History: WWII book giveaway program

[fjtorres]

From The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ngle_page=true

A little known chapter in the paperback revolution:

In 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, America's book publishers took an audacious gamble. They decided to sell the armed forces cheap paperbacks, shipped to units scattered around the globe. Instead of printing only the books soldiers and sailors actually wanted to read, though, publishers decided to send them the best they had to offer. Over the next four years, publishers gave away 122,951,031 copies of their most valuable titles.

"Some of the publishers think that their business is going to be ruined," the prominent broadcaster H. V. Kaltenborn told his audience in 1944. "But I make this prediction. America's publishers have cooperated in an experiment that will for the first time make us a nation of book readers." He was absolutely right. From small Pacific islands to sprawling European depots, soldiers discovered the addictive delights of good books. By giving away the best it had to offer, the publishing industry created a vastly larger market for its wares. More importantly, it also democratized the pleasures of reading, making literature, poetry, and history available to all.

Serious books were hard to find before the war. An industry study in 1931 highlighted the book trade's limited audience. Nineteen out of every 20 books sold by the major publishing houses cost more than two dollars, a luxury even before the Depression. Those who could afford them often struggled to find them. Two out of three counties in America lacked any bookstore, or even so much as a department store, drugstore, or other retailer selling enough books to have an account with a publishing house. In rural areas, small towns, and even mid-sized cities, dedicated customers bought their books the way they bought other household goods, picking the titles out of mail-order catalogs. Most did not bother.

Paperbacks were available but the major publishing houses feared and despised the format. And they were limited to backlist reprints and popular fiction. Kinda like ebooks today.

The war giveaway expanded the market for all kinds of books and everybody prospered... until the multinationals took over in the 80's.

More at the source.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

From The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ngle_page=true

A little known chapter in the paperback revolution:

Paperbacks were available but the major publishing houses feared and despised the format. And they were limited to backlist reprints and popular fiction. Kinda like ebooks today.

The war giveaway expanded the market for all kinds of books and everybody prospered... until the multinationals took over in the 80's.

More at the source.

So, over 70 years ago, books were "devalued", and as a result publishers customer bases and profits soared? (And the demand for the expensive version increased as well.)

[crich70]

And a great many of the "pulps" folded completely due to paper shortages during the war.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The war giveaway expanded the market for all kinds of books and everybody prospered... until the multinationals took over in the 80's.

I've noticed that employee-owned, red white and blue, W. W. Norton (repeatedly mentioned in your link) is less likely to make their titles available as library eBooks than those multi-nationals.

Is the Overdrive selection at the average US public library worse than than what was available to the average US serviceman in World War II (W. W. Norton titles excluded)?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

From The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ngle_page=true

A little known chapter in the paperback revolution:





Paperbacks were available but the major publishing houses feared and despised the format. And they were limited to backlist reprints and popular fiction. Kinda like ebooks today.

The war giveaway expanded the market for all kinds of books and everybody prospered... until the multinationals took over in the 80's.

More at the source.

Of course, there are other economic and social reasons why hard backs were the norm for certain types of books and why book sales in general were much lower prior to WW II that had nothing to do with a "fear factor" or vast conspiracy by the major publishers. One would also note that there were a lot more publishers back then.

Rather obviously, you had the Great Depression from 1929 to 1941, which meant that many had very little excess funds to buy books. In addition, most people had a lot less living space, houses were smaller and many people lived in one room apartments or boarding rooms, especially in urban areas where the book stores were. Book stores were not terribly common once you went outside the big cities.

Paper back books normally were a lot less durable than hard back books, so they were focused mostly on what one could think of as throw away books, i.e. the penny dreadfuls from the turn of the century or the bus station paper backs from the 30's. In a way, paper back books of the time period were much more like the comic books from the 60's when I was a kid. I'm talking about how they were used and perceived by the general public, rather than the actual content. The major buyers of books were libraries and the affluent collectors, both of which wanted the hard back books that were both more durable and had better workmanship.

[pwalker8]

Oh, I forgot to mention the elephant in the room that it's impossible to understand the dynamics of the publishing industry without considering, magazine's and newspapers. Most authors from the 1700's up until as late as the 1950's and 60's, made their money writing for magazines and newspapers. That is why so many of them tended towards short stories and why novels tended to be much shorter than they are now. The heyday of the genre magazine was the 30's, 40's and 50's. Why would someone buy a paper back, when one already had read the book when it was serialized in a magazine?

To tie back to another thread, many adults still only read newspapers and magazines, rather than books per se. That's why discussion of literacy by looking only at the number of books someone reads in a day, week or year is only partially accurate.

[Froide]

The Armed Service Editions gave a second life to F. Scott Fitgerald's book, The Great Gatsby. In a radio interview on WNYC's Fresh Air, titled, "How 'Gatsby' Went From A Moldering Flop To A Great American Novel" (Monday, September 08, 2014), book critic Maureen Corrigan - author of So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures - told radio host Terry Gross:

When Fitzgerald died in 1940 in Hollywood, his last royalty check was for $13.13. Remaindered copies of the second printing of The Great Gatsby were moldering away in [publisher] Scribner's warehouse.

World War II starts, and a group of publishers, paper manufacturers, editors [and] librarians get together in New York. And they decide that men serving in the Army and Navy need something to read. ... They printed over 1,000 titles of different books, and they sent over a million copies of these books to sailors and soldiers serving overseas and also to [prisoners of war] in prison camps in Japan and Germany through an arrangement with the Red Cross.

The Great Gatsby was chosen to be one of these Armed Services Editions. And what that meant was that all of a sudden this novel that was basically nowhere, you couldn't get it in bookstores in the early 1940s, [but] by 1945 over 123,000 copies of The Great Gatsby were distributed. ...

[pwalker8]

"When Fitzgerald died in 1940 in Hollywood, his last royalty check was for $13.13. Remaindered copies of the second printing of The Great Gatsby were moldering away in [publisher] Scribner's warehouse"

That's something that doesn't happen any more. With the changes in the tax code, so that book dealers have to pay taxes on any books they have in inventory, remaindered copies are fairly quickly destroyed. The inventory tax changes caused a big, big change in the book industry. You don't have books sitting on shelves for long periods of time.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

"When Fitzgerald died in 1940 in Hollywood, his last royalty check was for $13.13. Remaindered copies of the second printing of The Great Gatsby were moldering away in [publisher] Scribner's warehouse"

That's something that doesn't happen any more. With the changes in the tax code, so that book dealers have to pay taxes on any books they have in inventory, remaindered copies are fairly quickly destroyed. The inventory tax changes caused a big, big change in the book industry. You don't have books sitting on shelves for long periods of time.

There is also the fact that (at least in the US) there was the depression still going on to some degree in 1940. Hard to afford a book when you're having to scramble to put food on the table. That's one reason so many writers like L. Ron Hubbard, Robert Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, etc. wrote for the pulps prior to WWII. They may not have paid much but at least there was a chance of earning something on which to live. Few people could afford the expense of a book, but coming up with an occasional dime for the next edition of your favorite pulp magazine was at least possible.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

"When Fitzgerald died in 1940 in Hollywood, his last royalty check was for $13.13. Remaindered copies of the second printing of The Great Gatsby were moldering away in [publisher] Scribner's warehouse"

That's something that doesn't happen any more. With the changes in the tax code, so that book dealers have to pay taxes on any books they have in inventory, remaindered copies are fairly quickly destroyed. The inventory tax changes caused a big, big change in the book industry. You don't have books sitting on shelves for long periods of time.

And this is an Urban Legend. There is no federal tax on inventory, check the IRS site. The Thor decision prevented businesses from writing down below the selling price.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Po...._Commissioner

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

And this is an Urban Legend. There is no federal tax on inventory, check the IRS site. The Thor decision prevented businesses from writing down below the selling price.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Po...._Commissioner

The tax on inventory is a county tax in Georgia. This includes everything the business owns, not just inventory. This is why car dealers start reducing inventory levels in December. Any unsold cars are taxed. it is the same in my business except we have Christmas to help us reduce our inventory.
Apache

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Apache

The tax on inventory is a county tax in Georgia. This includes everything the business owns, not just inventory. This is why car dealers start reducing inventory levels in December. Any unsold cars are taxed. it is the same in my business except we have Christmas to help us reduce our inventory.
Apache

Yep. The owner of the old SF&Mystery book store in Atlanta, GA would reduce his inventory every year at the end of the year and complained bitterly about the tax. It's also one of the reasons that there are so many year end sales. It's important to remember that even national companies pay local taxes where ever they have a physical presents.

[crich70]

I think you meant presence not presents pwalker8.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Apache

The tax on inventory is a county tax in Georgia. This includes everything the business owns, not just inventory. This is why car dealers start reducing inventory levels in December. Any unsold cars are taxed. it is the same in my business except we have Christmas to help us reduce our inventory.
Apache

But not the federal tax that the above kind of comment assumes.

We can assume that no publisher puts their warehouses in GA.

[Apache]

I got news for you Georgia isn't the only state with this type of tax. Most counties in most states derive a large part of their income from this type of tax. It is called property taxes. And you pay on everything you own, not just the inventory. If your business owns a computer, or any other type of equipment you pay taxes on it every year. Mine used to be due January 1st. A few years ago they changed it to November 15th. And yes I know that you get to depreciate your equipment, but come on they tax you on everything include office furniture. ie chairs and tables.
Apache