After
the draft was reinstated in the U.S. in 1940, millions of young soldiers found themselves in barracks and training camps, where they were often bored. The head of the Army's Library Section,
Raymond L. Trautman, sought to remedy this by purchasing one book per soldier, but when that failed, librarians launched a nationwide book collection campaign. This "
Victory Book Campaign" collected a million books in its first month, but its efforts dropped off when the Army rejected many of the donated books as unsuitable for soldiers, and the bulky
hardcovers were found to be unsuitable for use in the field. The campaign ended in 1943. In that year, in collaboration with the graphic artist H. Stanley Thompson and the publisher and CWB executive Malcolm Johnson, Trautman proposed his idea of "Armed Services Editions": mass-produced paperbacks selected by a panel of literary experts from among classics, bestsellers, humor books and poetry. The support of
William Warder Norton, chairman of the CWB's executive committee and president of the publishing house
W. W. Norton, was instrumental for the project to be realized. Apart from the Army and Navy (through chief librarian
Isabel DuBois), over seventy publishers and a dozen printing houses collaborated on the ASEs. To appease some publishers' concerns, a legal commitment was made that prevented the domestic distribution and post-war resale of surplus books, and educational and scientific books were excluded. The CBW appointed
Philip Van Doren Stern, a printing expert and former
Pocket Books executive, as project manager. The volunteer advisory panel that selected the books comprised notable figures from publishing and literature. Its initial members were
John C. Farrar,
William M. Sloane,
Jeanne Flexner,
Nicholas Wreden,
Mark Van Doren,
Amy Loveman and
Harry Hansen. The panel met twice weekly, selecting publications from among the publishers' suggestions. It aimed at publishing 50 books per month, but soon reduced that goal to 30. The panel mainly focused on selecting recreational reading material, both fiction and nonfiction, primarily drawn from current publications and aiming at "all levels of taste within reasonable limits". The order of publication was chosen at random by pulling names out of a cookie jar; the first book to be printed was
The Education of Hyman Kaplan by
Leo Rosten. "Surprisingly", according to
John Y. Cole, the ASE series was free from official government
censorship. But the Army and Navy chief librarians, Trautman and DuBois, made sure that all books were acceptable to both services, and rejected works with "statements or attitudes offensive to our Allies, any religious or racial group, or [...] not in accord 'with the spirit of American democracy. The publication of
Louis Adamic's ''Native's Return'' as an ASE title caused controversy because the novel's first edition had contained passages that were considered pro-Communist. Although these had been removed in later editions and the ASE version, Congressman
George A. Dondero still protested against what he considered government distribution of "Communist propaganda". More serious problems for the ASE ensued when Title V of the
Soldier Voting Act of 1944 limited the distribution of government-financed information to soldiers. The act was sponsored by Senator
Robert A. Taft, who feared that the Roosevelt administration would distribute propaganda in favor of the president's reelection to a fourth term. The Army strictly enforced the act and, as a result, banned the ASE publication of
Charles A. Beard's history
The Republic and
Catherine Drinker Bowen's
O. W. Holmes biography
Yankee from Olympus among other works. After vigorous public backlash, Congress amended the act to make it less restrictive. Distribution of ASEs began in October of 1943 and continued until 1947. The books were issued to soldiers overseas, such as in hospitals and on transports, and air-dropped as part of the supplies destined for remote outposts. Notably, just before the
invasion of Normandy, a mass distribution of ASE titles took place among the troops marshalled in southern England, and each man received a book as he embarked his invasion transport. == ASE titles ==