In 1924, Harold Gray created Little Orphan Annie for the Chicago Tribune. The title, suggested by an editor at the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, was inspired by James Whitcomb Riley’s popular 1885 poem “Little Orphant Annie.”
LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE AND JUMBO, THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT
The story formula was simple: rags to riches and back again, with a healthy dollop of homespun philosophy made up of grit, cheer, self-reliance, and good ol’ pluck.
When looking at books it helps to know the parts of book mentioned in its description.
Diagram of a Book
Book Cover or Book Board: The front and back covers are sometimes called the books boards.
Boards: The material used in the covers of hardbound books composed of stiff cardboard or a similar material.
Endpapers: These are first & last leaves found in a hardbound book. Half of each endpaper is pasted onto the inside of one of the covers & the other half joins that cover to the textblock. (The inside pages that make up a book are sometimes referred to as the Text block or book block.) The part of the endpaper which is pasted to a cover is called the Pastedown Endpaper, and the unattached half is called the Loose Endpaper.
Fore Edge: The collective edges of all the leaves opposite the spine or bound edge of a book. (Sometimes it is painted or gilded on higher end books.)
Headband: A decorative cloth band, sometimes colored or multi-colored, appearing inside the back strip at the top (and sometimes bottom) of the spine of a book.
Hinge: The flexible channel where the paste-down endpaper meets the free endpaper is the visually evident location of a hinge in an intact book. The entirety of the hinge, in both hand & machine bound books, is concealed behind the endpapers.
Joint: The Joint is a small groove where the books boards are attached to the book and bends when the book is opened. (The exterior junction of the covers and spine of a book, also known as the gutter.)
Paste-Down Endpaper: The portion of the endpaper pasted to the inside of a book’s cover.
Raised Bands: Some books have raised areas on the spine. In earlier leather books, they were the result of cords underneath the cover material that held the books covers on. In some modern books the raised bands are purely decorative and conceal no underlying cord.
Spine: The part of a book’s cover which wraps over the back of the book. (also called the Backstrip or Spine Cover) The surface of a book that usually faces outward when a book sits on a shelf.
Tail: The Tail is the bottom part of the book.