Books & Magazines

The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect books is a bibliophile. Book collecting can be easy and inexpensive: there are millions of new and used books, and thousands of bookstores. Collectors may collect works by a favorite author, first editions of modern authors, or books on a given subject. Collections may focus on a particular author or genre, a particular illustrator, bindings or book design, cover or dust jacket art, miniature books, autographed editions, or numerous other areas. The Big Little Books were first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. They were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. They were priced initially at 10¢ each, then later 15¢.Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted this format. A Big Little Book was typically 3?? wide and 4½? high, with 212 to 432 pages, and about 1½? thickness. 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. In this category we have vintage and antique books, children's books, and magazines. Comic books are posted in a separate category.