The Vanguard Press was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array of books on radical topics, including studies of the Soviet Union, socialist theory, and politically oriented fiction by a range of writers. The press ultimately received a total of $155,000 from the Garland Fund, which separated itself and turned the press over to its publisher, James Henle. Henle became sole owner in February 1932.
Eschewing radical politics after 1929, the Vanguard Press operated as a respected independent literary house for 62 years. Its catalog of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and children's literature included the first books of Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Marshall McLuhan, Joyce Carol Oates and Dr. Seuss. With a valuable backlist of 500 titles, the company was sold to Random House in October 1988.
In his history of book publishing, Between Covers (1987), John Tebbel wrote, "Vanguard never became a large and important house, but it continued to publish quality books year after year."
Institutional history
Establishment
The May 1926 meeting of the directors of the American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund, allocated $100,000 to establish the Vanguard Press. The new publisher was intended to reissue left-wing classics at an affordable cost and to provide an outlet for the publication of new titles otherwise deemed "unpublishable" by the commercial press of the day. The initial officers and directors of the new publishing house included Jacob Baker, Roger Baldwin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Clinton Golden, Louis Kopelin, Bertha Mailly, Scott Nearing and Rex Stout. Stout accepted the post of president and held it until 1928, when the Garland Fund ended its subsidy and James Henle became president.
The Vanguard Press emulated the Little Leather Library, the first company to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States, and the Little Blue Books of Emanuel Haldeman-Julius. Vanguard depicted itself in promotional advertising as "destined to be the Ford of Book Publishing" through its inexpensive offerings of "all the grand old idol breakers."
In June 1926, the new publisher made an offer to sundry "labor and liberal organizations", offering to finance half the cost of publishing any book of "permanent educational value", whether it be an original manuscript or a reprint of an existing title. Vanguard Press would print a run of 2,000 copies, with the issuing organization paying for only 1,000 at 25 cents a copy, leaving Vanguard to sell the other 1,000.
Vanguard raised its prices over time but still remained an economical source of hardcover books. By 1928 the standard price for Vanguard titles, such as the books of the series entitled "Studies of Soviet Russia" and "Current Questions", was 75 cents per copy. The series on "American Imperialism" edited by Harry Elmer Barnes and launched in 1928 bore a cover price of $1.00 per copy. In 1927 Vanguard published a collection of H.G. Wells's writings (Wells' Social Anticipations), edited by Harry W. Laidler. Vanguard also published the 1927 edition of the American Labor Year Book on behalf of the Socialist Party-affiliated Rand School of Social Science, which sold for $1.50.
The Garland Fund ultimately supported Vanguard Press to the extent of $155,000.
The publishing house of Macy-Masius was merged into the Vanguard Press in June 1928. For a short time the company operated under the joint direction of George Macy, president of Macy-Masius, and Jacob Baker, Vanguard's managing director.
With the onset of the Great Depression after 1929, Vanguard Press steadily moved away from radical political publications and toward more mainstream literary titles as well as apolitical titles of topical interest, such as studies of Charles Lindbergh and organized crime in Chicago.
Vanguard maintained its offices on Fifth Avenue in New York City, initially occupying space at 80 Fifth Avenue before moving to 100 Fifth Avenue in 1928. In the mid-1930s the firm moved to a new building in New York City, located at 424 Madison Avenue.