Today we’re talking about Armed Service Editions: paperback books designed to be sent overseas to American troops during World War II. Edited and printed by the non-profit Council on Books in Wartime, they were small, portable volumes with oblong silhouettes that could easily fit into a uniform pocket. Complete and surprisingly uncensored novels by authors like Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald were a hit with the armed services—so much so that it’s hard for collectors to find copies in good condition today. In addition to improving morale, Armed Service Editions helped lay the groundwork for the paperback publishing boom of the 1950s, which brought inexpensive, conveniently-sized literature to a broad audience, transforming reading habits around the world.
Brattlecast #138 - After the Gold Rush
In the late 1890s a young man named Charles Leach—along with some friends and about 100,000 other prospectors—traveled to the Yukon, hoping to strike gold. The punishingly harsh conditions and chaotic boomtowns of the Klondike gold rush have been mythologized in fiction, poetry, and film, but Mr. Leach’s letters home deliver an exceptionally rare contemporary account of day-to-day life in the far north. He became the cook for his expedition, and wrote to his wife in rich, transportive detail about supplies and budgets, wild bear steaks, and exorbitant $15 doctor visits. Ultimately, he—like so many others—left disappointed, but arguably the real treasure turned out to be the fascinating first-hand account that he wrote along the way.