Collecting Armed Services Editions Books

For the longest time I disdained softcover books. Two events jolted me out of my snobbery. The first was when an elderly women told me she bought paperbacks because her arms were to weak to hold up a hardcover book while reading in bed. The second event was when I sold a copy of Trixie Belden and the Galloping Ghost, the last book in the Trixie Belden series, available only in paperback, for nearly $100. After that, I began to pay more attention to paperbacks and found that many of them were and still are collectible. Some examples include the old Penny Dreadfuls, Ace Doubles, Big Little Books, Early Penguins, and pulp fiction with lurid cover art.

What are Armed Services Editions?

One series of paperbacks that has always intrigued me is The Armed Services Editions (ASE). These books were distributed to soldiers at the front and behind the lines in the biggest book give away program ever. The largest distribution was just before D-Day when each soldier was given a book before getting on the invasion ships. These books had the immediate effect of providing soldiers with entertainment and comfort and a long term effect of increasing literacy among the military population..From 1943-47, a non-profit corporation, The Armed Services Editions, Inc., published 123 million copies of more than 1300 titles in two different sizes that fit conveniently in a soldier's cargo pocket. Titles included popular novels, classics, poetry, mysteries, westerns, sci-fi, some non-fiction, even a little philosophy.

The books were published at a cost of six to ten cents each. Due to the nature of warfare and the ephemeral quality of paperbacks, undoubtedly thousands of these were left in the jungles of Asia and in the forests and hedge-rows of Europe. The surviving copies are collectable today. I have a few of them. The first one I bought was HEAD O' W HOLLOW by Jessie Stuart. I bought it in the late 1970s from an old book barn that used to be at the end of The Joshua Chamberlain Bridge in Brewer, Maine but since has been torn down.

The Unique Challenge of Collecting Armed Services Editions

Collecting Armed Services Editions presents a unique challenge. Due to the nature of warfare, thousands of these books were left behind in Asia and Europe. While many titles are easy to find, some are scarce and command top dollar. So far there is only one known complete set of these books, located at the Library of Congress. In 1984 Matthew Bruccoli, a collector of Armed Services Editions, had amassed only 518 titles after more than twenty years of serious collecting.

And now there are new Armed Services Editions to collect. Beginning in November 2002, Andrew Carroll, founder of Legacy Project has been working with major publishers to bring Armed Services Editions back. So far seven titles have been published and distributed to our troops overseas.

Some Armed Servies Editions are True First Editions

You may not be interested in collecting Armed Services Editions per se, nevertheless if you collect Hemingway, Faulkner and other literary icons, you need to look at the Armed Services Editions. For example, ASE #825 A Rose For Emily And Other Stories by William Faulkner is a book put together especially for the Armed Services Editions, and is therefore a first and only edition of that title. If you are a sci-fi or fantasy collector, you will want to look at the Tarzan books, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds and other titles.

If you have no interest in collecting Armed Services Editions, it's still worth learning about the biggest book give away of all time and and a major event in book publishing.