Publishing History > Library of American Biography (Little, Brown)
Library of American Biography
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company.
Place: Boston, United States. Date: 1954-1988.
Samuel F. B. Morse and the American Democratic Art
by Oliver W. Larkin
Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1954 (Library of American Biography).
Hardback bound in royal blue cloth and gilt text on spine and embossed logo on front panel. Dark blue dust wrapper with white text and white logo decorations. Illustrations.
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY (LITTLE, BROWN)
Series Note: "The Library of American Biography is a new series of biographies written by recognized authorities and intended to provide critical insight into the political, cultural and social and economics in American history." -- "Under the Green Lamp" (column) by Ralph Morrissey, in: The Nashville Tennessean, 28 March 1954, p. 21-C.
"One of the most characteristic traits of the American people is an eager, almost passionate, desire to understand themselves... For the most part, however, it has remained for quite recent students of America to undertake what is beginning to take form as a successful analysis of the nation and its people. Some false starts have been made,... but it is coming to be realized that America is not be understood through its dramatic events and its giants alone. The real clues quite often lie elsewhere, and it is these clues that are apparently being sought in an ambitious new project, 'The Library of American Biography,' under the general editorship of Prof. Oscar Handlin of Harvard University." -- R.F.H., "First volume in 'Library of American Biography' " (article), in "Book Reviews" (column), Springfield Sunday Republican (Sprimgfield, MA), 25 April 1954, p. 46.
The series was originally issued by Little, Brown as hardbacks with dust wrappers and, from late 1950s, reissued as paperbacks. In the years 1990-2007 the series was reissued in turn by Scott Foresman, Harper/HarperCollins and Pearson.
The use of this series as a teaching tool has been discussed in the following article: Raymond C. Bailey, "The ‘Flesh and Blood’ of History: Little, Brown’s ‘Library of American Biography’ Series in the Survey Class: A Review Essay" (Teaching History, 1979)
This series revives the name (The Library of American Biography) of an earlier book series published from 1834, first by Hilliard, Gray & Co., Boston; and later by Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston; and then by Harper & Brothers, New York.
Title / Author
(The following list is of the titles available in the late 1960s.)
Al Smith and His America
by Oscar Handlin
Benjamin Franklin and a Rising People
by Verner W. Crane
Booker T. Washington and the Negro's Place in American Life
by Samuel R. Spencer, Jr.
Bourbon Leader: Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party
ny Horace Samuel Merrill
Charles Evans Hughes and American Democratic Statesmanship
by Dexter Perkins
Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism
by Richard N. Current
Eli Whitney and and the Birth of American Technology
by Constance McL. Green
Elihu Root an the Conservative Tradition
by Richard W. Leopold
Henry Clay and the Art of American Politics
by Clement Eaton
Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition
by William G. McLoughlin
The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop
by Edmund S. Morgan
Samuel F. B. Morse and the American Democratic Art
by Oliver W. Larkin
Stephen A. Douglas: Defender of the Union
by Gerald M. Capers
U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition
by Bruce Catton
William Lloyd Garrison and the Humanitarian Reformers
by Russel B. Nye
Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality
by John Morton Blum
Author: David Paul Wagner