t)
XXII: The Holy Bible-Daniel; Malachi
NEW TESTAMENT
XXIV: The Holy Bible-St. Mark
XXV: The Holy Bible-St. Luke
XXVI: The Holy Bible-St. John
XXVII: The Holy Bible-Acts of the Apostles
XXVIII: The Holy Bible-The Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to the Romans
XXIX: The Holy Bible-Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament
XXX: The Holy Bible-Peter & Revelation
Child Health Library - 10-volume Set
The Child Health Library is a 10-volume set, covered in either brown or light sea green with a darker green wash , embossed leatherette , published by the Robert K. Haas, Inc., and copyrighted in 1924.
Titles for the Child Health Library include:
I. Pre-Natal Care and the Baby's Birth
II. Babies - Their Feeding and Care
III. The Neglected Age - The Child from Two to Six
IV. Dangers of the School Age
V. Communicable Diseases of Childhood
VI. Hygiene of the Mouth and Teeth
VII. What Children of Various Ages Should Eat
VIII. How Children Ought to Grow
IX. Psychology of the Child
X. Educational Problems
Luxart Library by Robert K. Haas - 30 Volume Set
The “Bab” Ballards – Barrack Room Ballads - W. S. Gilbert
Enoch Arden – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Courtship of Miles Standish – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Short Stories – Guy De Maupassant
Dreams – Olive Schreiber
The Ancient Mariner – Samuel T Coleridge
Lays of Ancient Rome – Thomas Babington Macaulay
Friendship and Other Essays – Henry David Thoreau
Essays – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Will o' the Mill and Markheim - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Happy Prince and Other Tales – Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems - Salome: A Tragedy in One Act - Oscar Wilde
The Gold-Bug – Edgar Allan Poe
Fifty Best Poems of America – Fifty Best Poems of England - Various Poets
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, with an essay on Omar Khayyam – Edward Fitzgerald (translator)
Poems – Robert Browning
Midsummer Night’s Dream – Tempest - William Shakespeare
The Coming of Arthur – Alfred Tennyson
Speeches and Addresses of Abraham Lincoln - Abraham Lincoln
The Man Without A Country – Edward Everett Hale
Sherlock Holmes – Sir A. Conan Doyle
The Greatest Thing in the World – Henry Drummond
Poems and Songs of Robert Burns - Robert Burns
Speeches and Letters of George Washington - George Washington
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
BOOKENDS
Abraham Lincoln
Elephants on Books
Monk Polychrome
Monk Bronze
Hammered Copper Flower
Praying Hands
Ten Commandments
Knight
Longfellow
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