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	The Wonders of Whitman Publishing Western Printing, and Whitman Publishing started with humble beginnings in 1907 by Edward Wadewitz purchasing the West Side Printing Co. of Racine Wisconsin because he was owed wages by that Co. that they could not pay. The selling price was $2504.00. The newly managed company took of, and by 1910 purchased a Lithographic press and changed the business name to Western Printing and Lithographing Co. By 1916 the company had occupied six floors of a large racine building and had gross sales of $127,000. At that time Mr. Wadewitz was asked to print childrens books for company called Hamming-Whitman. Again fate intervened when Hamming-Whitman could not pay there bills and went out of business with Western holding a pile of childrens books. Western Printing was successful at selling the inventory of children's books and in 1916 purchased the Hamming-Whitman Co. They then created a subsidary co. called Whitman Publishing Co. In 1918 another building was nesessary and by 1928 a new plant was built. By then Western Printing had branched into children's Books, Games, Puzzles and Playing Cards and sales reached 2.4 million. From sales of $5,000 in 1907 to 2.4 million in 1928 is quite a business feat from humble beginnings. In 1929 a Stationary and Greeting Card division was started. In 1932 the ten cent Big Little Books started being published, and along with popular Whitman Puzzles kept the Company afoat during the depression. In 1933 Western Printing signed a contract With Disney giving Western Printing/Whitman Publishing exclusive rights to major Disney Charactors. In 1934 Western became closely involved with Dell Publishing and Color Comic books. Also in that year the relationship with Simon and Schuster was initiated and was the kick off for later Little Golden Books. A major development at that time was the Western creation of the Artists and Writers Guild with George Duplaix heading that organization by 1940. Mr. Duplaix started talks with Simon and Schuster inc for a durable, attractive and affordable children's book. By September 1942 the first twelve Little Golden Book titles were published. The first twelve books were released with 42 pages and a .25 cent price. The first twelve ever popular titles are, 1.]Three Little kittens, 2.]Bedtime Stories, 3.]The Alphabet A-Z, 4.] Mother Goose, 5.] Prayers for Children, 6.]The Little Red Hen, 7.]Nursery Songs, 8.]The Poky Little Puppy, 9.]The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, 10.]Baby's Book, 11.]The animals of Farmer Jones, 12.]This Little Piggy. within the first 5 months of publishing 1.5 million copies of the first 12 titles were in print and were in there third print run. The first 35 titles were released numbered 1-35 with Blue Bindings and Dust Jackets. These complete early 35 are real tresures to find. Little Golden books went from .25 to .29 in 1962, went to .39 in 1968, continued to .59 in 1977, then to .89 in 1982, then to .99 in 1986. The average cost today is about 2.99. The Little Golden books can be aged somewhat with use of price, Book Number although the later numbers are not always issued in order, Also getting an idea of age from book edition and printing. The telling editions of older books can be done by looking for letters on the back page lower right hand corner next to the binding, with A being a first up to Z being 26th and AA being 27th on up. The next newer books will have something like abcdef or ABCDEF on the one of the first two front pages. The first letter to the far left side is the edition. Little Golden Books issurd after 1991 no longer will have the letter edition designation. Some other hints of age are the graphics used, The style of back cover, and if a bar code is present. As with all paper collectibles condition means everything when giving value. and as a seller or buyer you need to give strict attention to condition. If you consider 100% of value for a true mint condition book, that same title drops in value 50% in Good condition and 75% for fair condition. A good grade could be considered your average condition book. little golden Books vary greatly in value based on Title, Illustrator, Edition & Printing, General condition, and Local Demand A have to have referance book for the collecting of Little golden books is Steve Santi's Book Collecting Little Golden Books. some of the information used in this article was gathered from his book. | Return Home | What's New | Purchasing Information | Book Repairs | Book Learning | Illustrated Children's Books | Early Reader Books | Juvenile Series Books | The Fiction Books | Non-Fiction Books | Great Links | Contact Us |

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