The Girls' Friend Library

The introduction and list below were kindly Supplied by Dr Nandu Thalange. If you can provide further information on this publication or front cover scans then please contact me.

“The Girls’ Friend Library" is little remembered now, and even with the resources of the modern age, it has proved an immensely difficult task to research into it; even  to establish the story titles, has been a challenge.  The list below has many gaps, and if anyone can supply some of the missing information, it would be hugely appreciated.  Like its brother, the much better known Boys’ Friend Library, it was born as a vehicle for reprinting stories that originally appeared in the Girl’s Friend and other girls’ story papers in the Amalgamated Press stable.   It first appeared in November 1906, with a new story appearing every month, under the editorship of AP Director, Hamilton Edwards (also editor of the girls’ Friend).  Gradually, the number of stories produced each month increased to four.

The first few stories had lovely line drawn illustrations, but this was replaced by a very plain (but “tasteful”) wrapper, very quickly.  The books were initially 120 pages long but as the Great War took its toll, the page numbers shrunk progressively to 64, and the price increased to 4d.  In 1921 the plain but tasteful pink cover was replaced with a lovely blue illustration, printed on pink paper.  The first series of the GFL lasted for 578 issues, before a new series was launched in May 1925 (as was the case with several other AP pocket libraries at that time).  The new series retained the blue illustration for a time, but by 1932,  attractive coloured covers had replaced them.  Around this time the page count went up to 96, and many, if not most of the GFLs also had an additional short story at the end.  The GFL finally perished in June 1940 with issue 728 – a victim of wartime paper shortages, and now is almost completely forgotten.  Even the British Library has almost no records of the GFL.

The authors are largely unknown to me, and precious little information is available about them.  Interestingly, the majority of authors were men, at least in the first series.  Even when the author’s name is a woman’s, it was still a man who wrote it, more often than not.  The most famous author during the first series was Mabel St. John – in fact it was Henry St John Cooper, a well-known author of Boys’ stories, but apparently a much more prolific writer for girls.  His creation, the delightful Pollie Green was hugely popular in the Edwardian period, many of the stories being reprinted twice in the GFL.  Another stalwart of the first series was William E Groves, who I think was Canadian, and who in addition to girls’ stories, also penned a few stories for boys, as well as being a playwright of some repute.  Mrs de Winter-Baker was an early GFL author.  I know nothing of her, but a Doctor de Winter-Baker was a distinguished physician of the age – husband and wife, or just another man pretending to be a woman, perhaps?  Again, anyone willing to furnish further information on any of the authors would be most appreciated.

The stories themselves are what attracted me to the GFL.  They possess an ineffable charm, and have a gentleness, dignity and decorum that seems to be utterly lost in our modern world.  I’m afraid there will be nothing here to please the salacious mind.  Of course, as time went on, the stories did become more modern, and – for me – less charming, but doubtless was a reflection of what the readers wanted.”