Abstract
The Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions includes one thousand two hundred and seventy-nine of the original paperback Armed Services Edition titles published between 1943 and 1947 used by World War II service members in the United States Army and Navy, as well as four editions from the Legacy Project published in 2003 and one from the Pocket Books Inc. series published in 1944. The original Armed Services Editions include works of fiction and non-fiction in their unabridged forms.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions includes one thousand two hundred and seventy-nine of the original paperback Armed Services Edition titles published between 1943 and 1947 used by World War II service members in the United States Army and Navy, as well as four editions from the Legacy Project published in 2003 and one from the Pocket Books Inc. series published in 1944. The original Armed Services Editions include works of fiction and non-fiction in their unabridged forms. The Legacy Project prints include contemporary best sellers. The collection also includes a custom cabinet donated by Beverly Rogers to house and display a portion of the Armed Services Editions. Duplicate copies exist and are noted at the file level of this inventory.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Cataloging of these titles is ongoing. All titles are listed in this inventory. Many of the titles have also been described individually in more detail in the University Libraries' catalog.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Titles are physically arranged by original issue number.
Biographical / Historical Note
The original publication of Armed Services Editions (ASE) books was a project that provided reading material for World War II service members between 1942 and 1947. During this time, the United States Navy and Army (including the Air Forces) received a total of 122,951,031 mass-produced paperback volumes of over 1,300 titles. In 2002, the Legacy Project revived ASE publications for American troops abroad at the time.
Formed by a group of publishers, booksellers, authors and libraries, the Council on Books in Wartime (CBW) worked to support World War II efforts of the U.S. Army and Navy with the publication of non-fiction and fiction. Titles include books about war, humorous books, popular fiction classics, and anthologies of stories and verses. The CBW used the slogan "books are weapons in the war of ideas" to emphasize the need not only for entertainment, but also for education regarding political, historical, and military issues. These publications predominantly, but not exclusively, featured contemporary best sellers.
The CBW initially sold ASE books to the Army and Navy at the cost of manufacture (approximately six cents per volume) plus ten cents for overhead costs. In the ASE’s development, the CBW focused on the books’ portability first and foremost, as they had to fit into a soldier’s pocket. As such, the CBW printed the books as "two-ups," or as pairs, one above the other, in a single magazine that was cut horizontally in half to create two separate pocket-sized books. They typically measured 14 centimeters by 10 centimeters after slicing, with longer books measuring 16.5 centimeters by 11.5 centimeters.
The CBW published the first ASE book in 1943. In the original publication run, the CBW organized the ASE titles numerically by monthly series until Series "HH," the thirty-fourth and last monthly series of the original ASE project in 1946. After WWII, the CBW agreed to continue the paperback prints, running until Series "TT," the last print series delivered in September 1947. Beginning in 2002, Andrew Caroll, author and archivist, revived the ASE’s publication with the Legacy Project prints, denoted by the Series “LP.” These issue numbers appear on the spines and/or front covers of the ASEs.
Sources:
Cole, John Y., ed.
Gable, John A., ed.
Gussow, Mel. "Literature Re-enlists In the Military; Pilot Project Is Sending Books to American Ships And Troops Abroad."
U.S. Library of Congress. "Armed Services Editions." Library of Congress Catalog. Accessed April 19, 2019. https://lccn.loc.gov/53016500.
Wolff, H. and Stefan Salter.
Preferred Citation
Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions, 1943-2003. MS-00913. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023 by Beverly Rogers; accession number 2019-010.
Processing Note
In 2019, the books were inventoried, organized, and rehoused by Landon Paljusaj. Jimmy Chang and Landon Paljusaj wrote the finding aid description and entered the data into ArchivesSpace. In 2020, Landon Paljusaj and Sarah Jones added additional books to the inventory. In 2021 and 2023, Sarah Jones added additional items to the inventory.
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Separated Materials
Publications that support research and study of the Armed Services Editions were separated from the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions. The following separated publications are available in UNLV Special Collections and Archives and are described individually in the University Libraries' catalog.