Emanuel Haldeman-Julius : Pocket Series and the Little Blue Books

Historical Notes: Chronology of Important Events

A sobering perspective can be gained through familiarity with the timelines and history that encompass our collections. It is with this thought in mind we have assembled this working chronology of important events surrounding the Haldeman-Julius family and its pocket series publications. If you think there's an important event we've overlooked please let us know!.

YearMonth / SeasonDay Event
1887June18 (Anna) Marcet Haldeman born in Girard, Kansas, USA.1,2
1888 Emanuel Haldeman Julius' parents, David Zolajefsky3,4 and Elizabeth Zamustin,5 arrive in the United States of America after emigrating from Russia.6,7 Family changes their last name to Julius shortly after arrival.8
1889July30 Emanuel Julius born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.9
1897 Publisher J. A. Wayland moves the Appeal to Reason publishing effort from Kansas City, Missouri to Girard, Kansas.10
1904/1905 Emanuel Julius, age 15, buys a phamphlet edition of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol at Nicholas L. Brown's bookshop at 5th and Pine Street in Philadelphia. He reads it cover to cover in the park across the street, and speculates "how wondeful it would be if thousands of such booklets could be made available."11
1912November10 J. A. Wayland commits suicide, and ownership of Appeal to Reason passes to Walter Wayland.12
1913August Louis Kopelin becomes managing editor of Appeal to Reason after the resignation of Fred Warren.13
1915October Emanuel Julius joins the editorial staff at Appeal to Reason in Girard, Kansas.14
1916Winter/Spring Emanuel Julius and Marcet Haldeman are introduced by Mrs. Walter Wayland.15
1916June1 Emanuel Julius and Marcet Haldeman marry.16,17
1916November/December Emanuel Julius and Marcet Haldeman legally merge their surnames to Haldeman-Julius.18
1917 Louis Kopelin reverses Appeal to Reason's stance against American involvement in WWI. This, coupled with public fear over association with the socialist movement, causes Appeal to Reason subscriptions to plummet.19,20
1917May26 Emanuel & Marcet Haldeman-Julius celebrate the birth of their only biological daughter, Alice.21
1919January Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius purchase controlling interest of the Appeal to Reason publishing plant22,23
1919February Publication of The Appeal's Pocket Series begins.24,25
1919October Publication of People's Pocket Series begins.26
1919November1 Emanuel & Marcet Haldeman-Julius celebrate the birth of their only son, Henry.27,28,29
1922January Publication of Appeal Pocket Series begins.30,31
1922 Appeal Pocket Series begins using paid-for advertisements in national newspapers/magazines.32
1922April Publication of Ten Cent Pocket Series begins.33
1923September Publication of Five Cent Pocket Series begins.34
1923October/November Publication of Pocket Series begins.35
1923November Publication of Little Blue Book series begins.36
1924January Pocket Series announces release of its 500th title.37
1925June Haldeman-Julius announces publication of Little Blue Books will cease forever on June 30th.38 It didn't, and most agree this was merely a publicity stunt to boost sales
1928 Simon and Schuster of New York publish by The First Hundred Million by E. Haldeman-Julius, "A history of the publishing of the Little blue books and an analysis of the sales statistics of the 1,260 titles"39
1933 Marcet and Emanual Haldeman-Julius legally seperate.40
1941February13 Marcet Haldeman-Julius dies of cancer.41
1942 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius marries Susan Haney42, his secretary.43 She takes the name Susan Haldeman-Julius.
1948 Brothers Raymond and Joesph Lee burglarize the officies of the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company, making off with $40,000,44 alledged kept in a tin can.45 Haldeman-Julius soon finds himself under the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
1948July The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrive in Girard, Kansas to question Haldeman-Julius after his publication of The FBI - The Basis of an American Police State: The Alarming Methods of J. Edgar Hoover..46
1950March22 E. Haldeman-Julius indicted for income tax evasion by a Federal grand jury. Charged with evading $65,000 in taxes between 1944 and 1947.47 He appeals.
1951April18 Haldeman-Julius found guilty of income tax evasion by a Federal grand jury. Discrepancy of some $67,000 in income cited.48 He appeals.
1951January Haldeman-Julius once again announces publication of Little Blue Books will cease forever, this time as of February 10th.49 As before, it didn't.
1951June20 Haldeman-Julius found guilty of income tax evasion by a Federal grand jury. Sentanced to six months in Federal prison and fined $12,500.50 He appeals.
1951July31 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius dies, found drowned in his swimming pool.51
1951August21 Charges are "Docketed and dismissed ... on motion of appellant" by Judges Phillips and Murrah of the United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.52
1954 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius' son, now known as Henry J. Haldeman, resumes publication of the Little Blue Book series.53
1954August16 IRS announces a compromise settlement was reached against E. Haldeman-Julius. $185,022 in outstanding taxes, interest and penalties was settled for $90,000.54
1961 Henry J. Haldeman arrested on obscenity charges55
1963 Henry J. Haldeman convicted of using the mail to distribute obscene literature, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He appeals.56
1965January13 Henry J. Haldeman's ten-count indictment for "using the United States mails to transmit booklets or advertisements of material which were obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent and filthy" is reversed and remanded with instructions to dismiss 57
1978July4 The publishing plant in Girard, used to produce Little Blue Books for over five decades, is destroyed by fire.58
1978Fall/Winter Site of the publishing plant is declared a National Historic Landmark59
1990January7 Henry J. Haldeman dies in Joplin, Missouri, USA.60

Source Citations
1Ancestry.com, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925 (M1490).
2,15,17,18,41,58,59Gene DeGruson, Anna Marcet and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius: An "Afterword" [http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/degruson_afterword.html]
3Sue Haldeman-Julius, "An Intimate Look at Haldeman-Julius", The Little Balkans Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1981-82, Pg. 7.
4,5,29Ancestry.ca, "Saxey Family Tree", Family Group Sheet, [http://trees.ancestry.ca/pt/family.aspx?tid=3610812&pid=-1710888076&pg=0]
6Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 17, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T623 1459; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 326.
7,28Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Crawford, Crawford, Kansas; Roll: 698; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 4; Image: 618.0.
8,46,53Rolf Potts, "The Henry Ford Of Literature", The Believer, September, 2008, [http://www.believermag.com/issues/200809/?read=article_potts]
9Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls.
10Friends of Historic Girard, History of Girard [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Girard/history.html]
11Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, My First 25 Years; Instead of a footnote An Autobiography (1949), Haldeman-Julius Company, Pg. 12-13
12,13,20Spartacus Educational, Appeal to Reason (1949), [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAappealR.htm]
14,16,19,21,22Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, My First 25 Years; Instead of a footnote An Autobiography (1949), Haldeman-Julius Company, Pg. 13
23Tom L. Page, "E(manuel) Haldeman-Julius", Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Page 231
24Richard Colles Johnson and G. Thomas Tanselle, "The Haldeman-Julius 'Little Blue Books' as a Bibliographic Problem", The Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America, Vol. 64, First Quarter (1970), Page 34
25,26,30Jake Gibbs, "Dating The Appeal's Pocket Series and People's Pocket Series", [http://www.haldeman-julius.org/haldeman-julius-resources/dating-appeals-and-peoples/]
27,60Ancestry.com, Social Security Death Index, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Number: 510-16-3152; Issue State: Kansas.
31Dr. Sharon Neet, Tenth Annual Eugene DeGruson Memorial Lecture, [http://library.pittstate.edu/friends/degruson/dml2007.html]
32Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, My First 25 Years; Instead of a footnote An Autobiography (1949), Page 14, Haldeman-Julius Company
33,34,35,36Jake Gibbs, "Dating Little Blue Books", [http://www.haldeman-julius.org/haldeman-julius-resources/dating-little-blue-books/]
37Richard Colles Johnson and G. Thomas Tanselle, "The Haldeman-Julius 'Little Blue Books' as a Bibliographic Problem", The Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America, Vol. 64, First Quarter (1970), Page 37
38Time.com, "He Quits?" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723233,00.html]. Originally published in Time Magazine, June 8, 1925.
39Library of Congress Online Catalog, "The first hundred million", LC Control No.: 28024246, [http://lccn.loc.gov/28024246]
40Kansas State Historical Society, Marcet and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, A Kansas Portrait. [http://www.kshs.org/portraits/haldeman_julius_marcet_and_emanuel.htm]
42Tom L. Page, "E(manuel) Haldeman-Julius", Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Page 232
43Sue Haldeman-Julius, "An Intimate Look at Haldeman-Julius", The Little Balkans Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1981-82, Pg. 13.
44New York Times, "$40,000 Burglary Confessed", April 11, 1951, Pg. 29
45,50,51New York Times, "Publisher Drowns in Swimming Pool", August 1, 1951, Pg. 24
47New York Times, "Haldeman-Julius is Indicted", March 23, 1950, Pg. 54
48New York Times, "Haldeman-Julius Found Guilty", April 19, 1951, Pg. 36
49Toronto Daily Star, "I am retiring from publishing Little Blue Books on February 10", January 11, 1951, Pg. 17
52Public.Resource.Org, E. Haldeman-Julius v. United States of America, 191 F.2d 401, Docket No. 4343, United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit, August 21, 1951, [http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/191/191.F2d.401.4343_1.html]
54New York Times, "Publisher's Tax Sliced", August 17, 1954, Pg. 9
55University of Kansas Libraries, Guide to the Henry J. Haldeman Collection, Biography of Haldeman, Henry J. [http://ead.diglib.ku.edu/xml/ksrl.kc.haldemanhenry.html]
56New York Times, "Haldeman-Julius Faces Difficulty", June 14, 1964, Pg. 84
57Public.Resource.Org, Henry J. Haldeman v. United States of America, 340 F.2d 59, Docket No. 7733, United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit, January 13, 1965, [http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/340/340.F2d.59.7733.html]