Armed Services Editions

 Books For The Troops

   During World War II, the Council on Books in Wartime in the U.S. established a non-profit program to get books into the hands and pockets of the troops scattered throughout the world. The books produced were very small paper ones, but they were complete not abridged. About 123 million copies of around 1300 titles were published and distributed.
   As the image indicates, the books could be classic or popular ones, fictional or non-fictional and serious or humorous. They were useful for bored soldiers in remote outposts, for sailors on long voyages and for both when convalescing in hospitals. They also promoted reading and ended up contributing to the paperback revolution for civilians.

   Much has been written about the ASE and the major sources for information are provided below for those interested in books and for those  interested in collecting them.

The Grolier Club Exhibition
  Titled, "The Best Read Army In the World" and curated by Molly Guptill Manning, this exhibition and the Wikipedia entry will be enough for many of you. For an article about it see: "A New Exhibition Tells the Story of the Armed Services Editions, Pocket-size Paperback Weapons in the Fight For Democracy," Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, Oct. 6, 2023.

Related Books by Manning
   The Best-Read Army in the World, Molly Guptill Manning and Brian Anderson, The University of Chicago Press, 2020
"In late 1943, small packages bound in sturdy brown paper began to arrive at American military outposts, each containing a set of ingenious pocket-sized books called the Armed Services Editions. Titled the “Victory Book Campaign,” this initiative was led by librarians, who garnered the support of individuals, businesses, civic organizations, and Eleanor Roosevelt. For war-weary, homesick men, these books—fiction, biographies, classics, sports tales, history books, poetry, compilations of short stories, books of humor—represented the greatest gift the military could give them. This annotated catalogue includes posters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other contemporary documents that provide valuable context for how the written word not only increased morale during wartime but ultimately transformed American education and changed the book industry forever."

   When Books Went To War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II. Molly Guptill Manning, HarperCollins, 2014
"When America entered World War II in 1941, [it] 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 20 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."--Publisher's website. Chronicles the joint effort of the U.S. government, the publishing industry, and the nation's librarians to boost troop morale during World War II by shipping more than one hundred million books to the front lines for soldiers to read during what little downtime they had.
  For a review see: "Marching Off to War, With Books," Janet Maslin, NYT, Dec. 24, 2014.
  Manning has a new book out: The War of Words: How America's GI Journalists Battled Censorship and Propaganda to Help Win World War II, Blackstone, 2023.

Library Collections
  Small paperback books, such as the ASE ones would not have been routinely collected, but interest in having them developed later.

The Library of Congress has a full set, of course, and published this on the 40th anniversary of the ASE: Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions, by John Y. Cole, 1984. (This can be accessed online, but it may take a while to load.)

The Huntington Library
  "Fighting A War With Books," Natalie Russell, Verso: The Blog of the Huntington Library, May 22, 2019.

University of Alabama: The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library
  The ASE collection here is almost complete and was lacking only five titles when this was written in 2015: “Armed Services Editions: A Quest For A Complete Collection,” Allyson Holliday, UofA Blog, Feb 16, 2015.

University of South Carolina - The Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections Blog
"Books are Weapons in the War of Ideas..." Michael Weisenburg, Sept. 4, 2020
"The Irvin Department is pleased to announce that it has recently acquired the three final titles needed to complete its collection of the Armed Services Editions series of books. The books, Peter Field’s Fight for Powder Valley, William Colt MacDonald’s Master of the Mesa, and Clarence E. Mulford’s Hopalog Cassidy’s Protégé, are part of a series produced by the Council on Books in Wartime, from 1943 to 1947."

The University of Virginia
  "Books Enlist." This provides an exhibit of the ASE held in 1996.

Blogs

  This is worth a look: "Books For Victory: The Armed Services Editions of WWII," Andrew Brozyna, April 28, 2013.

  For Collectors: The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America.

Another Attempt In This Century - 2002
  See:" Literature Re-enlists In the Military; Pilot Project Is Sending Books to American Ships And Troops Abroad," by Mel Gussow, NYT, Nov. 7, 2002

   "During World War II soldiers carried Armed Services Editions of pocket-size books and read them avidly whenever they had time. These were literary classics, popular novels, plays and nonfiction issued free to troops around the world. The books, increasingly dog-eared, were a cultural oasis as well as entertainment. Some soldiers took them into battle. Copies were handed out as troops left England for the Normandy invasion....
   Andrew Carroll, an author and archivist, described the program as ''the biggest giveaway of books in our history'' with the possible exception of Gideon Bibles. It is, he said, ''a great forgotten story'' of World War II. After the war the editions were at least partly responsible for the proliferation of paperbacks in the United States.

   This month, in a pilot project created by Mr. Carroll, the Armed Services Editions are returning with 100,000 copies of new versions of four books being printed in the same wide, brightly colored ''cargo pocket'' format: Shakespeare's ''Henry V,'' ''The Art of War'' (Sun Tzu's classic 500 B.C. study of military strategies) and two recent best sellers, ''Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes From the Civil War to the Present'' by Allen Mikaelian, with commentary by Mike Wallace, and ''War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence From American Wars,'' edited by Mr. Carroll....

   Clarence Strowbridge, president of Dover, which is publishing ''Henry V'' and ''The Art of War,'' said that the original editions ''inspired a whole generation of servicemen and women to become lifelong readers, and I have no doubt these books will do the same.'' After the war Dover became a leader in the paperback revolution....

   Mr. Carroll first became aware of the editions four or five years ago when he found a Steinbeck novel in an antiquarian bookstore in California. He soon began his own collection, which includes a rare copy of ''Superman,'' a novel, not a comic book.

Echoing his predecessors during World War II, Mr. Carroll said he wanted ''to promote the love of reading.'' He was adamant about using the original format as an act of nostalgia and ''a tip of the hat to this great project.'

CANCON
   Three books by Stephen Leacock are found listed by the ASE: 1) Laugh With Leacock #197; 2) Happy Stories Just to Laugh #344 and 3) My Remarkable Uncle: and Other Stories #976.

   One reason I became aware of the ASE is through the research I did for my book about Hulbert Footner who was born in Hamilton, Ontario. His book, The Murder That Had Everything was chosen for the ASE. I could find no pictures of the ASE version and that edition of the novel is  probably rare. One likely exists in the collection held in the Calvert County Historical Collection in Prince Frederick, Maryland. Here are two reviews of it:

The Murder That Had Everything

Here is a review from The Observer, by Maurice Richardson, Sept. 17, 1939.

“The Crime Ration”

The Murder That Has Everything has an extremely New York setting. Chief victim is a gigolo on the eve of his marriage to one of the richest and silliest girls in the world. Suspects include the husbands of several women who have been visiting him in his love nest. Lee Mappin and his beautiful secretaries do the detecting. The plot becomes trickier and muddier with every page; there is some interesting characterisation and strong satire at the expense of New York smarties and gossip writers. In fact it has everything to make you go on reading.

A Canadian review is found in the Vancouver Sun, Sept. 2, 1939.

“Mystery Fiction”

Park Avenue society, familiar to New York haunts and true-to-life habitues combine to make Hulbert Footner’s new mystery, The Murder That Has Everything (Musson), an A1 Thriller. Here’s the story of a cunning crime syndicate that plies among the daughters of millionaires. 

Kathleen "Kit" Coleman

    If you do not know much about this famous Canadian journalist, you soon will. This year the Canadian Mint honoured "Kit" Coleman by producing coins celebrating the 125th anniversary of her "becoming North America's first accredited woman war correspondent." If you know of a young woman who is interested in journalism, "Kit" would be a good role model.
   In the first part of this post, I will present the numismatic announcements along with some of the biographical information provided in them. In the second I will offer some information about her daughter and the apparently very brief relationship she had with the author Hulbert Footner. 

The Coins and the Announcements

 
   The silver coin shows her holding an open notebook and pen. "Within that silhouette are various elements that represent her life and career (from top to bottom): The Mail and Empire building in Toronto, Ont.; SS Circassian, the passenger ship that brought the Irish-born writer to Canada in 1884; a partial map of the Atlantic Ocean, to represent Coleman’s travels and dispatches; a view of Coleman writing at her desk; and a vintage typewriter that symbolizes her legacy and impact on Canadian journalism." 
   The gold one shows her "penning her weekly column. The map in the background traces the trailblazing reporter’s incredible journey—from her birthplace in Ireland to her life and career in Canada, and her travels as North America’s first accredited woman war correspondent."

   

   Early in 2023 one finds this news release about the newly minted coins:

"Royal Canadian Mint Introduces Transitional Effigy on 2023 Proof Silver Dollar Celebrating Pioneering Woman Journalist Kathleen "Kit" Coleman," PR Newswire, Jan. 10, 2023.

OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - The Royal Canadian Mint has dedicated its 2023 Proof Silver Dollar to celebrating the inspiring life of Canada's first woman journalist, Kathleen "Kit" Coleman. Born in County Galway, Ireland and emigrating to Canada in 1884, Kit Coleman first joined the Toronto Daily Mail as a Women' Editor and later became North America's first accredited woman war correspondent, gaining international fame for her coverage of the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. She also helped establish the Canadian Women's Press Club, and served as its first President. Her fascinating journey is told through the artistry of Pandora Young, who used Kit's silhouette as the canvas upon which the main chapters of her life are richly illustrated on the reverse of the coin.

Pandora Young has fashioned another portrait of the pioneering journalist on the 2023 $100 Pure Gold Coin. The reverse features Kit Coleman writing at her desk. Behind her is a map showing North America and Europe, with dotted lines retracing her epic travels across both continents.

   Soon after, the Canadian Mint offered this information:

"“Fine Silver Proof Dollar– Kathleen “Kit” Coleman: Pioneer Journalist,”

SILVER 2023 MINTAGE 35,000

"Pencil to Paper to Metal: The Journey of Journalism Pioneer Kit Coleman is Honoured on the 2023 Proof Dollar."

"Who was “Kit”? That’s what readers of the Toronto Daily Mail (later The Mail and Empire) were asking, as they pored over the writings of Kathleen Blake Coleman. An intrepid reporter with a lively journalistic voice, “Kit” Coleman rose above the fray in the male-dominated newspaper industry, tackling a wide range of issues as well as the topics typically covered in women’s columns. She made history 125 years ago by becoming North America’s first accredited woman war correspondent. Coleman also helped establish the Canadian Women’s Press Club in 1904 and served as its first president, and later became Canada’s first syndicated woman columnist.

In a time when women journalists were limited to writing about the female perspective and women’s issues, Kathleen Blake Coleman paved the way for better representation in newsrooms and a more equal standing for Canadian women in other aspects of life."

    On January 12, the Mint published a blog post with this title: “Kathleen “Kit” Coleman: How Canada’s Early Presswoman Led the Way for Journalists Today."

The link has been provided and I hope it lasts. You should have a look at it. The picture at the very top was taken from the blog post where much more information  about Coleman is found. As, well there is a link to a video by Dr. Barbara Freeman, the author of Kit's Kingdom: The Journalism of Kathleen Blake Coleman. The link to the video is also available here: https://youtu.be/euH7MiSU2I0. As Dr. Freeman indicates, "Kit" was a fascinating woman and you will enjoy the video.

                                  Hulbert Footner

  It is more likely that you knew about “Kit” than Hulbert Footner. He was born in Hamilton (where “Kit” lived as the wife of Dr. Theobald Coleman), but left at a very young age for the United States. He was a successful writer and is best known for his detective stories 

  He returned briefly to Canada and had some adventures in, and wrote about, the Northwest. That is where I discovered him and after reading New Rivers of the North, I went searching for more information.  There wasn’t much, except for the Wikipedia entry for Hulbert Footner which was constructed mostly by his son, Geoffrey.

  I ended up with a considerable amount of information about Footner and decided to present it in a book.  Unfortunately Footner’s son died before I could give it to him, but I have since met his granddaughter, Karen, and some “Footner Fans.” In Calvert County, Maryland the Historical Society has created a  room dedicated to Hulbert Footner where one can find Footner’s books and assorted memorabilia. I had the pleasure of meeting Karen and some of the “Footner Fans” at the CCHS, which is where the picture above comes from. 

   During my search for information about Footner, I ran across a piece that reported that “Kit” Coleman’s daughter Patsy had become engaged to Hulbert Footner. A later article indicated they were married. The former is probably true, while the latter is surely not. The relationship is not mentioned in Dr. Freeman’s book, or elsewhere. There was no awareness on the Footner side that Hulbert possibly had such a tryst, somewhere and  at some time, in Canada. (He was, by the way, known as "Bill" among friends and it is somewhat easier to believe that a "Bill", rather than a "Hulbert" would have had such a fling.)

  I am pleased that the commemorative coins honouring "Kit" Coleman were produced by the Canadian Mint. At least now the Footner family and his fans will know that I was not exaggerating when I told them that "Kit" was famous in Canada and that Footner had proposed to Patsy, her daughter. 

   Those of you who now wish to know more about Footner should look at the website of the Calvert County Historical Society (or visit the actual site at Linden.) On the website, you will find the "Hulbert Footner Sideshow", from which the picture above was borrowed. Created by Diane Harrison, it is also available via YouTube. 

  
   If you are interested only in the relationship between Patsy Coleman and Bill Footner, all that is known about it is found below. It comes from the book I published and before you rush to purchase it, you should know that this is the only, mildly prurient part within it. Here is the excerpt, from which you will learn about Footner's travels in Canada early in the last century and more about "Kit" and her daughter.

                                              The Coleman “Affair"

   "After exploring the “New Rivers” Footner and his travelling companion, Auville Eager, returned to the Edmonton area. During the fall of 1911 there are a few accounts of their activities found in Canadian papers and in one of them they were seen at a concert in Edmonton. It is likely that Footner was promoting Two On The Trail, which was based on his journey in 1906 and giving talks about  the one just completed in 1911.

That trip "to the Land of the Silences, our great Lone Land to the North -- so much of which is as yet unexploited by railway or tourist….” was the subject of a piece by Kit Coleman, who wrote those words. They are found in “Kit’s Column,” in the section “Woman & Her Interests'' in the Brandon Daily Sun on Saturday, Nov. 18, 1911, p.5. She clearly enjoyed the account of the trip presented by Footner and the “quaintness and humor with which it was told.” It is unclear where Coleman met Footner and heard the story. Her column was widely syndicated and she travelled a lot, but they may have met in Hamilton, where he was born and where she lived. 

   Where Footner may have met Kit’s daughter is also unclear and it is she who is the subject of what I have labelled, “The Coleman Affair.” It is based on an announcement that was made in the following spring, on May 25, 1912: “Dr. and Mrs. Theo. Coleman (Kit) of Hamilton, Ont. announce the engagement of their daughter, Miss Patricia to Hulbert Footner of New York.” Their daughter “Patsy”  is marrying a “clever young fiancé, who is by the way, a successful author and well-known newspaper man…” Over a dozen years later in an article about expatriate authors one learns that “He [Footner] married Miss Coleman, daughter of “Kit,” whom, everyone knows, was one of the first and ablest writers in Canada.”

  Those are the only two references to the relationship between Hulbert Footner and Patsy Coleman that even the most diligent researcher will find.Their engagement was announced, their marriage never was. I think the “affair” likely ended fairly quickly, perhaps after Footner returned to the United States. I think the author who assumed they were married, is incorrect. I have found no mention of Patsy Coleman in any other material about Footner, nor have I encountered any suggestion that Footner became engaged to a Canadian woman, or any other woman, prior to his marriage to Gladys Marsh in 1916.

Kit Coleman was a well-known Canadian journalist. She was “the first syndicated newspaper columnist in Canada,” the first President of the Canadian Women’s Press Club,” “Canada’s first advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist,” and the “world’s first accredited woman war correspondent,” who reported on the Spanish-American War. That information is from Ted Ferguson’s, Kit Coleman: Queen of Hearts, an early biography which has more information about her career than her family and very little about Kathleen “Patsy” Coleman. As one reviewer noted: ”If there is anything disappointing about Kit Coleman, Queen of Hearts, it is only that it contains so little biographical detail about its subject.” The same can be said for Barbara M. Freeman’s, Kit’s Kingdom: The Journalism of Kathleen Blake Coleman and many other more recent accounts that focus on her as a journalist and not a mother.

   About Kit Coleman, a lot is known. Those who wish to learn more and attempt to find information about Footner’s fiancé can start with the Wikipedia entry for Kit Coleman or see Freeman’s profile of, “Ferguson, Catherine, Kit Coleman,” in  the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. See also this work, where a profile of Bob Edwards can also be found: Patrick Watson, ed. “Kit Coleman: Kit of the Mail,” Pt. Nine, p. 191 in The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation, Vol. II. There are many more sources which have been checked. An obituary is found in The Globe and Mail, on May 17, 1915 - “Kit Has Passed Away; Famous Woman Writer: Notable Pioneer in Journalism, Ill Only Two Days.”

   About Kathleen “Patsy Coleman” not much is known. Kit indicated, in one of her columns, that Patsy was born on Oct. 4,1887 and she was often referred to in the articles written by Kit and sometimes travelled with her. A picture of her as a young child is found in the Freeman biography where it is mentioned that she attended Quaker College in Pickering, Ontario. There is little information about her as a young woman and Freeman notes that “Patsy” was, as an adult, quite reticent about the family's private life, even with her own children.” The engagement to Footner is not discussed in any of the sources consulted and the obituary for Kit in 1915 indicates that Patsy was married and now Mrs. John Gartshore."

The section above is found on pp.36-38 of the print edition of: Hulbert Footner: Author of Adventure Novels, Detective Novels and Historical Nonfiction: A Bibliographic Account of His Life and Work. 

Where I Went on My Spring Vacation

The Trip to Maryland (continued).  

   You were undoubtedly excited by my last post which seemed to suggest I might tell you more about our first post-pandemic trip across the border, but I did not. The weather was too nice, as were the surroundings, and I find it difficult to jot down things along the way, let alone write about them. Now that I am back home and the weather again is bad, I will offer a brief summary for you loyal readers and for myself so that next year I will know what I did last year. 

   If I was more efficient and it was my intention to offer a blogging travelogue, I would begin with the things observed along the way, such as the "Adult Stores" mentioned in my earlier post. I first thought about the richness of travelling, for subjects to blog about, a few years ago when we left London,Ontario for Phoenix. Our first stop in Indiana was in the interestingly named "Terre Haute", which is the home of the "Clabber Girl." I am sure most people would be interested in learning more, but I never got around to writing anything about them, until now, but won't since they are from an earlier trip. On this one, I noted on the way down, such places as Fort Couch which is not too far from Intercourse and on the way back there were Panic and Punxsutawney and the Indiana University which is in Pennsylvania. In Ocean City we looked east over the Atlantic and in the afternoon saw the sunset on Assawoman Bay which is sometimes referred to as "Big Assawoman Bay". Obviously one could continue on about such geographical tidbits, but I said I would be brief and will say only that "Big Assawoman" is likely on someone's list to be erased. 

   Briefly, we stayed on the beach for week and used it as a base from which to visit a cousin, who lives near Princess Anne, Maryland. We went to lunch in Pocomoke and had it along the Pocomoke River which, according to local lore, is supposed to be the deepest river in the world for its width.

  From there we travelled to Easton, after a brief stop in Cambridge (birthplace of John Barth) for another river lunch. Easton is a less expensive base than St. Michaels, where we had yet another lunch. We were joined by the granddaughter of a fellow I wrote a book about back in 2021. She has just assisted in the production of the second edition of one of her grandfather's books and you should buy it if you want to learn more about the Pocomoke River just mentioned (Rivers of the Eastern Shore: Seventeen Maryland Rivers, Hulbert Footner. The first edition was published originally in the fine "Rivers of America Book Series.")

   A short geographical note: The water on the right below is the Atlantic and the Chesapeake is on the left. The peninsula between is known as the "Delmarva Peninsula," or the Eastern Shore.

   

  A crow would fly about thirty-five miles to get from Easton to our next stop in Solomons which is on the mainland in southern Maryland, but almost one hundred miles by car. Solomons Island is a quaint community at the mouth of the Patuxent River and it is near the place where the Canadian-born author Hulbert Footner chose to settle down and write. He is the subject of my book and at the Calvert County Historical Society in nearby Prince Frederick, a room has been dedicated to him. So in addition to meeting his granddaughter, Karen Footner, we were able to meet with some Footner fans who helped Ms. Footner and the Director of the CCHS, John Johnson, provide a space in honour of the author. To learn more, watch this video by Diane Harrison which was produced for the Grand Opening Ceremony back in September, 2022: "A Commemoration of the Life and Works of Calvert County Author William Hulbert Footner.

   If you made it this far you deserve a reward, as did my wife. On the way home we took a bit of a detour to Confluence, PA which is near Frank Lloyd Wright's FALLINGWATER.  Have a look at Fallingwater. 

The Bonus:
     The MD. legislators were hard at work and I am pleased to announce that RYE is the state spirit (MILK remains the state drink.) This from the Baltimore Banner: "Legislators Work to Make Maryland Rye Official State Spirit," Kara Thompson, Capital News Service, March 31, 2023. 
    The Maryland State Team Sport is the same as the national summer sport of Canada - Lacrosse. Maryland's State Sport is JOUSTING, about which Footner wrote in one of his books.
    While I am at it, you will be able to figure out what the state bird is (hint, it is not the Blue Jay) and the state dog, but you may not know that the Maryland State Cat is the Calico. 
    The state song used to be, "Maryland, My Maryland," the tune of which is from "O, Tannenbaum", but it has been cancelled. I wrote about this in another very long post and to save you from having to read all of it, here is the bit about the song controversies, both in Maryland and Canada:

Be Careful What You Sing
     It is interesting, and an indicator of our troubled times, that politicians, both in my adopted country and the ones back in Maryland where I grew up, had to be mustered to re-consider the lyrics of their respective anthems. In Canada, "Oh Canada," I am pleased to report, has been rendered gender neutral (from "true patriot love, in all thy sons command"  was changed to "in all of us command,"). The spectacle was rather a sad one since the MP who introduced Bill C-210 was wheeled into the House although suffering from ALS. 
     In Maryland, many more lyrics were involved and the excision needed to be much more extensive; some want the entire song to be abandoned. The issue in this case was about race not gender. You would recognize the tune of “Maryland, My Maryland”("O Tannenbaum,"), but the lyrics which include such phrases as “Northern Scum” may be unfamiliar to you. They are based a poem by James Ryder Randall and you can look them up. I am not sure if this dispute has been completely resolved, but it is clear that the words of the anthem which were adopted in 1939 are not appropriate now.
[As of July, 2021, the MD. state song ceased to exist.]