TheBig Little Books, first published during 1932 by theWhitman Publishing Company ofRacine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notablySaalfield, adopted this format after Whitman achieved success with its early titles, priced initially at 10¢ each, later rising to 15¢.
A Big Little Book was typically3+5⁄8 in (92 mm) wide and4+1⁄2 in (110 mm) high, with 212 to 432 pages making an approximate thickness of1+1⁄2 in (38 mm). The interior book design usually displayed full-page black-and-white illustrations on the right side, facing the pages of text on the left. Stories were often related to radio programs (The Shadow), comic strips (The Gumps), children's books (Uncle Wiggily), novels (John Carter of Mars) and movies (Bambi). Later books of the series had interior color illustrations.
After the first Big Little Book,The Adventures of Dick Tracy, was published (December 1932), numerous titles were sold throughWoolworth's and other retail store systems during the 1930s. With a name change to Better Little Books during 1938, the series continued into the 1960s. Variations such as Dime Action Books were produced by other publishers, as noted by the Collecting Channel's Andy Hooper:
While the format was pioneered byWhitman Publishing, other firms produced big little books between 1934 and 1960:Dell Comics (Cartoon Story Books e Fast-Action Stories); Engel van Wiseman (Five-Star Library Books); Fawcett (Dime Action Books); Goldsmith (Radio Star Series); Lynn (A Lynn Book); Ottenheimer; Saalfield (Little Big Books e Jumbo Books); Waldman (Moby Books) e World Syndicate (High Lights of History Series).[1] Whitman was also the last to abandon the form, publishing big little books about boomer characters likeMajor Matt Mason into the mid-1960s. Not all big little books adhered to the original format of text on the left side and a large graphic on the right of each page spread, and the earlier, more heavily illustrated books are more valuable as a result...Dick Tracy was the hero of the first big little book, and he was followed by almost every majorcartoon,comic andradio character of the 1930s, includingAlley Oop,Buck Rogers,Blondie andDagwood,Li'l Abner,Mickey Mouse,Popeye,Captain Midnight,Tarzan and dozens more. There were also numerous books published that featured original characters created particularly for the Big Little series, and those are now little remembered, usually selling for $10 or less each in any condition. A few titles were ostensibly non-fiction works about famous people, as with Whitman'sBilly The Kid (1935) andThe Story ofJackie Cooper (1933), which proves that biographies of child movie stars are no recent phenomenon.[2]
Recently, Robert Thibadeau's[3] project atCarnegie Mellon University has made at least two Big Little Books available online. Thibadeau attempts to "capture the entire production" of an old book with facsimile images showing pages with wear and tear. "We're basically trying to eternalize that book as it is," says Thibadeau. The Antique Books Digital Library offers two free Big Little Book titles,Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail andBronc Peeler The Lone Cowboy.Fred Harman'sBronc Peeler was a Western comic strip character who was a precursor to another comic strip drawn by Harman, the more successfulRed Ryder.
From 1939, the BritishWoolworth's sold "Mighty Midgets", 32-page books that measured3+3⁄4 by2+1⁄2 in (95 by 64 mm) and were sold at the artificially low price of threepence; the price subsidised by a full page advertisement on the back.[4]
Sam Mendes' filmRoad to Perdition (2002) showed a boy readingThe Lone Ranger Big Little Book, but this was ananachronism since the movie is set during 1931, a year prior to the first Big Little Books and two years beforeThe Lone Ranger premiered January 31, 1933 ,on radio.