WESTERN FICTION -- MINIATURE WESTERN BOOKS IN ORIGINAL DISPLAY CARTON

First editions. Contains one hundred twenty-one 3 1/2" x 4 1/4" copies uniformly bound in color illustrated boards, each copy with 32 unnumbered pages and fully illustrated. The names of the authors are all pseudonyms and all copies are illustrated by either Richard Osborne or Jack Crowe. The titles include Little Tex In The Midst Of Trouble (13 copies); Little Tex's Escape (12 copies); Little Tex Comes To XY Ranch (12 copies); Get Them, Cowboy! (11 copies); The Mail Must Go Through! A Story Of The Pony Express (14 copies); Nevada Jones, Trouble Shooter (12 copies); Danny Meets The Cowboys (12 copies); Flint Adams And The Stage Coach (12 copies); Bud Shinners And The Oregon Trail (12 copies); and The Outlaws' Last Ride (11 copies). Each copy is uniformly bound in color-illustrated boards, stapled at gutter margin & bound as issued, with bright red spines, and nearly all in fine unopened condition All copies housed in the original color-printed folding counter display case. The display carton has the words: 5¢ COWBOY STORIES, The "Swap - It" Books, Assorted Titles." The display carton has minor scuffing and light edgewear, still an extraordinary survivor set. First editions, thus, of 121 volumes in this original counter display for the "Swap-It" Cowboy Storybook series issued by Samuel Lowe in the Big Little Book format. Lowe (1890-1952) was longtime president of Whitman Publishing Co. in Racine, Wisconsin and responsible for much of the concepts and marketing driving the popularity of the Big Little Books, as well as developing the successful relationship with Walt Disney Studios for movie tie-ins. After leaving Whitman in 1940, he set up the Samuel Lowe Co., developed a similar line, and was one of the first packagers in the publishing and comic industries, coordinating artists, editors, designs, and printing to successfully produce books under the Samuel Lowe Co. label. These 5¢ smaller versions were designed to offer children a far more reasonable miniature book than the standard Big Little Book, or Better Little Book issued by Whitman and Saalfield at the time, typically priced 10¢ to 15¢ each following World War II. Crowe (1920-1996) was cartoonist in Racine, Wisconsin who following World War II was a successful commercial artist, illustrated many of the Hopalong Cassidy books, and ran an advertising agency until 1996. His son Christopher Crowe, became the noted Hollywood cinema and television writer, director & producer.…