When America's Librarians Went To War

[John K]

An interesting, short article on American librarians' contributions during the two world wars.

http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-hist...ns-went-to-war

Some of the comments following the article are also interesting.
Including:

Originally Posted by Jeanne Mizuno Kays
Awesome article. I just took the link to read the history of the American Library in Paris. The historical timeline is interesting, but what is more amazing is the "then confidential" report written by Dorothy Reeder, the "Directrice" of that institution before and during WWII, which recounts the services provided by some extremely dedicated individuals (American, French, and English) during wartime. The report was written when she returned stateside on July 19, 1941:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B60...JWZ0pvODQ/view

The above confidential report includes a first hand account of some of the difficulties of living in occupied Paris in WWII.

[ElspethB]

If you're interested in the subject, I highly recommend Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War. I had no idea how important books, particularly the specially-formatted Armed Services Editions, were to the soldiers and sailors in WWII.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by ElspethB

If you're interested in the subject, I highly recommend Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War. I had no idea how important books, particularly the specially-formatted Armed Services Editions, were to the soldiers and sailors in WWII.

I second this rec. It was a very interesting book and led me to hunt down some of the service editions of classics. One of the points that Manning makes is that it was the service publications of Gatsby that brought the book the fame it has now, not the original publication.

[crich70]

I've got one of those pocket books (2nd edition) from WWII. They.really were pocket sized.