How Paperbacks Helped the U.S. Win World War II

The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 20, 2014 | Jennifer Maloney

[2ndDivisionVet]

Molly Guptill Manning, with her collection of Armed Services Edition books, discovered that soldiers liked nostalgic books and those with sex scenes.

Armed Services Editions created a new audience of readers back home.

A decade after the Nazis’ 1933 book burnings, the U.S. War Department and the publishing industry did the opposite, printing 120 million miniature, lightweight paperbacks for U.S. troops to carry in their pockets across Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.

The books were Armed Services Editions, printed by a coalition of publishers with funding from the government and shipped by the Army and Navy. The largest of them were only three-quarters of an inch thick—thin enough to fit in the pocket of a soldier’s pants. Soldiers read them on transport ships, in camps and in foxholes. Wounded and waiting for medics, men turned to them on Omaha Beach, propped against the base of the cliffs. Others were buried with a book tucked in a pocket.

“When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II” by Molly Guptill Manning tells the story of the Armed Services Editions. To be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Dec. 2, the book reveals how the special editions sparked correspondence between soldiers and authors, lifted “The Great Gatsby” from obscurity, and created a new audience of readers back home....

[jumpingcholla34]

My Dad was in the infantry in New Guinea. He told me about finding a whole crate of these paperbacks dumped on the beach for the GIs to pick through. He said those books kept him sane.

Also, why is everyone picking on this woman's appearance? She's a very, very fine-looking lady.

[Bigg Red]

mark

[zeugma]

I believe this is a WWI poster, but is close enough for government work.

 

[uncitizen]

Lovely story.

[real saxophonist]

I agree, not guilty. One of the few things I have from my dad's time in WWII is a small red hardcover book titled 'The Soldier's Word & Phrase Book. English, French & German.

Just what it sounds like. It's about 3x5x1/4", and has an inches and centimetres ruler on the back. In the front cover, in pencil, is my dad's name and rank, c/o his Fleet P.O., in New York, and June 6, 1944.

He landed on Utah Beach.