Styles of front cover _ a series of possible additional styles

[William Palmer]

Colleagues,

I will start a series of e-mails regarding the 23 styles of front
cover listed by Scot at URL:
http://www.little-blue-books.com/articles/wrapperStyles.html

There is an indication that there are more than 23 types and that is
certainly so, but the actual number will depend on the criteria chosen
for difference. I will try to add a series of possible additions to
these in this and subsequent e-mails. EHJ was certainly not consistent
in his choice of cover design and his son Henry added yet more
variety.

The choice of what constitutes a different variety is up to the group,
but I think that the University in Print logo on the front of LBBs is
a type not already included. I illustrate this with three different
colours of logo, but it may just be more convenient to state that
colours may vary rather than including each colour as a different
type.

The three front/ back examples are attached. They could be classified
as either one or three styles if separate colours are included.

Bill

[Scot Kamins]

On Oct 13, 2009, at 10:09 PM, William Palmer wrote:

> The three front/ back examples are attached. They could be classified
> as either one or three styles if separate colours are included.

Thanks for this, Bill -- very helpful. I think it should be one style
with color variations.

It would be most helpful if you could make a stab at the date? I'm
guessing that it's certainly post-1951 since EHJ isn't mentioned as
editor.

-- Scot

[William Palmer]

Scot,

Date?: Note the Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius has been deleted- in my
opinion certainly produced after the death of EHJ, so probably from
1952 onwards whenever existing stock ran out.

Bill

[Jack Hill]

DOC,

 

HOPE YOU ARE DOING OKAY.

 

IF YOU ARE WORKING ON DATING LITTLE BLUE BOOKS THERE IS SOMETHING THAT HAS BUGGED ME SINCE I STARTED COLLECTING THEM. THAT IS= SOME OF THEM ARE A LITTLE (cm) larger THAN THE OTHERS. I WAS TOLD SEVERAL YEARS AGO THAT IT WAS BECAUSE THE PUBLISHER GOT A NEW PAPER CUTTER BUT I DO NOT KNOW IF THAT IS TRUE OR NOT. IF IT IS TRUE THEN IF IT COULD BE DETERMINED WHEN THE NEW PAPER CUTTER WAS ACQUIRED IT MIGHT HELP IN DATING THE PRINT DATE.

[William Palmer]

Jack,

Yes - I am fine. I agree that there is a lot that is not known about
the accurate dating of LBBs. The simplest single factor woud probably
be whether one or two staples. If the theory of a new cutting machine
was a useful factor then all LBBs produced before a certain date would
be slightly smaller (?) and those produced after that date might be
larger (?). Test with ten books (LBBs) at random. My results of this
are that there are no consistent variations with size (length or
breadth) with date as found using other factors. It is true that there
are slight variations in size but these do not correlate well with
these other factors that date the LBBs.

My suspicion is that there is greater variation as the machinery ages
and there is greater 'play' in the machinery so it may be found that
some of the later LBBs are bigger and some are too would be smaller.
Anyway that's another theory !!

Best wishes,

Bill