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. The company was located at 100 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York in a 240,000-square-foot (22,000 m2) 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.
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 deckled 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.
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 YorkBartholomew House, Inc., New YorkBlakiston Company, PhiladelphiaCaxton House Inc., New YorkDoubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., New YorkE. M. Hale and Company, WisconsinEverybody's Vacation Publishing Company, New YorkLiterary Classics Inc., New YorkPuritan Publishing Company, Chicago & PhiladelphiaWilliam H. Wise & Co., New YorkThere was no membership fee to join the plan. The subscription cost $16.68 and entitled the subscriber to twelve books each year.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain, 1917Abe Lincoln of Pigeon Creek, by William E. Wilson, 1950Across the Frontiers, by Sir Philip Gibbs, 1938A History of New York & The Sketch Book, by Washington IrvingAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, 1941All Night Long, a Novel of Guerilla Warfare in Russia, by Erskine Caldwell, 1942All that glitters, by Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1941Always A River, by Drayton Mayrant, 1957America Visited, by Dickens, Thackeray and Others; arranged by Edith I. Coombs, 1937Areopagitica and Other Prose Writings, by John Milton; editor William Haller, 1929A Tale of Two Cities & Christmas Carol & The Chimes, by Charles DickensAt the Sign of the Reine Pedauque, by Anatole France, 1931A Time Will Come, by Rachel McBrayer Varble, 1940A Woman is Witness, a Paris Diary, by Ernst Lothar, 1941Away All Boats, by Kenneth Dodson, 1954Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ, by Lew WallaceBernard Shaw, by Frank Harris, 1931Beyond Horizons, by Lincoln Ellsworth, 1938Bless This House, by Norah Lofts, 1955Camille, by Alexandre Dumas, 1937Captain Courageous, by Rudyard KiplingCaptain Of The Medici, by John J. Pugh, 1955Captain Lightfoot, by W.R. Burnett, 1955Caravan for China, by Frank Stuart, 1941Catch the Gold Ring, by John Stephen Strange, 1955Chance, a Tale in Two Parks, by Joseph Conrad, 1921Charlotte and Dr. James, by Guy McCrone, 1956Cimarron, by Edna FerberCities of Refuge, a Novel, by Philip Gibbs, 1937Comedies of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar WildeComedies of Molière, selected by John Gassner; translation by Baker & Miller, 1946Confessors of the Name, by Gladys Schmitt, 1953Conquest of Mexico, by William H. Prescott, 1934Conquest of Peru, by William H. PrescottCoromandel!, by John Masters, 1956Crocus, a Novel, by Neil Bell (pen name for Stephen Southwold), 1937Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond RostandDangerous Ground, by Francis Sill Wickware, 1946Death of a Peer, by Ngaio Marsh, 1940Demelza, by Winston Graham, 1953Devil's Bridge, by Mary Deasy, 1953Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes; translation by Richard Emery RobertsDr. Krasinski's Secret, by M. P. Shiel, 1929Edgar Wallace, the Biography of a Phenomenon, by Margaret Lane, 1939Ella Gunning, by Mary Deasy, 1951Emma, by F.W. Kenyon, 1956English Comedies, edited by John GassnerEssays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Ralph Waldo EmersonExcelsior!, by Paul Hyde Bonner, 1956False Witness, by Irving Stone, 1903Family Fortunes, by Gwen Davenport, 1949Famous French Novels, Seven Modern Condensations, editor Cameron HydeFathers and Sons, by Ivan TurgenevFarewell to Valley Forge, by David Taylor, 1956Favorite Works of Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Walter Scott, 1942Fetish, by Christine Garnier, 1953Flamenco, by Lady Eleanor Smith, 1931For My Great Folly, a Novel, by Thomas B. Costain, 1942Gladiator, by Philip Gordon Wylie, 1930Great Expectations, by Charles DickensGreat Novels of Anatole France by Anatole France, 1918Green Mansions, by William Henry HudsonGulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, 1937Hear This Woman, by Ben and Ann Pinchot, 1951Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor HugoIntruder From The Sea, by Gordon McDonell, 1954Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, 1940Jefferson's Letters, arranged by Willson WhitmanJohn Brown's Cousin, by Jane Hutchens, 1940Jubel's Children, by Lenard Kaufman, 1951Jubilee, by John Brick, 1956Kotto, Being Japanese Curios, by Lafcadio Hearn, 1929Lady Blanche Farm & Queen Anne's Lace, by Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1954Lavengro & the Romany Rye, by George BorrowLes Misérables, by Victor Hugo, 1943Living Biographies of Famous Novelists, by Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas, 1943Lord Vanity, by Samuel Shellabarger, 1955Lorna Doone, a Romance of Exmoor, by Richard BlackmoreLove in the Sun, by Leo Walmsley, 1940Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, 1937Mary Lavelle, by Kate O'Brien, 1936Meet Mr. Fortune, by H. C. Bailey, 1942Mexican Maze, by Carleton Beals, 1931 with Illustrations by Diego RiveraMichael Strogoff, by Jules Verne, 1940Mikado and Other Operas, by W. S. Gilbert, 1929Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, 1940Moonstone, by Wilkie CollinsNana, by Émile Zola, 1937O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1941, edited by Herschell Brickell, 1941Plays of the Greek Dramatists, selections from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, AristophanesPoems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan PoePride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, 1937Quo Vadis, a Narrative of the Time of Nero, by Henryk Sienkiewicz; translation from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin, 1925Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, 1938Road to Endor, by Esther Barstow Hammond, 1940Rob Roy and Selected Poems, by Sir Walter ScottRomola, by George EliotRubaiyat of Omar KhayamSamuel Pepys, by Arthur Ponsonby, 1929Sapho, by Alphonse Daudet, 1932Sara Dane, by Catherine Gaskin, 1955Science of Life, by H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley, G. P. Wells, 1936Selected Stories of Bret Harte, by Bret HarteSelected Writings of Thomas Paine, by Thomas PaineSelections from the Arabian Nights, translation by Sir Richard BurtonSense and Sensibility & Northanger Abbey, by Jane AustenShort Stories of de Maupassant, by Guy de Maupassant, 1941Show Boat, by Edna Ferber, 1926Signed with Their Honor, by James Aldridge, 1942Six Famous French Novels, edited by Cameron Hyde, 1943So Big, by Edna FerberSolomon And The Queen of Sheba, by Czenzi Ormonde, 1955Stephania, by Ilona Karmel, 1953Tales from the Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, 1930Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allan Poe, 1940Tender Victory, by Taylor Caldwell, 1957That Lofty Sky, by Henry Beetle Hough, 1941That None Should Die, by Frank G. Slaughter, 1941The Adventurers, by Ernest Haycox, 1955The Adventures of Baron MunchausenThe Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, 1937The Best Known Works of Daniel Defoe, by Daniel Defoe, 1942The Best Known Works of Elizabeth & Robert Browning, by Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1942The Best Known Works of Émile Zola, by Émile Zola, 1941The Best Known Works of Gustave Flaubert, by Gustave Flaubert, 1941The Best Known Works of Ibsen, by Henrik Ibsen, 1941The Best Known Works of Ivan Turgenev, by Ivan TurgenevThe Best Known Works of James Fenimore Cooper, by James Fenimore Cooper, 1942The Best Known Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, by Nathaniel HawthorneThe Best Known Works of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar Wilde, 1940The Best Known Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1941The Best Known Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1941The Best Known Works of Thomas Carlyle, by Thomas Carlyle, 1942The Best Known Works of Voltaire, by François-Marie Arouet de VoltaireThe Best Known Works of Washington Irving, by Washington Irving, 1942The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, by Marco Polo, 1929The Chuckling Fingers, by Mabel Seeley, 1941The Clairvoyant, by Ernst Lothar, 1932The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles ReadeThe Collected Poems of Walt Whitman, edited by Emory HollowayThe Complete Works of Horace, edited by Casper J. Kraemer, Jr., 1938The Corioli Affair, by Mary Deasy, 1955The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, pèreThe Countryman's Year, by David Grayson, 1936The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard, by Anatole France, 1937The Crime Wave at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse, 1937The Dance of Life, by Havelock Ellis, 1929The Death of Lord Haw Haw, by Brett Rutledge (pen name of Elliot Paul), 1940The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward GibbonThe Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Isabel Ely LordThe Droll Stories of Honoré de Balzac, by Honoré de BalzacThe Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams, 1928The Egoist, a Comedy in Narrative, by George Meredith, 1941The Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb, 1929The Favorite Works of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens, 1942The Feast, by Margaret Kennedy, 1950The Fool Killer, by Helen Eustis, 1954The Foolish Immortals, by Paul Gallico, 1954The 4 Georges, by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1937The Freeholder, by Joe David Brown, 1949The Gentle Kingdom of Giacomo, by Evelyn Wells, 1953The Gypsy In The Parlour, by Margery Sharp, 1954The Hangman's Whip, by Mignon G. Eberhart, 1940The Happy Harvest, by Jeffery Farnol, 1940The History of Henry Esmond, by William Makepeace ThackerayThe History of Tom Jones, by Henry FieldingThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor HugoThe King's Vixen, by Pamela Hill, 1955The Lady Who Came to Stay, by Robin Edgerton Spencer, 1931The Last Days of Pompeii, by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonThe Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin FranklinThe Little Ark, by Jan DeHartog, 1954The Long Memory, by Howard Clewes, 1952The Love Books of Ovid, 1937The Lyric South, an Anthology of Recent Poetry from the South, by Addison Hibbard, 1929The Master of Ballantrae, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1931The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot, 1932The Mixture as Before, by W. Somerset Maugham, 1940The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset MaughamThe Moonstone, by Wilkie CollinsThe Origin of the Species, by Charles DarwinThe Passionate Journey, by Irving Stone, 1950The Peaceable Kingdom, by Ardyth Kennelly, 1950The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar WildeThe Pilgrim's Progress & The Holy War, by John BunyanThe Plays of Anton Chekhov, by Anton ChekhovThe Portrait of a Lady, by Henry JamesThe Proud Man, by Elizabeth Linington, 1956The Queen's Cross, by Lawrence Schoonover, 1956The Red Lily, by Anatole France, 1937The Rest of Your Life, by Leo CherneThe Rifleman, by John Brick, 1953The Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy, 1937The Salem Frigate, by John Jennings, 1946The Selected Works of William Makepeace Thakeray, by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1942The Seven that were Hanged, by Leonid Andreyev, 1931The Shadow Catcher, by Donald SloanThe Short Novels of John Steinbeck, by John Steinbeck, 1954The Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, by Guy de MaupassantThe Ship and the Shore, by Vicki Baum, 1941The Sundowners, by Jon Cleary, 1952The Temptation of St. Anthony, by Gustave Flaubert, 1936The Trouble in Thor, by Jo Valentine, 1954The Two Wives, a Tale in Four Parts, by Frank Arthur Swinnerton, 1940The Unvanquished, by Howard Fast, 1942The Velvet Doublet, by James Street, 1953The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith, 1939The Virginians, by William Makepeace ThackerayThe Warden & Barchester Towers, by Anthony TrollopeThe Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler, 1937The Weather Tree, by Maristan Chapman, 1932The Woman Who Would Be Queen, by Geoffrey Bocca, 1955The World's Great Speeches, edited by Lewis Copeland, 1942The Young Elizabeth, by Jennette and Francis Letton, 1953They Stooped to Folly, by Ellen Glasgow, 1929They Tell No Tales, by Manning Coles, 1942Three Great Novels of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Robert Louis StevensonThree Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, père, 1940Tidefall, by Thomas H. Raddall, 1954Time And Time Again, by James Hilton, 1955Tom Sawyer and Other Sketches by Clemens, by Mark TwainTorch For A Dark Journey, by Lionel Shapiro, 1950Travellers' Tales, arranged by Jay Du BoisTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, 1940Two Came By Sea, by William S. Stone, 1953Valley Of The Vines, by Joy Packer, 1956Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero, by William Makepeace ThackerayWar And Peace, by Leo TolstoyWuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, 1940Yonder, by Margaret Bell Houston, 1956
