The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
I was unable to find any reliable independent sources for “‘The Bible Story’ Arthur S. Maxwell” on Google or DuckDuckGo. Admittedly it’s hard to filter out hits for the books themselves but I doubt this work is notable enough to warrant an independent article. Dronebogus (talk) 06:06, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep Has some good images and meets NOTABLE. –Cupper52Discuss! 11:36, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Delete I found listings for it on Abebooks and Amazon. All give the date as 1953, suggesting this is not something that was kept in print. Furthermore it is from an Adventist press, which means that those from other denominations are likely to treat it with suspicion. Peterkingiron (talk) 18:12, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Cupper52, you didn’t really provide a substantial basis to keep this article. Did you actually find any potential sources?
Peterkington, the age, availability, and publisher background have little relevance to notability. Dronebogus (talk) 09:14, 23 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.
The article calls the book "beautifully illustrated with reproductions of an art collection valued at more than $500,000".
The illustrations were made by 14 artists from nine countries.
Maxwell started making arrangements for the book over a decade prior to 1959.
Maxwell took seven years to complete the writing.
The film director Cecil B. DeMille praised the book, writing in a letter to Maxwell, "If you have done nothing else with your life but make the Bible simple for children, you have not lived in vain."
The article calls the book "beautifully illustrated with reproductions of an art collection valued at more than $500,000".
The illustrations were made by 14 artists from nine countries.
Maxwell started making arrangements for the book over a decade prior to 1959.
Maxwell took seven years to complete the writing.
The film director Cecil B. DeMille praised the book, writing, "If you have done nothing else with your life but make the Bible simple for children, you have not lived in vain."
The article notes that The Bible Story is a 10-volume work that has 400 stories from the Bible. The article notes:
Illustrated in color, this is a monumental achievement by the Signs Publishing Co., of Warburton, which has published the first six volumes. It is in process of publishing the other four which at present are produced in U.S.A. The covers are most attractive, and are finished in a shiny process by a special Australian method.
"Uncle" Arthur Maxwell's popular ten-volume The Bible Story was well known for having its first volume available in many doctors' and dentists' office waiting rooms in the later part of the twentieth century, complete with mail-in postcards inserted into the books to allow parents to subscribe to all ten volumes. The publicity for the set included endorsements by Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, and Lutheran clergy, and Maxwell makes no indication in his introduction that he is an Adventist or that he is writing specifically for Adventist children. The common embellishments of Noah warning his neighbors, his neighbors mocking Noah in return, and those neighbors crying out to enter the ark once the flood came, all play a significant role in Maxwell's extended retelling of the tale. Maxwell's retelling contains little evidence, however, that he is drawing particularly from Adventist sources other than when he writes, [quote]
The book notes on page 19 in an entry about Harry Anderson:
he soon began providing illustrations for Maxwell's The Bible Story, a multivolume children's work sold widely on a subscription basis.
The book notes on page 26 regarding subscription books created by denominational publishing houses:
Arthur S. Maxwell's 10-volume The Bible Story (1953-57) was the first to use color illustrations exclusively and drew upon 21 illustrators, among them Harry Anderson, Harry Baerg, Vernon Nye, and Russell Harlan.
The book notes on page 175:
Arthur S. Maxwell's books for children, Bedtime Stories (a series of 48 annual volumes which began publication in the 1924) and The Bible Story (1951-58), and an adult volume, Your Bible and You (1959), later became staples of literature evangelism.
The book notes on page 189:
Between 1951 and 1958 he published The Bible Story, a 10-volume work that, again through subscription sales, sold more than 1.5 million copies.
Jeremiah offers a far different lesson for readers of Arthur S. Maxwell's ten-volume The Bible Story (1955), which includes ten brightly colored illustrations showing Jeremiah in Orientalizing as well as contemporary settings (Figure 13). ... Maxwell's Jeremiah embodies the virtues of obedience and strong character found in his many other books for children and models the benefits of faith ...
The history involved what “Uncle” Arthur S. Maxwell’s ten-volume Bible Stories had meant to literature evangelists for four decades. Introduced consecutively between 1953 and 1957, the ten volumes often were bundled with Ellen White’s “Conflict of the Ages” series and Bible Readings for the Home, and were “among the best sellers” of all Adventist subscription literature, wrote former General Conference publishing director, Bruce M.Wickwire.
In 1958, volume one of the Bible Stories was “set as a ‘lead book’ in professional waiting rooms.” An inside cover pocket carried “15 postal cards (printed by the millions) advertising the 10-volume . . . set and other subscription volumes.” This sales strategy was so successful, Wickwire wrote, that “over 250,000 of these sample volumes were stationed in” professional waiting rooms in succeeding years.
The Bible Story set sold for $93.25 in 1961, rising with inflation to $299.95 in 1982 and on up to “about $400” in 1991.
The film director Cecil B. DeMille praised the book, writing in a letter to Maxwell, "If you have done nothing else with your life but make the Bible simple for children, you have not lived in vain."
The Bible Story has sold more than 1.5 million copies.
Russell W. Dalton, an associate professor at Texas Christian University, wrote in the Bloomsbury Publishing book that The Bible Story is "well known for having its first volume available in many doctors' and dentists' office waiting rooms in the later part of the twentieth century".
Cunard (talk) 11:06, 23 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep due to the lack of proper WP:BEFORE, which for a work like this would necessarily require a visit to a large academic library to look in pedagogical and denominational periodicals for reviews to the work. For a work of such wide circulation there will be such reviews, possibly many of them. But don't expect to find them FUTON. I am resigned that it will be deleted despite this, but if so it is fitting per Acts 7:52-53.--Epiphyllumlover (talk) 05:55, 26 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep in view of the reliable sources coverage provided by Cunard which show a pass of WP:GNG so that deletion is unnecessary in my view. There are also some impressive claims of significance such as selling 1.5 million copies that indicate that the subject should be included, imv Atlantic306 (talk) 23:52, 26 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep: In addition to the sources cited above, I added an article from the Napa Valley Register to the article. — Toughpigs (talk) 05:40, 27 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.