Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing…

What a wonderful journey of remembrance! This series of books had a much wider influence on culture and children than I imagined. It also was extremely useful for a graduate level paper I completed. ( )

In Golden Legacy, Leonard Marcus shows how the development of Golden Books changed the face of children’s book publishing forever because of resourceful people who thought outside the box. For the first time, children’s books were 25 cents, and not $2 or $3. Instead of buying just one book, parents bought twelve. Children had many books at their disposal, and The Poky Little Puppy has since been the best-selling children’s picture book of all time.

Golden Legacy details the history of Golden Books, the authors, and the illustrators that thousands of people grew up with. But Golden Legacy provided, for me, so much more. It details the history of the publishing company (of various names) that published Golden Books through the years, and it even more interestingly detailed children’s publishing in general. I learned how stereotype in illustration became a problem for the company, and illustrations were adapted or redone in the face of civil rights. Finally, in a fascinating way, I learned how children’s books got into the hands of children - and how and why they became best sellers because of marketing and low price.

In the end, I was delighted to see just how children were the true winners.

More detailed review on my blog