Emanuel Julius was born in Philadelphia in 1889 and as a young adult began working at various socialist newspapers in the United States. In 1915 he came to Girard, Kansas to work on the Appeal to Reason, the nation’s largest socialist newspaper. Shortly after he arrived, he married a local bank heiress, Anna Marcet Haldeman, and the two hyphenated their last names. Haldeman-Julius took over the Appeal to Reason in 1919 and began his own publishing company, and is best remembered for publishing the Little Blue Books, pocket-sized booklets on myriad subjects, billed as a “university in print.” He became wealthy, primarily from the sales of these booklets which he eventually sold for five cents each, and in the mid-1920s started up the Big Blue Books series, as well as several newspapers and periodicals such as the Militant Atheist, American Freeman, and the Haldeman-Julius Weekly. It is estimated that he sold over 500,000,000 copies of Little Blue Books over a thirty year period. Referring to himself as a “debunker,” Haldeman-Julius saw himself as the printer of truth whereas other publishers only told what the government wanted them to print. Never one to stay within the borders or accepted journalism of the time, Haldeman-Julius published many books on sex, birth control, as well as socialism, radicalism, free thought, and atheism. For this reason he was closely watched by the government, and in the early 1950s was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to six months in prison plus a monetary fine. Haldeman-Julius died unexpectedly prior to serving his prison sentence, in an accidental drowning at the swimming pool on his property.

The following photos are of E. Haldeman-Julius, his first wife Anna Marcet, children Alice, Henry, and Josephine, and second wife Sue Haney.