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Armed Services Editions |
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Click the group of books beginning with number:
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I realize that most paperback collectors do not share my passion for acquiring these remarkable books, but this is my own favorite portion of the web site. When I pick up a few at a book fair, there is inevitably a distinguished, slightly older gentleman in line behind me waiting to check out that asks to hold one, then gets all misty-eyed and has a story to tell about them. The ASE’s were some of the most heartfelt mementoes carried by U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines during the war. ASE’s were commissioned in 1943 as a recommendation of the Council of Books in Wartime, which formed the year before. The Council picked the books and sold them to the Departments of the Army and Navy for cost (about 6¢) plus 10% overhead. A half-cent per copy royalty was paid to both the publisher and the author. Many authors tried to refuse the payment on grounds of patriotism, but the council refused to set that precedent. More than 70 publishers and 12 printers produced 123 million copies of 1,322 numbered issues, according to the Library of Congress (at least two universities claim to have 1,324 in their collections). The books were designed to fit in a fatigue uniform pocket, the smaller ones in the breast pocket, the larger ones in the jacket side pocket. Based on the size of either the standard pulp magazine (for the larger ASE’s) or the Reader’s Digest (for the smaller ones), the books were printed and bound in tandem pairs, one atop the other, then stapled on the side and cut apart. There were several unsuccessful attempts by conservative members of Congress to censor the books “Our Boys” were reading overseas. When he found out, E.B. White commented: “I always like having a book banned. It shows somebody has read it.” There were 654 lettered-ASE's. The A through J series maintained numerical sequence (so that A-30 was followed by B-31, etc). Starting with the K-series, the books were all renumbered, beginning with 1 (so there is a K-1, L-1, M-1, etc). The numbered books started with #655. Some of the real oddities in the ASE series were several true Paperback Originals (which the Library of Congress called "Made Books"). The ASE's all bore cover pictures of the hardcover books from which the volumes were reprinted. The PBO ASE's, usually compilations of selected short stories or poems, bore images of books that didn't really exist. Most were by classic authors such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A few, such as Ernie Pyle's Brave Men, were reprinted after the ASE's (and are still in print today). My images are 250 pixels in height for the smaller sized ASE's, and 300 pixels high for the larger sized books. This ratio does not hold true for those images donated by other collectors. Updated October, 2007 |
