Joyce Haines

The little Golden Books’ series began in 1942. It started with the publishing firm Simon and Schuster and the Western Printing and Lithographing Co. in Racine, Wis.

Ownership and control of the series have changed several times and today Penguin Random House is its current publisher.

Joyce Haines, presenter, read a copy of “The Poky Little Puppy” and discussed the pros and cons of it as reviewed by some critics at a recent Shakespeare Club meeting. Georges Duplaix first came up with the idea of the Little Golden Books when he created new books for children. He had an idea to produce a colorful children’s book that was more durable and affordable than those being published at that time. With a team of artistic friends they agreed to launch the 12 titles at the same time under the banner of the Little Golden Books Series.

At first they considered a price of 50 cents per book but decided to run more copies to sell them at 25 cents. Creative storytellers and illustrators helped with the proposal. They also worked with educators and psychologists to determine what children cared about and what had the most appeal. The themes had to be related to children. The distinctive gold binding, trim size designed to be comfortable in a child’s hands, a place in the inside cover for a child to write its name to give a feel of ownership, all appealed to children.

Most people were unable to afford the $2 to $3 books sold at that time since it was during wartimes. The new series of books became readily available and they were placed in supermarkets, train stations five and dime stores and more to entice parents and children.

The series featured a lot of characters, fairy tales, cartoons, Disney, celebrities, Mother Goose, Nursery Rhymes and Classics still printed today. Film, television and movies have been popular for source material and there have been published biographies. Many changes have occurred through the years to include books with software releases, books containing chips that played music, books coming from movies, books featuring blacks etc. The presentation concluded with selections from Diane Muldrow’s book “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from a Disney Little Golden Book.” This was a book written for adults as a walk down memory lane with simple advice stemming from many of the books written throughout the years.