The History of JLG
The Junior Library Guild (JLG) began in June 1929 as a children’s version of the Literary Guild, a book club that had been distributing selected current books to adults since 1927. Called the Junior Literary Guild at the time, the club initially centered on individual members. Children received the books directly, wore membership pins, and often formed reading clubs. The Junior Guild’s monthly magazine, Young Wings, included poems, features about the books and their authors, and letters from readers.
Here is what Bertina of Cranford, New Jersey, wrote in response to receiving the first three selections: “The Beckoning Road is lovely. I have not quite finished it as my mother lent it to a sick friend of ours. I’m so glad I can have my own books every month because some of the books you send mother she will not allow me to read. After school is over, I expect to have time to make a bookshelf for my own books, and if it is good enough I might be able to make some more and sell them, and in that way make enough to pay for next year’s books. I love detective and murder stories, but I do not like ‘goody goody’ stories with helpful endings. P.S. I shall tell all my friends about the books.”
“My Junior Guild year has surely been a grand success,” wrote Ann from Scarsdale, New York. “It has added to my library not just books, but books which gave me new thoughts and new ideas.”
Some of the children wrote about their Junior Guild pins as well as the books they had read: “I belong to your club and like it very much,” wrote Marvin in Milwaukee. ”I wear your pin every day and all the boys want to see it.” Adele of Long Island lost her pin: “I have been wearing my pin proudly every day. I love it. But today (oh, where were my stars?) I somehow or other managed to lose it. It would be impossible for me to find it, as I went to three different villages, into department and grocery stores. I have searched the automobile thoroughly and although I’m fourteen, I had to cry. Could you please, please, send me another? I suppose I’m asking too much, but I miss it so dreadfully!”
Soon after the Junior Literary Guild’s inception, librarians began inquiring about subscriptions. By the 1950s, the majority of subscribers were school and public libraries, and the change of name to Junior Library Guild in 1988 reflected that market.
The chief criterion for selection for Junior Guild has remained the same over the years: books that provide a satisfying reading experience for children at progressive age levels. Initially, JLG had three groups—books for younger children, for older girls, and for older boys. There are now twenty-eight different levels ranging from preschool through high school, none of which is gender specific.
Throughout its seventy-five years, the editorial management of the Junior Guild has passed through just a few hands. Carl Van Doren—writer, editor, teacher—briefly held the position of editor in chief followed by Helen Ferris, who came to JLG in August of 1929 and stayed until 1960. Ann Durell, formerly of Doubleday’s Junior Books Department, was head for only two years, but her successor, Thérèse Doumenjou, who had served in many capacities on the staff before becoming editor in chief, had in all a nearly fifty year association with the Guild.
