Armed Services Editions Part III

Part I of this series introduced the Armed Services Editions published as a cooperative effort by American publishers under the auspices of the Council on Books In Wartime. There was another Armed Services Editions series associated with Pocket Books Inc.

At least 57 books were published by a company called Readers' League of America Inc, a New York publisher. I haven't been able to find any information about Readers' League.

An example is The "Canary" Murder Case by S.S. van Dine. The pictures below show the differences in the covers. Other differences are:

1) on the title page the publisher is changed from "POCKET BOOKS INC. [logo - Gertrude] NEW YORK, 20. N.Y." to "ARMED SERVICES EDITION | READERS' LEAGUE OF AMERICA | NEW YORK, N. Y."

2) on the copyright page of the ASE the printing history has been removed.

Pocket 248 - November 1943

Pocket 248 back

Pocket [248] ASE - no date

Pocket [248] ASE back

Armed Services Editions Part II

As I mentioned in the first post in this series the US Army magazine Yank The Army Weekly listed thirteen of the first fourteen series of the Armed Services Editions. Here are three more of those books with the original comments from the editors of Yank. The first book from the November 19, 1943 issue, the next two from the May 21, 1944 issue.

B-52 Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds - Historical novel centered around the great days of the Erie Canal.

ASE B-52 - October 1943

ASE B-52 back

G-189 Kamongo by Homer W. Smith - A scientist writes of lungfish and the human mind.

ASE G-189 - March 1944

 

ASE G-189 back

G-191 Little Caesar by W. R. Burnett - An old Chicago gangster story that's still good
reading.

ASE G-191 - March 1944

 

ASE G-191 back