When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more.
Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered twenty million hardcover donations. In 1943 the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million small, lightweight paperbacks for troops to carry in their pockets and their rucksacks in every theater of war.
Comprising 1,200 different titles of every imaginable type, these paperbacks were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights.
They wrote to the authors, many of whom responded to every letter. They helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity. They made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon. When Books Went to War is an inspiring story for history buffs and book lovers alike.
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“This is the beautiful story of a great, nearly
forgotten chapter in our history. In addition to sending men, bombers, and
rifles overseas to win World War II, America sent books—filling the bored hours
that separate war’s terrors, helping give purpose to the fight, and shaping the
taste of generations. What a wonderful thing.”
—
Nathaniel Fick, author of One Bullet Away