The Council of Books in Wartime was founded in response to the book burnings that took place in Nazi Germany. With the motto “Books are Weapons in the War of Ideas,” the council published the Armed Services Editions: paperback books sized to fit in the pocket of army fatigues. The council distributed nearly 123 million free copies of 1,300 different books to U.S. troops overseas.
Armed Services Editions were distributed through normal channels, delivery to POW camps, and even by parachute to GIs on the front lines. Each copy is likely to have been read and passed between service members approximately seven times. While paperback editions were not new, the ASE preceded a mass-market approach to publishing that revolutionized American book-buying and reading habits.
Gould Library Special Collections has four of these special books, and all are currently on display in the reference room: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Selected Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and other stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and A Rose for Emily and other stories by William Faulkner.