bet book

In Chicago, 1908, German-born Paul Frederick Volland founded the Volland Company. Originally intending to publish greeting cards that would compete with the European-dominated industry, by 1917 Volland had transformed the company into a nine acre plant that now included calendars, and books for adults and children. Through Volland's vision of publishing high-quality, mass-produced books, his books for children proved to be the most successful. He had limited funds to do so in the beginning, but even so, he was still able to employ the skills of such noted children's book authors as Elizabeth Gordon, Elizabeth Brown Kirkland, Olive Beaupre Miller, and Miriam Clark Potter. His roster of illustrators included M.T. Ross, John Rae of Howard Pyle's Brandywine School, John Gee, and Maginel Wright Enright, the sister of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Volland found its most profitable and beloved author/illustrator in 1916 when it published Quacky Doodles' and Danny Daddles' Book by Johnny Gruelle. In 1918, Gruelle debuted his Raggedy Ann Stories, featuring a loveable rag doll and her adventures. It was wildly popular and spawned Raggedy Andy Stories and other adventures featuring the pair.
In its continued success throughout the 20s, Volland merged with art calendar and greeting card manufacturer Gerlach-Barklow and moved its headquarters to Joliet, IL. However, after the 1929 stock market crash, they found it difficult to stay in business. Quality suffered slightly as they were forced to use cheaper paper and covers in order to cut costs. By the early 30s, not even Gruelle's success could keep the company afloat and they abandoned the book business altogether. Volland's son Gordon did start his own publishing company, known as Buzza and continued to publish books of similar style, but did not take over any of the business.
In order to continue the Raggedy Ann tradition, in 1935 the Donahue Publishing Company purchased the plates from the Raggedy Ann series to reprint them. In 1939, the Johnny Gruelle Company acquired from Volland the plates to the nine original books in the series and continued to reprint them. Raggedy Ann books are still in print today.
II. The Books
In its 25 year history, Volland published cards and Valentines, as well as inspirational books for adults, but their shining achievements were their children's books. Included in these are the small format Sunny Books, the medium format Happy Children Books, novelty books such as Novelty-Peek-A-Boo Books, and Cloth-Art-Toy Books, and the Hug-Me-Toy Books. Those based on more classic stories such as the Nature Children Books and the Fairy Children Books were also well received.
Because of his constant demand for high quality, illustrations were an important part of the process. While the style of the illustrations do vary, most of them seem to favor the simple, clean lines and shapes associated with the art-deco period.
For the above reasons, these books are very collectible in the world of rare children's books. First editions are difficult to tell because of the shifting and merging that went on within the Volland Company and because of the different companies that reprinted the books. This does make something of a difference in price, however, a 13th printing of a particular book has virtually the same value as the 3rd printing. The most sought-after copies of these books are those in their original box (and with dustwrappers if they were published in them). Because these books were intended for children to read and play with, boxes were often discarded or just did not survive, and are therefore, very scarce.
We carry a vast array of books published by Volland in the very best condition, many in their original boxes. Following is a sample.
Here's a list of Volland titles we currently have in stock. Many have their original boxes. We also have other copies of many titles without boxes, Donohue editions and Algonquin editions none of which is listed here. Please contact us if you're interested in purchasing a particular title.