Do soldiers — soon to do or die in the Iraqi desert — still have kitbags in which to pack up all their troubles? Probably with all that chemical and biological warfare kit, they don’t have room even for an army-issue condom.
However cramped for space, soldiers have always taken books into battle. In the American Civil War the most popular title on both sides was Les Miserables. Victor Hugo’s tale of Jean Valjean must be the most bloodstained novel in history. Strange to think of it as a musical.
Penguin, in Britain, had a good World War II. But the Americans did it better; or, at least, bigger. In 1942 the war department’s morale branch launched a paperback library for the serviceman. The Armed Services’ Editions (ASE) were produced on pulp magazine presses, for as little as 5c a copy (they cost GI Joe nothing, of course). They were soft-covered lozenges — twice as long across as down. They slipped easily into a trouser-side pocket or ammunition pouch. The print was large, to reduce eyestrain when read by torch or candle. Some 1 300 ASE editions were produced, comprising 120-million copies. More books were dropped on the American troops than bombs.
What the ASE library provided was, at the top level, Lit 101 and, at the bottom, the cream of the drugstore paperback rack. Everything from Homer, through Mark Twain, to Zane Grey. Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is a prize item for collectors.
I remember the ASE fondly. I read Moby Dick and The Great Gatsby for the first time in ASE editions (my widowed but vivacious mother was, at the time, dating Americans).
It was recently reported that the ASE, in the familiar format, are to be relaunched for the quarter of a million American troops soon to be stationed in the Middle East.
There is a difference. The new ASEs are relaunched not as a library but as a ”pilot project”, organised by freelance philanthropist Andrew Carroll. He describes it as ”the biggest giveaway of books in our history, with the possible exception of the Gideon Bibles” (he seems to have forgotten the World War II series).
Carroll’s pilot scheme features a scant four titles: Shakespeare’s Henry V, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and two current bestsellers: Allen Mikaelian’s Medal of Honor: Profiles of Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present, and Carroll’s own Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars. About 100 000 copies are to be printed.
What do these titles have in common? Stern patriotism. They are books intended to stiffen the sinews of warriors about to biff the evil-doers. Carroll got his sponsorship from an unnamed ”corporate donor” (is that oil I smell?) and his selection has been approved by the Pentagon.
Carroll’s quartet has proved controversial. Why not, subversives ask, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, or Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five? The Pentagon, I fear, would not approve and corporate gravy would dry up.
What four books would you give the embarking British soldier? I would opt for Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, any one of the Flashman books, Edward Said’s Orientalism, and, as an antidote to Carroll’s gung-ho, my own immortal: Henry V: War Criminal? (Yes). — Â