110-494: (Redirected from The Golden Book ) The usage of the title Golden Book includes: Golden Books was the children's book imprint of Western Publishing , later Golden Books Publishing and now Random House / Penguin Random House Little Golden Books and Giant Golden Books children's series Golden Book Encyclopedia The Golden Book Magazine ,
220-501: A lead -based alloy which suited printing purposes so well that it is still used today. The mass production of metal letters was achieved by his key invention of a special hand mould , the matrix . The Latin alphabet proved to be an enormous advantage in the process because, in contrast to logographic writing systems , it allowed the type-setter to represent any text with a theoretical minimum of only around two dozen different letters. Another factor conducive to printing arose from
330-838: A New York City real estate investor, for $ 75 million plus the assumption of certain liabilities later thought to be $ 40 million. Bernstein reincorporated the firm as the Western Publishing Group; Western Publishing Co., now a subsidiary, continued to be based in Racine. Bernstein oversaw the introduction of eight videocassettes that featured Golden Books characters in 1985. A total of 2.5 million were shipped. Western developed and produced games under license for Tonka and Hasbro , and developed storybooks containing company logos as promotional items; Bernstein referred to this as "sponsored publishing". In 1986, Penn Corporation, which produced party paper and advertising specialities,
440-514: A compositor into the desired lines of text. Several lines of text would be arranged at once and were placed in a wooden frame known as a galley . Once the correct number of pages were composed, the galleys would be laid face up in a frame, also known as a forme, which itself is placed onto a flat stone, 'bed,' or 'coffin.' The text is inked using two balls , pads mounted on handles. The balls were made of dog skin leather, because it has no pores, and stuffed with sheep's wool and were inked. This ink
550-459: A dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than 20 million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. By the mid-17th century, the first printing presses arrived in colonial America in response to the increasing demand for Bibles and other religious literature. The operation of
660-503: A few by hand-copying . Gutenberg's newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. His two inventions, the hand mould and the movable-type printing press, together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other documents in Europe, particularly for shorter print runs. From Mainz , the movable-type printing press spread within several decades to over 200 cities in
770-650: A few decades. From a single print shop in Mainz , Germany, printing had spread to no less than around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern Europe by the end of the 15th century. As early as 1480, there were printers active in 110 different places in Germany, Italy, France , Spain , the Netherlands , Belgium , Switzerland , England , Bohemia and Poland . From that time on, it is assumed that "the printed book
880-503: A hand press connected to a steam engine ." In April 1811, the first production trial of this model occurred. He produced his machine with assistance from German engineer Andreas Friedrich Bauer . In 1814, Koenig and Bauer sold two of their first models to The Times in London , capable of 1,100 impressions per hour. The first edition so printed was on 28 November 1814. They improved the early model so that it could print on both sides of
990-532: A larger offset press and added electrotyping and engraving departments. Wadewitz was approached by the Hamming-Whitman Publishing Company of Chicago to print its line of children's books. Unable to pay its bills, Hamming-Whitman left Western with thousands of books. As a result, Western acquired Hamming-Whitman on February 9, 1916, and formed a subsidiary corporation, Whitman Publishing Company . It employed two salesmen and, in
1100-654: A leader in craft kits and a manufacturer of laboratory science sets for children based in Chicago, for 100,000 shares of common stock in 1968. In 1970, Western's sales reached $ 171.5 million but net profit fell to $ 3.9 million caused by the acquisition of a computerized typesetting facility and an eleven-week strike. As a result, the Hannibal plant was closed and the number of employees was reduced by 1,500 in mid-1974. Profits rose that year to $ 10.1 million; sales topped $ 215 million. In 1971, Western entered into an agreement with
1210-560: A magazine publishing short fiction that ran from 1925 to 1939 Codex Aureus ( Latin for Golden Book ) are several Gospel books from the 9th through 11th centuries that were heavily illuminated with gold leaf Libro d'Oro (English: Golden Book ) is the official register of the Kingdom of Italy , compiled by consulting heraldry The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius Emperour and Eloquent Oratour (1535), by Antonio de Guevara , translated by Lord Berners The Golden Book of Cycling
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#17327733512701320-548: A major role in rallying support, and opposition, during the lead-up to the English Civil War , and later still the American and French Revolutions through newspapers, pamphlets and bulletins. The advent of the printing press brought with it issues involving censorship and freedom of the press. The invention of mechanical movable type printing led to a huge increase of printing activities across Europe within only
1430-474: A million copies, and more than 400 of the 1,000-plus Golden Book titles were in print in thirteen languages. The 16-volume Golden Book Encyclopedia , published in 1960, enjoyed sales of 60 million copies in two years, while sales of Golden Press books reached almost $ 39 million in 1960. In the same year, the name Western Publishing Company was adopted and common stock was issued with some eighty percent owned by management or employees. At this point Western had
1540-448: A paper mill. However, it was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that an official record existed; witnesses' testimony discussed Gutenberg's types, an inventory of metals (including lead), and his type molds. Having previously worked as a professional goldsmith, Gutenberg made skillful use of the knowledge of metals he had learned as a craftsman. He was the first to make type from an alloy of lead , tin , and antimony , which
1650-421: A partnership with Dell Comics , which also handled the distribution and financing of the comic books. In 1962, Western ended this partnership and published comics itself, establishing the imprint Gold Key Comics . As Murphy explained the split: With regard to a Western-Dell separation, this was by mutual agreement so that each company would be free to explore the potential business in the comics market without
1760-402: A popular Western board game introduced in 1985. Sales fell from $ 118 million to $ 42 million. In fiscal 1991 (ending January 31, 1991) sales had declined to $ 491 million with earnings of only $ 8 million. By late 1991, Western's share price had dropped to $ 9 from a high of $ 28. In 1992, Western celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Little Golden Books publishing a boxed set of
1870-486: A press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing and lent its name to a new medium of expression and communication, " the press ". The spread of mechanical movable type printing in Europe in the Renaissance introduced the era of mass communication , which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured
1980-408: A press in its completed form, with tympans attached to the end of the carriage, and with the frisket above the tympans. The tympans, inner and outer, are thin iron frames, one fitting into the other, on each of which is stretched a skin of parchment or a breadth of fine cloth. A woollen blanket or two with a few sheets of paper are placed between these, the whole thus forming a thin elastic pad, on which
2090-543: A printer at the Racine Journal Company. At the end of its first year sales were $ 5,000 and the company increased its staff of four to handle a growing number of commercial jobs. It installed a cylinder press , two smaller presses, and an automatic power cutter. In 1910, the company changed its name to Western Printing and Lithographing Company after the purchase of its first lithographic press . By 1914, sales were more than $ 127,000. The company installed
2200-466: A publisher of Catholic books, religious greeting cards, and gift wrap, was purchased in the early 1950s. In 1955, a new specialty printing plant was built in Hannibal, Missouri . Western achieved sales of $ 63 million in 1957, the year of its 50th anniversary. In the same year the company acquired Kable Printing Company, a large rotogravure magazine printer. With partners Dell and Simon & Schuster,
2310-431: A reasonably cost-effective duplicating solution for commerce at this time. The table lists the maximum number of pages which the various press designs could print per hour . General: Printing presses: Other inventions: From old price tables it can be deduced that the capacity of a printing press around 1600, assuming a fifteen-hour workday, was between 3.200 and 3.600 impressions per day. This method almost doubled
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#17327733512702420-432: A sheet at once. This began the long process of making newspapers available to a mass audience, which helped spread literacy. From the 1820s it changed the nature of book production, forcing a greater standardization in titles and other metadata . Their company Koenig & Bauer AG is still one of the world's largest manufacturers of printing presses today. The steam-powered rotary printing press , invented in 1843 in
2530-636: A wide variety of games, playing cards, crayons, and gift wrap. Western also had a Canadian subsidiary (established in 1959) and a French company (established in 1960). In 1967, the Justice Department charged Golden Press and seventeen other publishers with illegally fixing prices of library editions of children's books. Each agreed to the terms of a consent judgment forbidding them from submitting rigged bids or conspiring with wholesalers to fix prices of sales to schools, libraries, or government agencies. Western purchased Skil-Craft Playthings, Inc.,
2640-415: Is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth ), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper, or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of
2750-557: Is also credited with the introduction of an oil-based ink which was more durable than the previously used water-based inks. As printing material he used both paper and vellum (high-quality parchment). In the Gutenberg Bible , Gutenberg made a trial of colour printing for a few of the page headings, present only in some copies. A later work, the Mainz Psalter of 1453, presumably designed by Gutenberg but published under
2860-425: Is rolled under the platen , using a windlass mechanism. A small rotating handle called the 'rounce' is used to do this, and the impression is made with a screw that transmits pressure through the platen. To turn the screw the long handle attached to it is turned. This is known as the bar or 'Devil's Tail.' In a well-set-up press, the springiness of the paper, frisket, and tympan caused the bar to spring back and raise
2970-500: The 42-line Bible . After much experimentation, Gutenberg managed to overcome the difficulties which traditional water-based inks caused by soaking the paper, and found the formula for an oil-based ink suitable for high-quality printing with metal type. A printing press, in its classical form, is a standing mechanism, ranging from 5 to 7 feet (1.5 to 2.1 m) long, 3 feet (0.91 m) wide, and 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. The small individual metal letters known as type would be set up by
3080-683: The Children's Television Workshop to produce Golden Books featuring the Muppets of Sesame Street . In 1974, Dell Publishing Company signed a ten-year printing contract with Western worth more than $ 50 million. That same year construction began on a distribution and game-and-puzzle assembly center in Fayetteville, North Carolina . Direct marketing accounted for twenty-five percent of Western's consumer product sales by 1976. This represented seventy percent of total sales. Driven by products such as
3190-548: The Gold Key Comics and Dell Comics catalogs, while Random House gained Golden Books' book publishing properties. The H. E. Harris stamp and coin company bought Whitman Coin Products from St. Martin's Press in 2003 and renamed it Whitman Publishing. On July 23, 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation for $ 155 million and renamed DreamWorks Classics . On July 1, 2013, Random House merged with
3300-568: The Golden Guide nature guides were published with the Golden Press name. Western Publishing Company Inc. owned dozens of trademarks over the years, many of which have now expired. A sampling of Western's trademarks follows. Some like "Golden" for example were registered multiple times for different uses (separated by "/"). Refer to the website cited for a complete listing of all trademarks. Printing press A printing press
3410-588: The Great Depression between 1929 and 1933, Western introduced new products: The Whitman jigsaw puzzle became very popular during this period as did a new series of books called Big Little Books . Brought out in 1932, the 10-cent Big Little Books became very popular with people looking for inexpensive entertainment. The first Big Little Book was The Adventures of Dick Tracy. Western won exclusive book rights to all Walt Disney licensed characters in 1933, and in 1934 established an eastern printing plant at
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3520-603: The Mediterranean and medieval diet . The device was also used from very early on in urban contexts as a cloth press for printing patterns. Gutenberg may have also been inspired by the paper presses which had spread through the German lands since the late 14th century and which worked on the same mechanical principles. During the Islamic Golden Age , Arab Muslims were printing texts, including passages from
3630-693: The Penguin Group , forming a new company called Penguin Random House . In April 2016, the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation (owner of DreamWorks Classics) by NBCUniversal was announced. Historian Michael Barrier has lamented the apparent loss of Western's business records for future use by researchers. With licenses for characters from Walt Disney Productions , Warner Bros. , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Edgar Rice Burroughs and Walter Lantz Studio , Western produced comics based on these characters, as well as original works. The editorial staff at
3740-624: The Qur’an , embracing the Chinese craft of paper making, developed it and adopted it widely in the Muslim world , which led to a major increase in the production of manuscript texts. In Egypt during the Fatimid era, the printing technique was adopted reproducing texts on paper strips by hand and supplying them in various copies to meet the demand. Gutenberg adopted the basic design, thereby mechanizing
3850-642: The United States by Richard M. Hoe , ultimately allowed millions of copies of a page in a single day. Mass production of printed works flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a much faster pace. Hoe's original design operated at up to 2,000 revolutions per hour where each revolution deposited 4 page images, giving the press a throughput of 8,000 pages per hour. By 1891, The New York World and Philadelphia Item were operating presses producing either 90,000 4-page sheets per hour or 48,000 8-page sheets. In
3960-507: The typographical principle , the idea of creating a text by reusing individual characters, was known and had been cropping up since the 12th century and possibly before (the oldest known application dating back as far as the Phaistos disc ). The first movable type was invented by Chinese engineer Bi Sheng in the 11th century during the Song dynasty , and a book dating to 1193 recorded
4070-498: The 1920s and 1930s, Western published a wide range of children's books (puzzle books, coloring books, Tell-a-Tale books, Big Little Books ), mostly under the Golden Books and Whitman Publishing brand names. The Little Golden Books was a very popular series. Lucille Ogle helped develop the format for these low-priced books, which told simple stories and were among the first children's books with full-color illustrations. The first
4180-559: The 30-year-old son of German immigrants , worked at the West Side Printing Company in Racine, Wisconsin . When the owner of that company was unable to pay Wadewitz his wages, Wadewitz took the opportunity in 1907 to purchase the company for $ 2,504, with some of the funds provided by his brother Albert. Knowing that the company needed staff with more knowledge of the business than he had, Wadewitz hired Roy A. Spencer,
4290-678: The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Program, a monthly mailing of recipe cards to millions of customers, sales grew to $ 237.3 million in 1976 with net income of $ 10.8 million. In 1979, Western ceased to be an independent company when Mattel Inc. purchased the company for $ 120.8 million in a cash/stock deal. By the late 1970s, Western was one of the largest commercial printers in the United States. It had four manufacturing plants and two distribution centers between Kansas and Maryland. It boasted of installing some of
4400-552: The Walton Boys, Power Boys , Brains Benton , and Troy Nesbit mysteries. The series, published from the 1950s to the 1970s, also included a number of titles licensed from popular movies and television shows: Lassie , The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin , many television Westerns , and Walt Disney 's Spin and Marty and Annette (from the serial featuring Annette Funicello that aired on The Mickey Mouse Club . The company
4510-525: The West Coast office over the years included: Eleanor Packer, Alice Cobb, Chase Craig , Zetta Devoe, Del Connell and Bill Spicer . Bernie Zuber was an editorial artist, a position similar to that of a production artist , from 1957 until 1982. Oskar Lebeck , Matt Murphy and Wally Green are among those who oversaw the East Coast office. From 1938 to 1962, Western's properties were published under
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4620-583: The Western Playing Card Company after purchasing the Sheffer Playing Card Company. In 1929, Western purchased a Chicago stationery and greeting card manufacturer, Stationer's Engraving Company. Another subsidiary was K.K. Publications, named after Kay Kamen , manager of character merchandising at Walt Disney Studios from 1933 to 1949. K.K. Publications became defunct during the mid/late 1960s. During
4730-514: The annual kite safety title (which featured an array of licensed characters) published over a span of 32 years for power utility companies. Both series had print runs in the hundreds of thousands. In the 1990s, the Western/Gold Key characters Magnus , Turok and Dr. Solar were licensed to Valiant Comics , who published modified versions of the characters to great success. However, by the mid-1990s, Valiant's sales had slumped due to
4840-658: The author was less important, since a copy of Aristotle made in Paris would not be exactly identical to one made in Bologna. For many works prior to the printing press, the name of the author has been entirely lost. Because the printing process ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page numbering, tables of contents , and indices became common, though they previously had not been unknown. The process of reading also changed, gradually moving over several centuries from oral readings to silent, private reading. Over
4950-633: The book existing in the format of the codex , which had originated in the Roman period . Considered the most important advance in the history of the book prior to printing itself, the codex had completely replaced the ancient scroll at the onset of the Middle Ages (AD 500). The codex holds considerable practical advantages over the scroll format: it is more convenient to read (by turning pages), more compact, and less costly, and both recto and verso sides could be used for writing or printing, unlike
5060-596: The books could be sold for 25 cents each. In September 1942, the first 12 titles were printed and released to stores in October. Three editions totaling 1.5 million books sold out within five months of publication in 1942. During World War II , Western had a contract with the U.S. Army Map Service to produce maps for soldiers in the field and it also manufactured books and playing cards which were sent overseas. In 1945, Western acquired another major printing plant, Wolff Printing Company of St. Louis. Guild Press, Inc.,
5170-510: The catalog of United Productions of America (UPA) and book publisher Random House in a bankruptcy auction for the $ 84.4 million on August 16, 2001. In turn, Random House, and Classic Media gained ownership of Golden Books' entertainment catalog (including the family entertainment catalog of Broadway Video which includes the pre-1974 library of Rankin/Bass Productions and the library of Total Television ) as well as production, licensing and merchandising rights for Golden Books' characters and
5280-431: The company but retained his stock. It sold the adult books ( Golden Guide ) to St. Martin's Press in 1999. In June 2001, DIC Entertainment announced they would purchase Golden Books Family Entertainment for $ 170 Million and send them out of bankruptcy. However, DIC would pass off the purchase due to high costs and instead Golden Books Family Entertainment was eventually acquired jointly by Classic Media , owner of
5390-475: The company decided ultimately to run the departments itself. Bernstein wanted to sell Western's products in discount stores and supermarket and drugstore chains and spent $ 20 million to do so. The school book club, started in 1990, also lost money. The net effect was a $ 55.8 million loss on sales of $ 613.5 million for fiscal 1994 (ending January 1994). Three Golden Books Showcase Store locations were opened, which featured only Western Publishing products. The first
5500-575: The company had been acquired by Bernstein from Mattel in 1984. At this point he owned or controlled nearly 20 percent of the common stock, the Gabelli Group held about 17 percent, and Prudential Insurance Company of America owned 8.6 percent. Long-term debt was $ 249.8 million. By mid-1996, under the supervision of ex-Simon & Schuster executive Richard E. Snyder , it was renamed Golden Books Family Entertainment and focused on publishing children's books. Bernstein resigned all his positions at
5610-802: The company sponsored the Story Book Shop on Main Street, U.S.A. , in Disneyland which opened on July 17, 1955, and closed April 1, 1995. In addition it was one of the initial investors in the park by virtue of being a part-owner of Disneyland, Inc. Western and Pocket Books , Inc. formed Golden Press, Inc. at the end of 1958 following their joint purchase of all Golden Book properties from Simon and Schuster. The arrangement called for Western to continue to create and manufacture Golden Books which Pocket Books would promote, sell, and distribute. By 1959, over 150 Little Golden Book titles had sold at least
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#17327733512705720-417: The company's revenue. The company's half-share in Golden Press, Inc. was a problem. It lost money in 1961 and 1962, and, in 1963, its sales sagged from $ 32.9 million the previous year to $ 22.5 million. Western bought Pocket Books' half-share in Golden Press in 1964 with 276,750 shares of its common stock valued at nearly $ 7.4 million. Odyssey took over the sales and distribution of adult Golden Books; Western did
5830-492: The company, Bernstein began a major restructuring of Western. Hasbro Inc. purchased the games and puzzles division for $ 105 million and the Fayetteville distribution center which handled them was put up for sale. Troll purchased the school book club division for $ 4.3 million. Ritepoint and Adtrend, parts of Penn Corporation's advertising specialty division, were sold as was its direct-marketing continuity-club business. Staff
5940-644: The company. Dick Simon , then head of Simon & Schuster, mentioned to Duplaix that he was interested in any new ideas for children's books. Duplaix had the idea to produce a colorful, more durable and affordable children's book than those being published at that time which sold for $ 2 to $ 3. With the help of Lucile Ogle, also working at the Guild, Duplaix contacted Albert Leventhal, a vice president and sales manager at Simon & Schuster, and Leon Shimkin , also at Simon & Schuster, with his idea. The group decided to publish twelve titles for simultaneous release in what
6050-509: The decade's speculative boom collapsing, and the company ceased publishing in 1999. In 2004, Dark Horse Comics began reprinting some of Western's original comic book properties, which by then were owned by Random House , along with Tarzan from the Jesse Marsh era. In 2009, the company announced plans to launch new versions of various Gold Key characters, with former Valiant editor-in-chief Jim Shooter as head writer. Beginning in
6160-415: The detriment of Latin 's status as lingua franca . In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale. The rapid economic and socio-cultural development of late medieval society in Europe created favorable intellectual and technological conditions for Gutenberg's improved version of the printing press:
6270-400: The distinction of being the largest creator and publisher of children's books, the largest producer/distributor of children's games made from paper or paper products, and the largest creator/producer of comic books. Western had operated at a profit every year since 1907, paid a dividend every year since 1934, and seen net sales increase from $ 40.5 million in 1950 to $ 123.8 million in 1960. During
6380-420: The entrepreneurial spirit of emerging capitalism increasingly made its impact on medieval modes of production, fostering economic thinking and improving the efficiency of traditional work processes. The sharp rise of medieval learning and literacy amongst the middle class led to an increased demand for books which the time-consuming hand-copying method fell far short of accommodating. Technologies preceding
6490-537: The establishment of widely disseminated scholarly journals, helping to bring on the Scientific Revolution . Because of the printing press, authorship became more meaningful and profitable. It was suddenly important who had said or written what, and what the precise formulation and time of composition was. This allowed the exact citing of references, producing the rule, "One Author, one work (title), one piece of information" (Giesecke, 1989; 325). Before,
6600-447: The first copyright laws were passed. On the other hand, the printing press was criticized for allowing the dissemination of information that may have been incorrect. A second outgrowth of this popularization of knowledge was the decline of Latin as the language of most published works, to be replaced by the vernacular language of each area, increasing the variety of published works. The printed word also helped to unify and standardize
6710-669: The first copper movable type. This received limited use compared to woodblock printing. The technology spread outside China, as the oldest printed book using metal movable type was the Jikji , printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo era. Other notable examples include the Prüfening inscription from Germany, letter tiles from England and Altarpiece of Pellegrino II in Italy. However,
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#17327733512706820-737: The first heatset web offset printing presses in the US. As well, Western had the largest offset, sheet-fed presses, some exceeding 78 inches wide, printing in five colors, and one of the largest bindery operations in the United States. Among other things, it printed mass-market paperback books under contract, and was the primary manufacturer and distributor of the board game Trivial Pursuit , as well as other tabletop games. It developed and printed specialty cookbooks, premiums, and material for many Fortune 500 clients. At one time, Western printed almost everything from "business cards to billboards", and employed over 2500 full-time employees. The year 1980 saw
6930-468: The first year, grossed more than $ 43,500 liquidating the remaining Hamming-Whitman books. In 1916, Sam Lowe joined Western. He convinced Western and Whitman to publish a 10-cent children's book in 1918 and convinced retailers that children's books could be sold year-round. Western introduced boxed games and jigsaw puzzles in 1923 after purchasing a 38-inch by 52-inch Potter offset press. By 1925, sales exceeded $ 1 million. Western added another subsidiary,
7040-473: The force required by 90%, while doubling the size of the printed area. With a capacity of 480 pages per hour, the Stanhope press doubled the output of the old style press. Nonetheless, the limitations inherent to the traditional method of printing became obvious. Two ideas altered the design of the printing press radically: First, the use of steam power for running the machinery, and second the replacement of
7150-481: The former Fiat factory site in Poughkeepsie , New York. The printing plant allowed a close relationship to develop with the publishers Dell Publishing Company and Simon & Schuster , Inc. From 1938 to 1962 Dell Publishing and Western produced color comic books featuring many of Western's licensed characters. In 1938, the first joint effort between Western and Simon & Schuster, A Children's History,
7260-490: The imprint Artists and Writers Guild Books and sold in general book and toy stores. Western's net sales recovered in fiscal 1992 to $ 552.4 million with net income of $ 13.7 million, and $ 649.1 million with $ 17.5 million net income in 1993. In 1993, Western decided to close the advertising specialty division and took a $ 21.8 million writedown . A further $ 10 million was spent setting up and running bookstores in Toys "R" Us stores;
7370-482: The imprint of his successors Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer , had elaborate red and blue printed initials. The Printing Revolution occurred when the spread of the printing press facilitated the wide circulation of information and ideas, acting as an "agent of change" through the societies that it reached. Demand for bibles and other religious literature was one of the main drivers of the very rapid initial expansion of printing. Much later, printed literature played
7480-536: The late 1970s, after which newsstand distribution was discontinued in favor of distribution to toy stores under the "Whitman Comics" banner. The company stopped publishing comics in 1984, and all of its licenses have since gone to other publishers. Many of these new licensees have included among their offerings reprints of stories originally published by Western. Prior to 1962, in addition to comics published through Dell, Western published some comics under its own name, particularly giveaways such as March of Comics and
7590-830: The launch of the Sesame Street Book Club and the relocation of the Skil-Craft manufacturing plant from Chicago to Fayetteville. Sales climbed to $ 278 million in 1981. Mattel's investment in Western soon soured. In fiscal 1983 (ending January 31, 1983) Western had sales of $ 246 million with an operating loss of $ 2.4 million after a $ 7.5 million charge relating to closing the Poughkeepsie printing plant. Mattel had its own financial issues and, strapped for cash, sold Western in December 1983 to Richard A. Bernstein,
7700-521: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Book&oldid=1254322502 " Category : Set index articles on books Hidden categories: Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All set index articles Western Publishing Western Publishing , also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company ,
7810-469: The masses in the Reformation , and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class . Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto- nationalism and accelerated the development of European vernaculars , to
7920-551: The middle of the 19th century, there was a separate development of jobbing presses , small presses capable of printing small-format pieces such as billheads , letterheads, business cards, and envelopes. Jobbing presses were capable of quick setup, with an average setup time for a small job was under 15 minutes, and quick production. Even on treadle-powered jobbing presses it was considered normal to get 1,000 impressions per hour [iph] with one pressman, with speeds of 1,500 iph often attained on simple envelope work. Job printing emerged as
8030-468: The name was changed to Walt Disney's Magazine and the focus shifted to contemporary Disney movie and television productions. In a similar vein, they printed Gulf Oil 's Wonderful World of Disney premium (1969-1970) which was edited by Disney's George Sherman . During the 1960s, Western published The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls with Cracky the Parrot as its mascot. For many years Golden Press
8140-538: The next 200 years, the wider availability of printed materials led to a dramatic rise in the adult literacy rate throughout Europe. The printing press was an important step towards the democratization of knowledge . Within 50 or 60 years of the invention of the printing press, the entire classical canon had been reprinted and widely promulgated throughout Europe (Eisenstein, 1969; 52). More people had access to knowledge both new and old, more people could discuss these works. Book production became more commercialised, and
8250-589: The page, did not exceed an output of forty pages per day. Of Erasmus 's work, at least 750,000 copies were sold during his lifetime alone (1469–1536). In the early days of the Reformation, the revolutionary potential of bulk printing took princes and papacy alike by surprise. In the period from 1518 to 1524, the publication of books in Germany alone skyrocketed sevenfold; between 1518 and 1520, Luther 's tracts were distributed in 300,000 printed copies. The rapidity of typographical text production, as well as
8360-399: The platen, the windlass turned again to move the bed back to its original position, the tympan and frisket raised and opened, and the printed sheet removed. Such presses were always worked by hand. After around 1800, iron presses were developed, some of which could be operated by steam power . The function of the printing press was described by William Skeen in 1872: this sketch represents
8470-431: The press that led to the press's invention included: manufacturing of paper , development of ink, woodblock printing , and invention of eyeglasses . At the same time, a number of medieval products and technological processes had reached a level of maturity which allowed their potential use for printing purposes. Gutenberg took up these far-flung strands, combined them into one complete and functioning system, and perfected
8580-465: The price of paper to one-sixth of parchment and then falling further. Papermaking centers reached Germany a century later. Despite this it appears that the final breakthrough of paper depended just as much on the rapid spread of movable-type printing. Codices of parchment, which in terms of quality is superior to any other writing material , still had a substantial share in Gutenberg's edition of
8690-459: The printing flatbed with the rotary motion of cylinders. Both elements were for the first time successfully implemented by the German printer Friedrich Koenig in a series of press designs devised between 1802 and 1818. Having moved to London in 1804, Koenig soon met Thomas Bensley and secured financial support for his project in 1807. Patented in 1810, Koenig had designed a steam press "much like
8800-497: The printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium. In Germany , around 1440, the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution . Modelled on the design of existing screw presses , a single Renaissance movable-type printing press could produce up to 3,600 pages per workday, compared to forty by hand-printing and
8910-420: The printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million copies. In the following century, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. European printing presses of around 1600 were capable of producing between 1,500 and 3,600 impressions per workday. By comparison, Far Eastern printing, where the back of the paper was manually rubbed to
9020-522: The printing process through all its stages by adding a number of inventions and innovations of his own: The screw press which allowed direct pressure to be applied on a flat plane was already of great antiquity in Gutenberg's time and was used for a wide range of tasks. Introduced in the 1st century AD by the Romans , it was commonly employed in agricultural production for pressing grapes for wine and olives for oil, both of which formed an integral part of
9130-501: The printing process. Printing, however, put a demand on the machine quite different from pressing. Gutenberg adapted the construction so that the pressing power exerted by the platen on the paper was now applied both evenly and with the required sudden elasticity. To speed up the printing process, he introduced a movable undertable with a plane surface on which the sheets could be swiftly changed. The concept of movable type existed prior to 15th century Europe; sporadic evidence that
9240-505: The printing speed and produced more than 40 copies a day. Printing technology reached its peak at this point. At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born. The outstanding difference between the two ends of the Old World was the absence of screw-presses from China, but this
9350-516: The reliability of trade and led to the decline of merchant guilds and the rise of individual traders. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution , the mechanics of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press were still essentially unchanged, although new materials in its construction, amongst other innovations, had gradually improved its printing efficiency. By 1800, Lord Stanhope had built a press completely from cast iron which reduced
9460-966: The same for children's titles. Western Printing & Lithographing, the largest company unit, accounted for about 40 percent of sales in 1965. Artists & Writers Press, Inc., one of fourteen active subsidiaries, created books for publishers and commercial customers including Golden Books, Betty Crocker cookbooks, the Arts of Mankind series for Golden Press, and the four-volume Harper Encyclopedia of Science for Harper & Row. Capitol Publishing, purchased in 1961, originated and produced educational materials and games for children, as well as toys and novelty products. The Kable Printing division produced over 125,000 monthly magazines, other periodicals, and catalogs. The Watkins-Strathmore Co., acquired in 1957, produced children's books and games, including Magic Slate . Meanwhile, Whitman published nearly every type of juvenile and adolescent books, numismatic books, coin cards,
9570-581: The same period, net profit had increased from $ 3.1 million to $ 7.4 million. In 1961, Western opened another printing plant, in Cambridge, Maryland , and in 1970 acquired several companies, including Odyssey Press, a high school and college textbook publisher. By 1963, 65 percent of Western's total revenues derived from juvenile literature (including games), 25 percent from commercial printing, and 10 percent from books produced for other publishers and miscellaneous activities. Whitman accounted for 35 percent of
9680-599: The schools and libraries. Offices were set up in Wayne, New Jersey, and the reinforced library books were warehoused in Wayne and distributed from that location. There were about 80 sales representatives in the United States under the general manager, Roy Spahr. From the 1940s to the 1980s, Western published several series of books for older children and young teenagers, initially under its Whitman line. Girls' mystery series included Trixie Belden , Ginny Gordon , Donna Parker , Meg Duncan and Trudy Phillips. Boys' series included
9790-491: The scroll. A fourth development was the early success of medieval papermakers at mechanizing paper manufacture. The introduction of water-powered paper mills , the first certain evidence of which dates to 1282, allowed for a massive expansion of production and replaced the laborious handcraft characteristic of both Chinese and Muslim papermaking. Papermaking centres began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy , reducing
9900-399: The self-imposed restrictions which formerly required Western and Dell to work exclusively with one another. In our previous relationship, Western Publishing Co. secured the rights, created the comics, printed them and shipped them out for Dell. Dell acted as the publisher and distributor and did the billing and paid Western for its creatively manufactured products. This imprint continued until
10010-464: The sharp fall in unit costs, led to the issuing of the first newspapers (see Relation ) which opened up an entirely new field for conveying up-to-date information to the public. Incunable are surviving pre-16th century print works which are collected by many of the libraries in Europe and North America . The printing press was also a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could easily communicate their discoveries through
10120-489: The sheet from contact with any thing but the inked surface of the types, when the pull, which brings down the screw and forces the platten to produce the impression, is made by the pressman who works the lever,—to whom is facetiously given the title of "the practitioner at the bar.". Johannes Gutenberg 's work on the printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehn—a man who had previously instructed in gem-cutting —and Andreas Heilmann, owner of
10230-403: The sheet to be printed is laid. The frisket is a slender frame-work, covered with coarse paper, on which an impression is first taken; the whole of the printed part is then cut out, leaving apertures exactly corresponding with the pages of type on the carriage of the press. The frisket when folded on to the tympans, and both turned down over the forme of types and run in under the platten, preserves
10340-492: The spelling and syntax of these vernaculars, in effect 'decreasing' their variability. This rise in importance of national languages as opposed to pan-European Latin is cited as one of the causes of the rise of nationalism in Europe. A third consequence of popularization of printing was on the economy. The printing press was associated with higher levels of city growth. The publication of trade-related manuals and books teaching techniques like double-entry bookkeeping increased
10450-416: The twelve original titles for $ 19.95. Special editions of all-time favorites, and new books by popular artists and illustrators of children's books were also published to mark the occasion. The Golden Little Nugget Book line was introduced and sold more than 1.9 million units in six months. Golden management decided to publish trade books for children for the first time in 1993. These titles were published under
10560-513: The various techniques employed (imprinting, punching and assembling individual letters) did not have the refinement and efficiency needed to become widely accepted. Tsuen-Hsuin and Needham, and Briggs and Burke suggest that the movable-type printing in China and Korea was rarely employed. Gutenberg greatly improved the process by treating typesetting and printing as two separate work steps. A goldsmith by profession, he created his type pieces from
10670-476: Was also the original American publisher of The Adventures of Tintin , issuing six titles in English translation in 1959 and 1960, before discontinuing further releases because of what were considered disappointing sales. In 1937, Western, at the request of Kay Kamen (who oversaw licensing and marketing at Disney), assumed production of the newsstand version of Mickey Mouse Magazine , which, in October 1940,
10780-701: Was an American company founded in 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin , best known for publishing the Little Golden Books . Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products. The company had editorial offices in New York City and Los Angeles, California. Western Publishing became Golden Books Family Entertainment in 1996. Little Golden Books remains as an imprint of Penguin Random House . Golden Guides and Golden Field Guides are published by St. Martin's Press . Edward Henry Wadewitz,
10890-473: Was created in 1932 to celebrate "the Sport and Pastime of Cycling by recording outstanding rides, deeds and accomplishments" See also [ edit ] Golden Brooks [REDACTED] Index of articles associated with the same name This set index article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change
11000-558: Was critical for producing durable type that produced high-quality printed books and proved to be much better suited for printing than all other known materials. To create these lead types, Gutenberg used what is considered one of his most ingenious inventions, a special matrix enabling the quick and precise molding of new type blocks from a uniform template. His type case is estimated to have contained around 290 separate letter boxes, most of which were required for special characters, ligatures , punctuation marks , and so forth. Gutenberg
11110-548: Was in universal use in Europe". In Italy, a center of early printing, print shops had been established in 77 cities and towns by 1500. At the end of the following century, 151 locations in Italy had seen at one time printing activities, with a total of nearly three thousand printers known to be active. Despite this proliferation, printing centres soon emerged; thus, one third of the Italian printers published in Venice . By 1500,
11220-849: Was opened in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois , in November 1992; the second in CityWalk Center outside Universal Studios Hollywood during June 1993; and the third store was opened in Rockefeller Center in New York City during April 1994. They have all since closed. By the mid-1990s, most of its printing plants were closed and its print operations consolidated in Racine. These losses raised Western's debt to $ 250 million; its negative cash flow caused its bonds to be downgraded to junk status. Unable to sell
11330-546: Was published in 1942. Beginning as the "Whitman Famous Classics", and later renamed the "Golden Press" imprint, Western published a series of (public domain) classics, such as Little Women , Little Men , Black Beauty and Heidi . In the late 1960s, Golden Books were bound in the Goldencraft reinforced library bindings and sold to schools and libraries in the United States by a group of independent sales representatives. The library bound books were very popular with
11440-598: Was published. In the 1930s, Western formed the Artists and Writers Guild Inc., located in New York City, to develop new children's books. Western expanded to the West Coast in the early 1940s, opening an office in Beverly Hills to make it easier to do business with studios that owned the characters the company licensed. Georges Duplaix replaced Sam Lowe as head of the Artists and Writers Guild in 1940 when Lowe left
11550-413: Was publisher of Betty Crocker cookbooks. Often these were issued in a three-ring binder format so recipe pages could be removed for easy consultation while cooking. Western produced games such as Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary until Hasbro bought that division in 1994. The company published the children's science books The World of Science and The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments , while
11660-540: Was purchased for $ 108 million. Bernstein took Western public in April 1986 and made more than $ 70 million on his original $ 5 million investment; he retained twenty-one percent of the stock. The company continued to prosper. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 1989, sales were $ 551 million produced earnings of nearly $ 30 million. In 1990, sales dropped to $ 508 million and earnings fell to $ 23 million. Analysts attributed some of this decline to falling sales of Pictionary ,
11770-503: Was reduced by 28 percent. Bernstein continued the concept of developing book sections within stores and introduced 100 Just For Kids sections in Walmart locations which sold video and music along with books. Western lost $ 11.6 million on revenues of $ 303.9 million during the first three quarters of 1994. Its common stock, which had traded as high as $ 21 a share in 1993, had fallen to below $ 10 in April 1995. No dividend had been paid since
11880-437: Was succeeded by the comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories . 1936-1954 Story Parade, Inc. (a Western subsidiary) published Story Parade: A Magazine for Boys and Girls with a children's literature orientation. Then in late 1955, Western initiated Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Magazine with content produced by Disney Studio staff members. It was intended to promote The Mickey Mouse Club television series. Eventually
11990-420: Was then applied to the text evenly. One damp piece of paper was then taken from a heap of paper and placed on the tympan. The paper was damp as this lets the type 'bite' into the paper better. Small pins hold the paper in place. The paper is now held between a frisket and tympan (two frames covered with paper or parchment). These are folded down, so that the paper lies on the surface of the inked type. The bed
12100-504: Was to be called the Little Golden Books Series. Each book would have forty-two pages, twenty-eight printed in two-color, and fourteen in four-color. The books would be staple-bound. The group originally discussed a 50-cent price for the books, but Western did not want to compete with other 50-cent books already on the market. The group calculated that if the print run for each title was 50,000 copies instead of 25,000,
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