Western Publishing

Western Publishing was a large publishing company based in Racine, WI, with editorial offices in both New York and Los Angeles. The company no longer exists. Mattel bought Western in 1982, then sold it off in 1984. Under new ownership, the company was renamed "Golden Books Family Entertainment" and focused on children's books. Golden Books Family Entertainment was bought out by Random House in 2001.

Most people aren't familiar with the name Western Publishing, because everything they published was done under different names. Western's publishing lines includes Golden Books, Whitman Publishing and Golden Guide. They also published comic books as Dell Comics, Gold Key Comics and Whitman Comics.

Little Golden Books
In 1942, Western Publishing began its line of Little Golden Books, which is still running today under different ownership. Little Golden Books are 24-page storybooks with large full-color illustrations on each page. The illustrations dominate each page, often including the book's text within the artwork. Their distinctive size (8" x 6½") and golden spine make Little Golden Books instantly recognizable.

The first set of 12 books, published in October 1942, included popular titles The Poky Little Puppy and The Little Red Hen. As of 2005, 15 million copies of The Poky Little Puppy have been sold.

Western began publishing Little Golden Books based on licensed characters in the late 40's with a line of Walt Disney books, including Dumbo, Uncle Remus and Peter and the Wolf in 1947, followed by Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio and The Three Little Pigs in 1948. Warner Brothers joined the line in 1949 with Bugs Bunny and Bugs Bunny's Treasure Hunt, followed by Bugs Bunny's Birthday in 1950.

Sesame Street joined the line in the early 70's, beginning with The Together Book (1971), The Monster at the End of This Book (1971) and Bert's Hall of Great Inventions (1972).

The Sesame Street line continued through the 1970's with Oscar's Book (1975), Big Bird's Red Book (1977), Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree (1977), and Grover's Own Alphabet (1978). The three 1979 titles -- Ernie's Work of Art, The Four Seasons and The Amazing Mumford Forgets the Magic Words! -- are essentially comic books, with all of the text appearing in word balloons.

Sesame Street Little Golden Books were published continuously through the 1980's and 1990's, with at least one new title (and often two or three) published almost every year. Titles included I Think That It Is Wonderful (1984), The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles (1988), Big Bird Visits Navajo Country (1992), From Trash to Treasure (1993), and Another Monster at the End of This Book (a sequel to the 1971 book, featuring Grover and Elmo) (1996).

In the mid-90's, Little Golden Books published a small line of Muppet and Muppet Babies books, including Kermit, Save the Swamp! (1992), Fozzie's Funnies (1993), Muppet Babies, Be Nice! (1993), Baby Fozzie Visits the Doctor (1995), Muppet Treasure Island (1995), Muppet Babies: Let's Play Peek-A-Boo (1996), Miss Piggy, Queen of Hearts (1997), Ho-Ho-Ho, Baby Fozzie (1997), and Fozzie's Fabulous Easter Parade (1998).

When the Tickle Me Elmo doll became the surprise hit of Christmas 1996, the Little Golden Books cashed in the following year with a batch of Elmo titles -- Elmo Loves You, The Bunny Hop and Tickle Me: My Name is Elmo -- as well as Big Bird's Ticklish Christmas. In another 1997 book, Golden Books combined two of their publishing powerhouses in The Poky Little Puppy Comes to Sesame Street.

The last Sesame Street Little Golden Books -- Big Bird's Baby Book, Elmo's New Puppy, Elmo's Tricky Tongue Twisters and First Steps -- were published in 1998.

In 1999, some of the Sesame Little Golden Books were reprinted as part of Random House's "Jellybean Books" line.