Landmark Series Collectible Books

What was the Landmark Book Series and why do we recommend it for today's young readers?

While taking an adventure tour of local book sales I happened upon a series of books that caught my eye. Our Deb's Book Paradise customers know that we don't look for modern bestsellers. You know you can get them anywhere. BORING!! We look for treasures that you can't find in your local box stores if you can find a local box store or even an indie store that will allow you to browse freely during these strange times.

When I was treasure hunting I happened upon a sale that had a bunch of these books in well-preserved quality. I thought about myself at the age when I could read longer books but yet was not ready for the adult version. I fell in love with this haul but wanted to find out more.

Sure enough, and thanks to a google search, what did we do without it, I found a great article about this series. On historians.org the article is Perspectives on Culture: Generation Past, the Story of Landmark Books by David Spear.

Just as I expected he begins the article with: "Once there was a history book series that was so successful, it lured an entire generation of young readers to the discipline, including many of today's professional historians." The series ran from 1950 - 1970 and Random House hired the best authors of the day to write these books. The origin of the series was because Bennett Cerf, a publisher who helped found Random House couldn't find a juvenile book on the topic of Pilgrims while vacationing on Cape Cod. As writers and publishers often do, he created the books he couldn't find.

I grabbed a small bunch of these books to offer to you, my beloved customers. If you are teen readers or the parents of teens maybe these books will be a better option than video games or the latest mind-numbing YouTubes. I happen to like streaming and tik tok, but these things can become a rabbit hole where time is suspended with nothing to show for it. At least with these books the suspension of time can lead to increased knowledge of history and maybe ignite a spark for learning. There is a caveat. Although I don't know if I have any of these, there are some of the books that are definitely not PC in today's climate. If you purchase one of these please let me know. Let's open a conversation about it rather than canceling them altogether.

We are listing these titles as a separate collection. We love them for young readers interested in history written by some of the best writers of the past.