Emanuel Haldeman-Julius

July 30, 1889 (age 62)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

After working for the Philadelphia Evening Ledger as a copyboy, Haldeman-Julius went to New York and was soon a reporter on the Call, a Socialist daily. His work was favorably noticed by Victor Berger, the well-known editor and Socialist politician, who invited him, in 1911, to come to Milwaukee as a feature writer for the Leader. Haldeman-Julius stayed in Milwaukee for a year before moving to other radical papers in Chicago and Los Angeles. In 1914, he returned to New York as Sunday editor and drama critic of the Call. When his senior editor, Louis Kopelin, went to Girard, a small town in southeastern Kansas, in 1915 to help edit the fading but still influential Socialist weekly Appeal to Reason, Haldeman-Julius followed him. The paper's circulation had exceeded 500, 000 at the turn of the century under J. A. Wayland's energetic editorship. (President Theodore Roosevelt had denounced it as "a vituperative organ of pornography, anarchy, and bloodshed. ") But the Appeal's national influence and circulation had waned after Wayland's death in 1912, and its losses were increased by the disarray in the Socialist party that attended the start of World War I. In 1919, Haldeman-Julius purchased the Appeal to Reason printing plant at Girard with a down payment of $25, 000 borrowed from his wife. He immediately began the project that eventually made his reputation, the publication of small (three-and-one-half by five inches) paperback books, later widely known as Little Blue Books. The first two titles, Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol and Edward FitzGerald's Rub iy t of Omar Khayy m, were offered at twenty-five cents each to the 175, 000 subscribers of the Appeal. He simultaneously continued to publish his paper, changing its name to Haldeman-Julius Weekly in 1923, then to the American Freeman in 1929; gradually weaned from Socialism it became mainly a journal of personal commentary and iconoclastic polemics. Haldeman-Julius' first two little books sold rapidly, and he then published a series of fifty classics, including works by Dickens, Burns, Hugo, and Balzac. These books, too, sold well - so well, in fact, that within a year he was able to pay off his entire indebtedness. During the remaining thirty years of his life, Haldeman-Julius published more than 500, 000, 000 Little Blue Books. There were thousands of titles. As his list of books grew and the response to the full-page advertisements that he placed in big city dailies rose the purchase price of a book fell to five cents. Haldeman-Julius was called "the Henry Ford of publishing. " Besides the classics, the other principal categories in his series were books on self-improvement, sex, and humor; tracts on free thought; anti-clerical works (especially those directed against Roman Catholicism); and a wide range of iconoclastic pamphlets. Both he and his wife were freethinkers and prolific writers, and they themselves contributed many books and collaborated on two novels, Dust (1921) and Violence (1929). Among the scores of Haldeman-Julius' own Little Blue Books were Miscellaneous Essays (1923), An Agnostic Looks at Life (1926), and Why I Believe in Freedom of Thought (1930), and a number of autobiographical works. Critics who reexamined his writings in 1960, when a representative collection was published, diverged widely in their reactions. One (Benjamin DeMott) found his work "Third-rate - flat, vulgar, and dull, " while another (Gerald W. Johnson) found it "witty, shrewd, stimulating. " In fact, Haldeman-Julius wrote so much, so hastily, and on such a wide range of subjects that his work was of uneven quality. But his writing on the whole was yeasty and possessed of the verve and flavor of his imaginative, genial personality. Haldeman-Julius also commissioned a number of other authors to do original books. Joseph McCabe, an apostate British priest; William J. Fielding; Vance Randolph; and Charles J. Finger were among those who wrote for him voluminously. Haldeman-Julius thus came to view himself as a popularizer, social critic, and literary missionary, something of a latter-day Encyclopedist, akin to Diderot and Voltaire. His goal was to appeal not to scholars and specialists, but to the ordinary person. He was convinced that there was "a countless host of readers in America who would eagerly receive the best things in literature if books were offered at a reasonable price. " The impact of the Little Blue Books during the years between the two world wars was remarkably potent and, on the whole, beneficent. Although the books were widely read in urban areas, their influence was undoubtedly greater in rural regions and small towns, where adequate libraries were scarce. And their breezy iconoclasm did more to open and stimulate curious young minds than to unsettle less stable ones. While some of his contemporaries expressed strong reservations about Haldeman-Julius' stature as an author and propagandist, few doubted his business and editorial astuteness. On the day after his sixty-second birthday, Haldeman-Julius drowned in his swimming pool. Not long before his death, he had been convicted in federal court of income-tax evasion. There is no substantial evidence, however, to support the conjecture that Haldeman-Julius, depressed by his conviction, committed suicide, and members of his family believed that the drowning, which no one witnessed, was accidental. His body was cremated and the ashes strewn in part over his farm at Girard and in part over the Addams homestead at Cedarville, Illinois.

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius Edit Profile

also known as Emanuel Julius, "the Henry Ford of publishing"

publisher writer

Background

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius was born July 30, 1889, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of David Julius, a bookbinder and himself the son of a rabbi, and Elizabeth Zamost Julius, daughter of a farmer.

His parents were Russian Jews (the family name was originally Zolajefsky), poor, working-class people, who emigrated from Odessa in 1887.

His paternal and maternal grandfathers had both been rabbis, but his own parents were not religious.

Education

Haldeman-Julius attended a Philadelphia grammar school, but dropped out in the seventh grade to work at odd jobs, thereby ending his formal education except for a short course (1918) at the State Manual Training School, Pittsburg, Kansas. (now Kansas State College of Pittsburg).

His exposure to the books and Socialist tracts produced by his father significantly influenced the young man, and he decided to become a writer and to join the Socialist party.

Career

After working for the Philadelphia Evening Ledger as a copyboy, Haldeman-Julius went to New York and was soon a reporter on the Call, a Socialist daily. His work was favorably noticed by Victor Berger, the well-known editor and Socialist politician, who invited him, in 1911, to come to Milwaukee as a feature writer for the Leader. Haldeman-Julius stayed in Milwaukee for a year before moving to other radical papers in Chicago and Los Angeles.

In 1914, he returned to New York as Sunday editor and drama critic of the Call. When his senior editor, Louis Kopelin, went to Girard, a small town in southeastern Kansas, in 1915 to help edit the fading but still influential Socialist weekly Appeal to Reason, Haldeman-Julius followed him. The paper's circulation had exceeded 500, 000 at the turn of the century under J. A. Wayland's energetic editorship. (President Theodore Roosevelt had denounced it as "a vituperative organ of pornography, anarchy, and bloodshed. ") But the Appeal's national influence and circulation had waned after Wayland's death in 1912, and its losses were increased by the disarray in the Socialist party that attended the start of World War I.

In 1919, Haldeman-Julius purchased the Appeal to Reason printing plant at Girard with a down payment of $25, 000 borrowed from his wife. He immediately began the project that eventually made his reputation, the publication of small (three-and-one-half by five inches) paperback books, later widely known as Little Blue Books. The first two titles, Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol and Edward FitzGerald's Rub iy t of Omar Khayy m, were offered at twenty-five cents each to the 175, 000 subscribers of the Appeal. He simultaneously continued to publish his paper, changing its name to Haldeman-Julius Weekly in 1923, then to the American Freeman in 1929; gradually weaned from Socialism it became mainly a journal of personal commentary and iconoclastic polemics. Haldeman-Julius' first two little books sold rapidly, and he then published a series of fifty classics, including works by Dickens, Burns, Hugo, and Balzac. These books, too, sold well - so well, in fact, that within a year he was able to pay off his entire indebtedness.

During the remaining thirty years of his life, Haldeman-Julius published more than 500, 000, 000 Little Blue Books. There were thousands of titles. As his list of books grew and the response to the full-page advertisements that he placed in big city dailies rose the purchase price of a book fell to five cents. Haldeman-Julius was called "the Henry Ford of publishing. " Besides the classics, the other principal categories in his series were books on self-improvement, sex, and humor; tracts on free thought; anti-clerical works (especially those directed against Roman Catholicism); and a wide range of iconoclastic pamphlets. Both he and his wife were freethinkers and prolific writers, and they themselves contributed many books and collaborated on two novels, Dust (1921) and Violence (1929). Among the scores of Haldeman-Julius' own Little Blue Books were Miscellaneous Essays (1923), An Agnostic Looks at Life (1926), and Why I Believe in Freedom of Thought (1930), and a number of autobiographical works. Critics who reexamined his writings in 1960, when a representative collection was published, diverged widely in their reactions.

One (Benjamin DeMott) found his work "Third-rate - flat, vulgar, and dull, " while another (Gerald W. Johnson) found it "witty, shrewd, stimulating. " In fact, Haldeman-Julius wrote so much, so hastily, and on such a wide range of subjects that his work was of uneven quality. But his writing on the whole was yeasty and possessed of the verve and flavor of his imaginative, genial personality. Haldeman-Julius also commissioned a number of other authors to do original books. Joseph McCabe, an apostate British priest; William J. Fielding; Vance Randolph; and Charles J. Finger were among those who wrote for him voluminously.

Haldeman-Julius thus came to view himself as a popularizer, social critic, and literary missionary, something of a latter-day Encyclopedist, akin to Diderot and Voltaire. His goal was to appeal not to scholars and specialists, but to the ordinary person. He was convinced that there was "a countless host of readers in America who would eagerly receive the best things in literature if books were offered at a reasonable price. "

The impact of the Little Blue Books during the years between the two world wars was remarkably potent and, on the whole, beneficent. Although the books were widely read in urban areas, their influence was undoubtedly greater in rural regions and small towns, where adequate libraries were scarce. And their breezy iconoclasm did more to open and stimulate curious young minds than to unsettle less stable ones. While some of his contemporaries expressed strong reservations about Haldeman-Julius' stature as an author and propagandist, few doubted his business and editorial astuteness.

On the day after his sixty-second birthday, Haldeman-Julius drowned in his swimming pool. Not long before his death, he had been convicted in federal court of income-tax evasion. There is no substantial evidence, however, to support the conjecture that Haldeman-Julius, depressed by his conviction, committed suicide, and members of his family believed that the drowning, which no one witnessed, was accidental. His body was cremated and the ashes strewn in part over his farm at Girard and in part over the Addams homestead at Cedarville, Illinois.

Achievements

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius has been listed as a notable editor, author, public by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

The Militant Agnostic (Freethought Library) The Militant Agnostic (Freethought Library)

Studies in rationalism (Big blue book) Studies in rationalism (Big blue book)

The World of Haldeman-Julius The World of Haldeman-Julius

book
- Studies in rationalism (Big blue book)
  (In 1948 the FBI targeted and questioned Haldeman-Julius a...)
- The Militant Agnostic (Freethought Library)
  (With sword and buckler, E. Haldeman-Julius, publisher of ...)
- The World of Haldeman-Julius
  (First edition. Autobiographical work on the founder of Li...)
- Short Works/ Dust
- My second 25 years: Instead of a footnote, an autobiography (Haldeman-Julius publications)
- Dust

Religion

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius wrote books, which were directed against Roman Catholicism.

Politics

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius joined the Socialist Party before World War I and was the party's 1932 Senatorial candidate for the state of Kansas.

Views

Quotations: "I judge a manuscript by only one standard - do I like it myself. "

Personality

A stocky, good-humored, aggressive man, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius bore a remarkable physical resemblance to the actor Edward G. Robinson. He lived, as he wrote, with Voltairean gusto.

Quotes from others about the person

"E. H-J. is a truly amazing fellow, " H. L. Mencken wrote in 1924. "I met him sometime ago with Upton Sinclair. He talks and acts like a Rotary Club go-getter, but he prints many good books. "

Interests

Financial success enabled him to indulge a flamboyant fondness for champagne, big automobiles, and the generous entertainment of writers and artists at his home on a 160-acre farm near Girard.

Connections

In 1916 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius married (Anna) Marcet Haldeman, daughter of a well-to-do Girard physician and banker. She was an aspiring actress, and the niece of Jane Addams, the social reformer. As a concession to his bride's ardent advocacy of women's rights, Julius prefixed her maiden surname to his own, signing himself thereafter as E. Haldeman-Julius. The couple had two children: Alice Haldeman-Julius Deloach and Henry Haldeman-Julius (he later changed his name to Henry Julius Haldeman). They adopted Josephine Haldeman-Julius Roselle. Marcet and Emanuel legally separated in 1933. Marcet died in 1941.

A year later, Haldeman-Julius married Susan Haney, an officer of his publishing company; they had no children.

Father:: David Julius
Mother:: Elizabeth Zamost Julius
Wife:: Susan Haney
Wife:: Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius
Daughter:: Alice Haldeman-Julius Deloach
Son:: Henry Haldeman-Julius

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