# Landmark Books (series)

Landmark Books was a children's book series published by Random House from 1950 to 1970, featuring stories of significant people and events in American history written by popular authors at the time. The series expanded in 1953 to include world history as a sub-series called World Landmark Books, and a second sub-series of larger-format books illustrated with color artwork or black and white photographs was introduced in the 1960s as Landmark Giant, which would continue releasing new titles beyond the end of the main series until 1974. Select titles from the American and World series were reissued in paperback from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
Volumes in the initial run of the American, World, and Giant series were numbered, and a list of titles was printed on the inside of each book's dust jacket. The series would grow to include 122 American, 63 World, and 25 Giant volumes by noted authors like C. S. Forester, Robert Penn Warren, Pearl S. Buck, Quentin Reynolds, MacKinlay Kantor, Shirley Jackson, Daniel J. Boorstin, and many others.
A blurb printed on the jacket of later entries in the series by Millicent Taylor, former Education Editor for The Christian Science Monitor, described the Landmark Books as being intended for ages ten to fifteen, uniformly under 200 pages, and illustrated with maps and drawings.
David Spear, writing in the American Historical Association's news magazine, says that the series "lured an entire generation of young readers" to the history discipline, "including many of today's professional historians."

## List of titles and authors

| # | Title | Author | Year |
| 1 | The Voyages of Christopher Columbus | Armstrong Sperry | 1950 |
| 2 | The Landing of the Pilgrims | James Daugherty | 1950 |
| 3 | Pocahontas and Captain John Smith | Marie Lawson | 1950 |
| 4 | Paul Revere and the Minute Men | Dorothy Canfield Fisher | 1950 |
| 5 | Our Independence and the Constitution | Dorothy Canfield Fisher | 1950 |
| 6 | The California Gold Rush | May McNeer | 1950 |
| 7 | The Pony Express | Samuel Hopkins Adams | 1950 |
| 8 | Lee and Grant at Appomattox | MacKinlay Kantor | 1950 |
| 9 | The Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad | Adele Gutman Nathan | 1950 |
| 10 | The Wright Brothers | Quentin Reynolds | 1950 |
| 11 | Prehistoric America | Anne Terry White | 1951 |
| 12 | The Vikings | Elizabeth Janeway | 1951 |
| 13 | The Santa Fe Trail | Samuel Hopkins Adams | 1951 |
| 14 | The Story of the U.S. Marines | George Hunt | 1951 |
| 15 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition | Richard L. Neuberger | 1951 |
| 16 | The Monitor and the Merrimac | Fletcher Pratt | 1951 |
| 17 | The Explorations of Pere Marquette | Jim Kjelgaard | 1951 |
| 18 | The Panama Canal | Bob Considine | 1951 |
| 19 | The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans | Robert Tallant | 1951 |
| 20 | Custer's Last Stand | Quentin Reynolds | 1951 |
| 21 | Daniel Boone | John Mason Brown | 1952 |
| 22 | Clipper Ship Days | John Jennings | 1952 |
| 23 | Gettysburg | MacKinlay Kantor | 1952 |
| 24 | The Louisiana Purchase | Robert Tallant | 1952 |
| 25 | Wild Bill Hickok Tames the West | Stewart H. Holbrook | 1952 |
| 26 | Betsy Ross and the Flag | Jane Mayer | 1952 |
| 27 | The Conquest of the North and South Poles | Russell Owen | 1952 |
| 28 | Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia | Margaret Cousins | 1952 |
| 29 | Trappers and Traders of the Far West | James Daugherty | 1952 |
| 30 | Mr. Bell Invents the Telephone | Katherine B. Shippen | 1952 |
| 31 | The Barbary Pirates | C. S. Forester | 1953 |
| 32 | Sam Houston, the Tallest Texan | William Johnson | 1953 |
| 33 | The Winter at Valley Forge | Van Wyck Mason | 1953 |
| 34 | The Erie Canal | Samuel Hopkins Adams | 1953 |
| 35 | Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo | Ted Lawson and Bob Considine | 1953 |
| 36 | Thomas Jefferson, Father of Democracy | Vincent Sheean | 1953 |
| 37 | The Coming of the Mormons | Jim Kjelgaard | 1953 |
| 38 | George Washington Carver, the Story of a Great American | Anne Terry White | 1953 |
| 39 | John Paul Jones, Fighting Sailor | Armstrong Sperry | 1953 |
| 40 | The First Overland Mail | Robert Pinkerton | 1953 |
| 41 | Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders | Henry Castor | 1954 |
| 42 | To California by Covered Wagon | George R. Stewart | 1954 |
| 43 | Peter Stuyvesant of Old New York | Anna Erskine Crouse and Russel Crouse | 1954 |
| 44 | Lincoln and Douglas: The Years of Decision | Regina Z. Kelly | 1954 |
| 45 | Robert Fulton and the Steamboat | Ralph Nading Hill | 1954 |
| 46 | The F.B.I. | Quentin Reynolds | 1954 |
| 47 | Dolly Madison | Jane Mayer | 1954 |
| 48 | John James Audubon | Margaret Kieran and John Kieran | 1954 |
| 49 | Hawaii, Gem of the Pacific | Oscar Lewis | 1954 |
| 50 | War Chief of the Seminoles | May McNeer | 1954 |
| 51 | Old Ironsides, the Fighting Constitution | Harry Hansen | 1955 |
| 52 | The Mississippi Bubble | Thomas B. Costain | 1955 |
| 53 | Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier | Ralph Moody (writer) | 1955 |
| 54 | Robert E. Lee and the Road of Honor | Hodding Carter | 1955 |
| 55 | Guadalcanal Diary | Richard Tregaskis | 1955 |
| 56 | Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan | Ferdinand Kuhn | 1955 |
| 57 | Davy Crockett | Stewart H. Holbrook | 1955 |
| 58 | Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross | Helen Dore Boylston | 1955 |
| 59 | The Story of San Francisco | Charlotte Jackson | 1955 |
| 60 | Up the Trail from Texas | J. Frank Dobie | 1955 |
| 61 | Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House | Sterling North | 1956 |
| 62 | The Story of D-Day: June 6, 1944 | Bruce Bliven, Jr. | 1956 |
| 63 | Rogers' Rangers and the French and Indian War | Bradford Smith | 1956 |
| 64 | The World's Greatest Showman: The Life of P. T. Barnum | J. Bryan, III | 1956 |
| 65 | Sequoyah: Leader of the Cherokees | Alice Marriott | 1956 |
| 66 | Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys | Slater Brown | 1956 |
| 67 | Wyatt Earp: U.S. Marshal | Stewart H. Holbrook | 1956 |
| 68 | The Early Days of Automobiles | Elizabeth Janeway | 1956 |
| 69 | The Witchcraft of Salem Village | Shirley Jackson | 1956 |
| 70 | The West Point Story | Col. Red Reeder and Nardi Reeder Campion | 1956 |
| 71 | George Washington: Frontier Colonel | Sterling North | 1957 |
| 72 | The Texas Rangers | Will Henry | 1957 |
| 73 | Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show | Walter Havighurst | 1957 |
| 74 | Evangeline and the Acadians | Robert Tallant | 1957 |
| 75 | The Story of the Secret Service | Ferdinand Kuhn | 1957 |
| 76 | Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too! | Stanley Young | 1957 |
| 77 | America's First World War: General Pershing and the Yanks | Henry Castor | 1957 |
| 78 | The Doctors Who Conquered Yellow Fever | Ralph Nading Hill | 1957 |
| 79 | Remember the Alamo! | Robert Penn Warren | 1958 |
| 80 | Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel | Katherine B. Shippen | 1958 |
| 81 | Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath | Ralph Moody (writer) | 1958 |
| 82 | The Story of the Paratroops | George Weller | 1958 |
| 83 | The American Revolution | Bruce Bliven, Jr. | 1958 |
| 84 | The Story of the Naval Academy | Felix Riesenberg, Jr. | 1958 |
| 85 | Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr | Anna Erskine Crouse and Russel Crouse | 1958 |
| 86 | Stonewall Jackson | Jonathan Daniels | 1959 |
| 87 | The Battle for the Atlantic | Jay Williams | 1959 |
| 88 | The First Transatlantic Cable | Adele Gutman Nathan | 1959 |
| 89 | The Story of the Air Force | Robert Loomis | 1959 |
| 90 | The Swamp Fox of the Revolution | Stewart H. Holbrook | 1959 |
| 91 | Heroines of the Early West | Nancy Wilson Ross | 1960 |
| 92 | The Alaska Gold Rush | May McNeer | 1960 |
| 93 | The Golden Age of Railroads | Stewart H. Holbrook | 1960 |
| 94 | From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa | Bruce Bliven, Jr. | 1960 |
| 95 | The Copper Kings of Montana | Marian T. Place | 1961 |
| 96 | Great American Fighter Pilots of World War II | Robert D. Loomis | 1961 |
| 97 | The Story of the U.S. Coast Guard | Eugene Rachlis | 1961 |
| 98 | William Penn: Quaker Statesman | Hildegarde Dolson | 1961 |
| 99 | John F. Kennedy & PT 109 | Richard Tregaskis | 1962 |
| 100 | The Story of Oklahoma | Lon Tinkle | 1962 |
| 101 | Americans into Orbit: The Story of Project Mercury | Gene Gurney | 1962 |
| 102 | The Story of Submarines | George Weller | 1962 |
| 103 | The Seabees of World War II | Edmund Castillo | 1963 |
| 104 | The U.S. Border Patrol | Clement Hellyer | 1963 |
| 105 | The Flying Tigers | John Toland | 1963 |
| 106 | The U.S. Frogmen of World War II | Wyatt Blassingame | 1964 |
| 107 | Women of Courage | Dorothy Nathan | 1964 |
| 108 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Malcolm Moos | 1964 |
| 109 | Disaster at Johnstown: The Great Flood | Hildegarde Dolson | 1965 |
| 110 | The Story of Thomas Alva Edison | Margaret Cousins | 1965 |
| 111 | Medal of Honor Heroes | Col. Red Reeder | 1965 |
| 112 | From Casablanca to Berlin | Bruce Bliven, Jr. | 1965 |
| 113 | Young Mark Twain and the Mississippi | Harnett T. Kane | 1966 |
| 114 | The Battle of the Bulge | John Toland | 1966 |
| 115 | The Story of the Thirteen Colonies | Clifford Lindsey Alderman | 1966 |
| 116 | Combat Nurses of World War II | Wyatt Blassingame | 1967 |
| 117 | Walk in Space: The Story of Project Gemini | Gene Gurney | 1967 |
| 118 | The Battle for Iwo Jima | Robert Leckie | 1967 |
| 119 | Midway: Battle for the Pacific | Capt Edmund L. Castillo | 1968 |
| 120 | Medical Corps Heroes of World War II | Wyatt Blassingame | 1969 |
| 121 | Flat Tops: The Story of Aircraft Carriers | Edmund L. Castillo | 1969 |
| 122 | The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd | A. B. C. Whipple | 1970 |
| W-1 | The First Men in the World | Anne Terry White | 1953 |
| W-2 | Alexander the Great | John Gunther | 1953 |
| W-3 | Adventures and Discoveries of Marco Polo | Richard J. Walsh | 1953 |
| W-4 | Joan of Arc | Nancy Wilson Ross | 1953 |
| W-5 | King Arthur and His Knights | Mabel Louise Robinson | 1953 |
| W-6 | Mary: Queen of Scots | Emily Hahn | 1953 |
| W-7 | Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo | Frances Winwar | 1953 |
| W-8 | Royal Canadian Mounted Police | Richard L. Neuberger | 1953 |
| W-9 | The Man Who Changed China: The Story of Sun Yat-sen | Pearl S. Buck | 1953 |
| W-10 | The Battle of Britain | Quentin Reynolds | 1953 |
| W-11 | The Crusades | Anthony West | 1954 |
| W-12 | Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde | Harold Lamb | 1954 |
| W-13 | Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada | Frances Winwar | 1954 |
| W-14 | Simon Bolivar: The Great Liberator | Arnold Whitridge | 1954 |
| W-15 | The Slave Who Freed Haiti: The Story of Toussaint Louverture | Katherine Scherman | 1954 |
| W-16 | The Story of Scotland Yard | Laurence Thompson | 1954 |
| W-17 | The Life of Saint Patrick | Quentin Reynolds | 1955 |
| W-18 | The Exploits of Xenophon | Geoffrey Household | 1955 |
| W-19 | Captain Cook Explores the South Seas | Armstrong Sperry | 1955 |
| W-20 | Marie Antoinette | Bernadine Kielty | 1955 |
| W-21 | Will Shakespeare and the Globe Theater | Anne Terry White | 1955 |
| W-22 | The French Foreign Legion | Wyatt Blassingame | 1955 |
| W-23 | Martin Luther | Harry Emerson Fosdick | 1956 |
| W-24 | The Hudson's Bay Company | Richard Morenus | 1956 |
| W-25 | Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador | Felix Riesenberg | 1956 |
| W-26 | The Magna Charta | James Daugherty | 1956 |
| W-27 | Leonardo da Vinci | Emily Hahn | 1956 |
| W-28 | General Brock and Niagara Falls | Samuel Hopkins Adams | 1957 |
| W-29 | Catherine the Great | Katherine Scherman | 1957 |
| W-30 | The Fall of Constantinople | Bernadine Kielty | 1957 |
| W-31 | Ferdinand Magellan: Master Mariner | Seymour Gates Pond | 1957 |
| W-32 | Garibaldi: Father of Modern Italy | Marcia Davenport | 1957 |
| W-33 | The Story of Albert Schweitzer | Anita Daniel | 1957 |
| W-34 | The Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom | Hodding Carter | 1958 |
| W-35 | Famous Pirates of the New World | A. B. C. Whipple | 1958 |
| W-36 | Exploring the Himalaya | William O. Douglas | 1958 |
| W-37 | Queen Victoria | Noel Streatfeild | 1958 |
| W-38 | The Flight and Adventures of Charles II | Charles Norman | 1958 |
| W-39 | Chief of the Cossacks | Harold Lamb | 1959 |
| W-40 | Adventures of Ulysses | Gerald Gottlieb | 1959 |
| W-41 | William the Conqueror | Thomas B. Costain | 1959 |
| W-42 | Jesus of Nazareth | Harry Emerson Fosdick | 1959 |
| W-43 | Julius Caesar | John Gunther | 1959 |
| W-44 | The Story of Australia | A. Grove Day | 1960 |
| W-45 | Captain Cortes Conquers Mexico | William Johnson | 1960 |
| W-46 | Florence Nightingale | Ruth Fox Hume | 1960 |
| W-47 | The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler | William L. Shirer | 1961 |
| W-48 | The Story of Atomic Energy | Laura Fermi | 1961 |
| W-49 | Great Men of Medicine | Ruth Fox Hume | 1961 |
| W-50 | Cleopatra of Egypt | Leonora Hornblow | 1961 |
| W-51 | The Sinking of the Bismarck | William L. Shirer | 1962 |
| W-52 | Lawrence of Arabia | Alistair MacLean | 1962 |
| W-53 | The Life of Saint Paul | Harry Emerson Fosdick | 1962 |
| W-54 | The Voyages of Henry Hudson | Eugene Rachlis | 1962 |
| W-55 | Hero of Trafalgar | A. B. C. Whipple | 1963 |
| W-56 | Winston Churchill | Quentin Reynolds | 1963 |
| W-57 | The War in Korea: 1950–1953 | Robert Leckie | 1963 |
| W-58 | Walter Raleigh | Henrietta Buckmaster | 1964 |
| W-59 | Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt | Elizabeth Payne | 1964 |
| W-60 | Flying Aces of World War I | Gene Gurney | 1965 |
| W-61 | Commandos of World War II | Hodding Carter | 1966 |
| W-62 | Ben Gurion and the Birth of Israel | Joan Comay | 1967 |
| W-63 | The United Nations in War and Peace | T. R. Fehrenback | 1968 |
| Giant-1 | The FBI Story | Don Whitehead, Foreword by J. Edgar Hoover | 1961 |
| Giant-2 | The Continent We Live On | Ivan T. Sanderson | 1961 |
| Giant-3 | The American Indian | William Brandon | 1962 |
| Giant-4 | The Story of Baseball | John M. Rosenburg | 1962 |
| Giant-5 | Life in the Ancient World | Bart Winer | 1963 |
| Giant-6 | Life in Colonial America | Elizabeth George Speare | 1963 |
| Giant-7 | The Story of World War II | Robert Leckie | 1964 |
| Giant-8 | Life in Lincoln's America | Helen Reeder Cross | 1964 |
| Giant-9 | The Story of Football | Robert Leckie | 1965 |
| Giant-10 | The Story of World War I | Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall and Robert Leckie | 1965 |
| Giant-11 | Great American Athletes of the 20th Century | Zander Hollander | 1966 |
| Giant-12 | Life in the Middle Ages | Jay Williams | 1966 |
| Giant-13 | Washington, D.C.: The Story of Our Nation's Capital | Howard K. Smith | 1967 |
| Giant-14 | American Heroes of the 20th Century | Harold Faber | 1967 |
| Giant-15 | The Story of New England | Monroe Stearns | 1967 |
| Giant-16 | The Landmark History of the American People from Plymouth to Appomattox | Daniel J. Boorstin | 1968 |
| Giant-17 | Great American Battles | Robert Leckie | 1968 |
| Giant-18 | Life in the Renaissance | Marzieh Gail | 1968 |
| Giant-19 | New York: The Story of the World's Most Exciting City | Bruce Bliven | 1969 |
| Giant-20 | Americans to the Moon: The Story of Project Apollo | Gene Gurney | 1970 |
| Giant-21 | The Landmark History of the American People from Appomattox to the Moon | Daniel J. Boorstin | 1970 |
| Giant-22 | American Sports Heroes of Today | Frederic Katz | 1970 |
| Giant-23 | Pro Football Heroes of Today | Berry Stainback | 1973 |
| Giant-24 | Great Moments in American Sports | Jerry Brondfield | 1974 |
| Giant-25 | Pro Hockey Heroes of Today | Bill Libby | 1974 |