The Book League of America, Inc. was a US book publisher and mail order book sales club. It was established in 1930, a few years after the Book of the Month Club. Its founder was Lawrence Lamm, previously an editor at Macmillan Inc. The company was located at 100 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York, in a office building that was constructed in 1906. It printed and distributed a variety of volumes in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. A victim of the Great Depression, the Book League of America was purchased by Doubleday in 1936.
Products Book League of America printed and published contemporary and classic books. The clothbound hardcover was commonly a dark navy-blue, though sometimes red or black. There was an embossed logo on the front. Depending upon a variety of exposure conditions and perhaps publishing years, the spine cloth faded differently, with some of the spines remaining dark navy, while others turned purple or navy-green. The spine featured book title and author in gold or silver gilt lettering, along with decorative scrolling, sometimes in an art deco motif.
Most of the pages were smooth-cut on the top and bottom edges, and deckle-edged on the outer edge. Some books contained the note: "This book is standard length, complete and unabridged. Manufactured under wartime conditions in conformity with all government regulations controlling the use of paper and other materials." This explains the yellowed or tanning paper condition, more noticeable in some books than others. Some books were illustrated. Many of the books did not include a publish date. Dust jackets were not included.
Services Approximately 5,000 subscribers received monthly fliers that offered a selection from a variety of contemporary and world classic literature choices. "The famous Board of Editors selects for you 2 books each month: the best new book -AND- one of the greatest classics. The Book League of America supplies these 2 books each month at 1/3 of the usual cost!
Some books, published by other companies but carrying the Book League of America imprint, were included in the club sales offerings. These publishers included: A. S. Barnes & Company, New York Bartholomew House, Inc., New York Blakiston Company, Philadelphia Blue Ribbon Books, New York Caxton House Inc., New York Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., New York E. M. Hale and Company, Wisconsin Everybody's Vacation Publishing Company, New York Literary Classics Inc., New York Puritan Publishing Company, Chicago & Philadelphia William H. Wise & Co., New York
There was no membership fee to join the plan. The subscription cost $16.68 and entitled the subscriber to twelve books each year.
Partial list
A A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain, 1917 Abe Lincoln of Pigeon Creek, by William E. Wilson, 1950 Across the Frontiers, by Sir Philip Gibbs, 1938 A History of New York & The Sketch Book, by Washington Irving Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, 1941 All Night Long, a Novel of Guerilla Warfare in Russia, by Erskine Caldwell, 1942 All that glitters, by Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1941 Always A River, by Drayton Mayrant, 1957 America Visited, by Dickens, Thackeray and Others; arranged by Edith I. Coombs, 1937 Areopagitica and Other Prose Writings, by John Milton; editor William Haller, 1929 A Tale of Two Cities & Christmas Carol & The Chimes, by Charles Dickens At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque, by Anatole France, 1931 A Time Will Come, by Rachel McBrayer Varble, 1940 A Woman is Witness, a Paris Diary, by Ernst Lothar, 1941 Away All Boats, by Kenneth Dodson, 1954
B Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace Bernard Shaw, by Frank Harris, 1931 Beyond Horizons, by Lincoln Ellsworth, 1938 Bless This House, by Norah Lofts, 1955
C Camille, by Alexandre Dumas, 1937 Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling Captain Of The Medici, by John J. Pugh, 1955 Captain Lightfoot, by W.R. Burnett, 1955 Caravan for China, by Frank Stuart, 1941 Catch the Gold Ring, by John Stephen Strange, 1955 Chance, a Tale in Two Parks, by Joseph Conrad, 1921 Charlotte and Dr. James, by Guy McCrone, 1956 Christmas Holiday, by W. Somerset Maugham Cimarron, by Edna Ferber Cities of Refuge, a Novel, by Philip Gibbs, 1937 Comedies of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar Wilde Comedies of Molière, selected by John Gassner; translation by Baker & Miller, 1946 Confessors of the Name, by Gladys Schmitt, 1953 Conquest of Mexico, by William H. Prescott, 1934 Conquest of Peru, by William H. Prescott Coromandel!, by John Masters, 1956 Crocus, a Novel, by Neil Bell (pen name for Stephen Southwold), 1937 Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand
D Dangerous Ground, by Francis Sill Wickware, 1946 Death of a Peer, by Ngaio Marsh, 1940 Demelza, by Winston Graham, 1953 Devil's Bridge, by Mary Deasy, 1953 Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes; translation by Richard Emery Roberts Dr. Krasinski's Secret, by M. P. Shiel, 1929
E Edgar Wallace, the Biography of a Phenomenon, by Margaret Lane, 1939 Ella Gunning, by Mary Deasy, 1951 Emma, by F.W. Kenyon, 1956 English Comedies, edited by John Gassner Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Ralph Waldo Emerson Excelsior!, by Paul Hyde Bonner, 1956
F False Witness, by Irving Stone, 1940 Family Fortunes, by Gwen Davenport, 1949 Famous French Novels, Seven Modern Condensations, editor Cameron Hyde Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev Farewell to Valley Forge, by David Taylor, 1956 Favorite Works of Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Walter Scott, 1942 Fetish, by Christine Garnier, 1953 Flamenco, by Lady Eleanor Smith, 1931 For My Great Folly, a Novel, by Thomas B. Costain, 1942
G Gladiator, by Philip Gordon Wylie, 1930 Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens Great Novels of Anatole France by Anatole France, 1918 Green Mansions, by William Henry Hudson Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, 1937
H-K Hear This Woman, by Ben and Ann Pinchot, 1951 Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo Intruder From The Sea, by Gordon McDonell, 1954 Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier, 1936 Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, 1940 Jefferson's Letters, arranged by Willson Whitman John Brown's Cousin, by Jane Hutchens, 1940 Jubel's Children, by Lenard Kaufman, 1951 Jubilee, by John Brick, 1956 Kotto, Being Japanese Curios, by Lafcadio Hearn, 1929
L Lady Blanche Farm & Queen Anne's Lace, by Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1954 Lavengro & the Romany Rye, by George Borrow Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, 1943 Living Biographies of Famous Novelists, by Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas, 1943 Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad Lord Vanity, by Samuel Shellabarger, 1955 Lorna Doone, a Romance of Exmoor, by Richard Blackmore Love in the Sun, by Leo Walmsley, 1940
M Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, 1937 Mary Lavelle, by Kate O'Brien, 1936 Meet Mr. Fortune, by H. C. Bailey, 1942 Mexican Maze, by Carleton Beals, 1931 with Illustrations by Diego Rivera Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne, 1940 Mikado and Other Operas, by W. S. Gilbert, 1929 Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, 1940 Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
N-R Nana, by Émile Zola, 1937 O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1941, edited by Herschell Brickell, 1941 Plays of the Greek Dramatists, selections from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, 1937 Quo Vadis, a Narrative of the Time of Nero, by Henryk Sienkiewicz; translation from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin, 1925 Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, 1938 Road to Endor, by Esther Barstow Hammond, 1940 Rob Roy and Selected Poems, by Sir Walter Scott Romola, by George Eliot Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam
S Samuel Pepys, by Arthur Ponsonby, 1929 Sapho, by Alphonse Daudet, 1932 Sara Dane, by Catherine Gaskin, 1955 Science of Life, by H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley, G. P. Wells, 1936 Selected Stories of Bret Harte, by Bret Harte Selected Writings of Thomas Paine, by Thomas Paine Selections from the Arabian Nights, translation by Sir Richard Burton Sense and Sensibility & Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen Short Stories of de Maupassant, by Guy de Maupassant, 1941 Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, by W. Somerset Maugham Show Boat, by Edna Ferber, 1926 Signed with Their Honor, by James Aldridge, 1942 Six Famous French Novels, edited by Cameron Hyde, 1943 So Big, by Edna Ferber Solomon And The Queen of Sheba, by Czenzi Ormonde, 1955 Stephania, by Ilona Karmel, 1953
T Tales from the Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, 1930 Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allan Poe, 1940 Tender Victory, by Taylor Caldwell, 1957 That Lofty Sky, by Henry Beetle Hough, 1941 That None Should Die, by Frank G. Slaughter, 1941 The Adventurers, by Ernest Haycox, 1955 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, 1937 The Best Known Works of Daniel Defoe, by Daniel Defoe, 1942 The Best Known Works of Elizabeth & Robert Browning, by Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1942 The Best Known Works of Émile Zola, by Émile Zola, 1941 The Best Known Works of Gustave Flaubert, by Gustave Flaubert, 1941 The Best Known Works of Ibsen, by Henrik Ibsen, 1941 The Best Known Works of Ivan Turgenev, by Ivan Turgenev The Best Known Works of James Fenimore Cooper, by James Fenimore Cooper, 1942 The Best Known Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Best Known Works of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar Wilde, 1940 The Best Known Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1941 The Best Known Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1941 The Best Known Works of Thomas Carlyle, by Thomas Carlyle, 1942 The Best Known Works of Voltaire, by François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire The Best Known Works of Washington Irving, by Washington Irving, 1942 The Best Known Works of William Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, by Marco Polo, 1929 The Chuckling Fingers, by Mabel Seeley, 1941 The Clairvoyant, by Ernst Lothar, 1932 The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade The Collected Poems of Walt Whitman, edited by Emory Holloway The Complete Works of Horace, edited by Casper J. Kraemer Jr., 1938 The Corioli Affair, by Mary Deasy, 1955 The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, père The Countryman's Year, by David Grayson, 1936 The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard, by Anatole France, 1937 The Crime Wave at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse, 1937 The Dance of Life, by Havelock Ellis, 1929 The Death of Lord Haw Haw, by Brett Rutledge (pen name of Elliot Paul), 1940 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Isabel Ely Lord The Droll Stories of Honoré de Balzac, by Honoré de Balzac The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams, 1928 The Egoist, a Comedy in Narrative, by George Meredith, 1941 The Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb, 1929 The Favorite Works of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens, 1942 The Feast, by Margaret Kennedy, 1950 The Fool Killer, by Helen Eustis, 1954 The Foolish Immortals, by Paul Gallico, 1954 The 4 Georges, by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1937 The Freeholder, by Joe David Brown, 1949 The Gentle Kingdom of Giacomo, by Evelyn Wells, 1953 The Gypsy In The Parlour, by Margery Sharp, 1954 The Hangman's Whip, by Mignon G. Eberhart, 1940 The Happy Harvest, by Jeffery Farnol, 1940 The History of Henry Esmond, by William Makepeace Thackeray The History of Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo The King's Vixen, by Pamela Hill, 1955 The Lady Who Came to Stay, by Robin Edgerton Spencer, 1931 The Last Days of Pompeii, by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton The Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin The Little Ark, by Jan DeHartog, 1954 The Long Memory, by Howard Clewes, 1952 The Love Books of Ovid, 1937